Team chat · alternatives

Slack alternatives: team chat compared on price, guests and where the history goes

Zohaib KhalidPrices checked between 6 October 2026 and 9 October 2026

People look past Slack when the free plan’s 90-day history starts hiding decisions, or when Pro at $7.25 per user a month turns a growing company into a growing invoice. A Slack alternative should give you channels, direct messages and threads, let a client or contractor in without a seat, keep every message searchable, and sit beside the tools the conversation is about. Here are the options that do that, each with its vendor’s published price, and where Slack still has the edge.

See the shortlist Orbiz vs Slack, head to head

Why teams look past Slack

Usually pricing and packaging, not the product

Slack is the reference team chat: channels, direct messages, threads and an app directory, owned by Salesforce, for teams of any size. The reasons a team shops around are almost always about how it is sold.

Pro is $7.25 per user a month billed annually; every new hire is another seat, and Pumble sells a comparable seat for $2.49.
The free plan keeps 90 days of message history and 10 app integrations, where Pumble’s free plan keeps the history.
Huddles with more than two people and group external messages start on Pro.
Chat is one job; the projects, files and people it is about live in other subscriptions.

The shortlist

8 options, including Slack and Orbiz

Published prices from each vendor's page. Orbiz is one row, not the answer — the last column says when each one is the better pick.

Swipe sideways to see every column

Slack and its alternatives compared on price, free tier and best fit
Product	Small-team price	Free tier	Why it is on the list
Orbiz HuddlTeam chat · one of ten tools on the platform	No per-user price. One flat fee per organisation for all ten tools and unlimited members, from $99 a month billed annually.	No free plan; a working organisation to evaluate before any commitment.	Every member of the organisation is in without a seat; guests see only their channels; history has no limit; chat sits beside projects, files and payroll.
SlackPer user per month; free tier; Enterprise+ by quote.	Pro: $7.25 per user a month billed annually, $8.75 billed monthly. Business+: $15 billed annually, $18 monthly.	Free: 90 days of message history, 10 app integrations, 1:1 huddles and 1:1 external messages.	The incumbent. Best for: Teams whose work runs on integrations and calls inside chat, with a budget per seat.
PumblePer seat per month; a free plan with no seat limit.	Pro: $2.49 per seat a month billed annually, $2.99 monthly. Business: $3.99 annually, $4.99 monthly. Enterprise: $6.99 annually, $7.99 monthly.	Free: unlimited users, unlimited message history, unlimited channels, 10 GB of storage for the workspace.	The free plan keeps every message with no seat limit, and the paid seat is the lowest price on this page.
Microsoft TeamsPer user per month, paid yearly; also bundled in Microsoft 365 Business plans.	Teams Essentials: $4.00 per user a month, paid yearly.	A free version of Teams for personal use and communities: chat with anyone by email or phone number, and meetings of up to 60 minutes.	The cheapest per-seat chat with meetings, and the obvious move for a company already on Microsoft 365.
Google ChatPer user per month as part of Google Workspace; no chat-only plan.	Business Starter: $7 per user a month on an annual plan ($6.30 for the first 12 months on the first 20 users). Business Standard: $14.	No free plan for organisations; Chat is included in every Workspace plan.	Already paid for if the company runs on Google Workspace; spaces and Meet with no second bill.
ZulipPer user per month on Zulip Cloud; self-hosted plans per user with the software itself free and open source.	Cloud Standard: $6.67 per user a month billed annually, $8 monthly. Cloud Plus: $10 annually, $12 monthly, ten-user minimum. Self-hosted Business: $6.67 annually, $8 monthly, 25-user minimum.	Cloud Free: 10,000 messages of search history and 5 GB of storage. Self-hosting the open-source server is free; mobile notifications for up to ten users without a plan.	Topic-threaded channels for teams that find Slack channels hard to follow, open source and self-hostable.
MattermostAnnual seat subscriptions for Professional and Enterprise; no price is published, sales quote only.	Professional and Enterprise: no price is published; contact sales.	A free, limited-use edition for technical evaluation, plus the open-source Team Edition to self-host.	For engineering teams that must keep chat on their own servers, with playbooks for incidents.
Rocket.ChatCommercial, Government and Defense plans by quote; no price is published.	Commercial plan: no price is published; request pricing.	Starter: a free self-managed workspace for evaluation, small businesses and non-profits.	When customer messaging from WhatsApp and web chat should land in the same place as team chat.

Vendor prices are US list prices in USD as published on each vendor's own pricing page between 6 October 2026 and 9 October 2026, annual billing where the vendor offers it, without first-year promotions. Each product name links to that page. Vendors change prices; if a figure here is out of date, tell us and we will correct it. Orbiz prices are on the pricing page, one flat figure per organisation by headcount band.

Orbiz Huddl

What Huddl covers — and what Slack does that it does not

What Orbiz Huddl does for a team leaving Slack, and the two things Slack does that it does not. Keep both in view when you decide.

Included in Huddl

Public and private channels, group and one-to-one direct messages, threads, reactions and pins
Guests invited by email who see only the huddls and channels they were added to
Files dragged into a conversation with inline previews, and search across every conversation you belong to
Per-channel notification levels, saved and scheduled messages, and a status with do-not-disturb

Everything Huddl does

Where Slack is ahead

Huddles — audio and video calls with screen sharing inside any channel or direct message
An App Directory of over 2,600 integrations and a no-code Workflow Builder

If either of those is the reason you use Slack, keep it. The case for Orbiz is the platform around the tool, not a longer feature list.

FAQ

Questions about leaving Slack

Is Orbiz Huddl a direct replacement for Slack?

For channels, direct messages, threads, reactions, pins, files and search, yes. Huddl does not have Slack’s huddles for audio and video calls, its App Directory or Workflow Builder, so a team that runs on integrations or calls inside chat should weigh those before moving.

What does Huddl cost per user?

Nothing per user. Huddl is one of the ten tools in the Orbiz flat price per organisation, so every member and every guest is in without a seat. The price is set by your headcount band, from $99 a month for up to 10 people on annual billing.

Can we bring a client into one channel without giving them the rest?

Yes. An admin invites a guest by email and picks the huddls and channels they may see. The guest account cannot create channels, invite anyone or open any other Orbiz tool, and it can be removed in one click when the engagement ends.

Other alternatives pages

Leaving Slack? Price the whole stack instead.

Tell us your team size and the tools you pay for today. You get one flat figure that covers all nine Orbiz tools, and a working organisation to try.