Team chat · Comparison
Slack vs Microsoft Teams vs Google Chat: Teams leads at 7.5; 50 people from $200 a month
We read the pricing, help, licensing and trust pages of three team chat apps on the same day and scored them on the same six indicators. What 50 people cost on the cheapest plan with chat, what else that plan buys, where retention, compliance and admin controls start, and who should pick which.
On this page8 sections
On six indicators read from each vendor's public pages, Microsoft Teams scores 7.5, Slack 7.1 and Google Chat 7.0 out of 10. For our reference scenario, a company of 50 people on the cheapest paid plan that includes the chat product on annual terms, Teams Essentials costs $200 a month, Google Workspace Business Starter $350 and Slack Pro $362.50. Teams wins on price and compliance, Google Chat on admin controls, and Slack has the only free plan a company can run as its own workspace.
Two of the three are sold inside suites, so the scenario figures do not buy the same things: Slack Pro is chat alone, Teams Essentials adds meetings, and Business Starter adds Gmail, Meet and Drive. The scores measure what the public pages commit to, not how the apps feel to use, and we did not sign up for any of the three.
At a glance
| Slack | Microsoft Teams | Google Chat | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you pay for | Chat on its own | Chat and meetings, or a Microsoft 365 suite | Chat inside Google Workspace |
| Cheapest paid plan with chat | Pro, $7.25/user (annual) | Teams Essentials, $4/user (annual) | Business Starter, $7/user (1-year) |
| 50 people, annual terms | $362.50/mo | $200/mo | $350/mo |
| Free option | Free plan, 90 days of history | Free Teams for personal accounts | 14-day trial |
| Retention, legal hold, eDiscovery | Retention on Pro; holds on Enterprise+ | Retention from Business Basic; eDiscovery needs E3/E5 | Vault on Business Plus |
| HIPAA BAA | Enterprise+ | By default (data protection addendum) | Accepted in the Admin console |
| EU data storage | Business+, through sales | By EU sign-up country | Business Standard and up |
| Company SSO | SAML from Business+ | Microsoft Entra ID, included | Third-party IdP, every plan |
| Audit log | Enterprise+ | From Business Basic | Every plan |
| Score (public pages) | 7.1 Good | 7.5 Good | 7.0 Good |
What the public pages show
Slack sells chat as a product of its own. The Free plan shows 90 days of messages and deletes data older than a year. Pro ($7.25 per active user billed annually, $8.75 monthly) adds unlimited history, custom retention, guests and Slack Connect channels with other companies. SAML SSO, SCIM and data residency start on Business+ ($15), and audit logs, legal holds and HIPAA support are listed on Enterprise+ ($45, through sales).
Microsoft Teams is sold as Teams Essentials ($4 per user paid yearly: chat with guest access, meetings for up to 300 people, 10 GB per user) and inside Microsoft 365 Business plans from Business Basic ($7, with email and Office web apps). Microsoft Learn puts Teams in scope for SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001, offers the HIPAA BAA by default, and licenses Teams retention policies and Purview Audit from Business Basic; eDiscovery cases need E3 or E5.
Google Chat comes with Google Workspace at no additional cost. Business Starter ($7 per user with a one-year commitment) also buys Gmail, Meet and Drive. Google's admin editions table lists SSO with a third-party identity provider, Chat audit logs and external group direct messages on every Business plan; data regions start on Business Standard and Vault on Business Plus.
Strengths and things to know
Slack. Strengths: chat without a suite, the only free team plan here, Slack Connect channels with other companies on Pro, custom retention on the entry plan, billing for active members only. Things to know: free history is 90 days and data older than a year is deleted, SAML SSO starts on Business+, legal holds and HIPAA are on Enterprise+, and data residency is set up through sales.
Microsoft Teams. Strengths: the lowest price for 50 people, a HIPAA BAA by default, EU storage for tenants that sign up in the EU, Entra ID sign-in and guest access on the $4 plan. Things to know: retention policies and the audit log are licensed from Business Basic, eDiscovery needs E3 or E5, free Teams is for personal accounts, and no monthly price is listed.
Google Chat. Strengths: SSO, Chat audit logs and external group direct messages on the cheapest plan, a BAA accepted in the Admin console, email and documents in the same price. Things to know: no free plan for a company, Vault starts on Business Plus, and data regions and external spaces start on Business Standard.
Pricing reality
Reference scenario: a company of 50 people on the cheapest paid plan that includes the chat product, on annual terms, at US list prices before tax and introductory discounts.
| Service | Plan | Monthly cost | Where the number comes from | What else it buys |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Teams | Teams Essentials | $200 | 50 × $4, paid yearly | Meetings up to 300 people, 10 GB storage per user |
| Google Chat | Business Starter | $350 | 50 × $7, 1-year commitment | Gmail, Meet, Drive (30 GB pooled per user), Docs |
| Slack | Pro | $362.50 | 50 × $7.25, billed annually | Huddles, canvases, lists, workflows |
Things the pricing pages cannot settle for you. Slack bills only active members, so the $362.50 assumes all 50 people use it in the month. Google's introductory offer, 10% off the first 20 users for 12 months for new customers, makes year one $336 a month (our arithmetic). Microsoft lists no month-to-month price; Slack's is $437.50 and Google's flexible plan $420 for 50 people.
The cheapest plans are not where every control lives. With the plan that adds retention and audit, Teams on Business Basic is $350 a month for 50; legal hold and eDiscovery mean Slack Enterprise+ (from $45 per user, through sales), Microsoft 365 E3 or E5, or Google Business Plus ($1,100 a month for 50).
How we scored them
Every product in this category is scored on the same six indicators, read from the vendor's own pricing, help, licensing or trust pages, with fixed formulas. A feature counts fully when it is on the plan priced in the scenario, 60% on a higher self-serve plan and 30% on an enterprise plan or through sales. The overall score is the plain mean. Our methodology page explains how these scores work.
| Indicator | Slack | Microsoft Teams | Google Chat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing clarity | 8 | 8 | 8 |
| Free tier | 8 | 3 | 1 |
| Price for 50 people | 6.2 | 8.8 | 6.3 |
| Message history and eDiscovery | 7.2 | 6.4 | 7.6 |
| Compliance and data residency | 6.5 | 10 | 9 |
| Admin and outside access | 6.5 | 8.8 | 10 |
| Overall | 7.1 | 7.5 | 7.0 |
Each loses two clarity points for a different reason: Slack and Google lead with promotional prices and have one statement that differs between their pages, and Microsoft lists no monthly price and does not say which compliance tools Teams Essentials includes. Google's free-tier score reflects a trial with no stated card policy and no free company plan. Slack's lower compliance and admin scores reflect HIPAA, audit logs and legal holds on Enterprise+.
The rubric does not price the extras a suite includes, so Google's $350 buys email and documents that Slack's $362.50 does not. It cannot see search quality, app integrations or how the apps feel to use. Hands-on runs will add that later.
Who should choose which
- Choose Slack if you want chat as its own product, work in shared channels with clients or partners, or want to start on a free team plan. Look elsewhere if you need SAML SSO or an audit log on the cheapest paid plan.
- Choose Microsoft Teams if you want chat and meetings for a company at the lowest price per user and a HIPAA BAA without an enterprise contract. Look elsewhere if you need retention policies on a $4 plan.
- Choose Google Chat if your company runs on Google Workspace, or is choosing an email suite now, and wants SSO, audit logs and a BAA on the cheapest plan. Look elsewhere if you want chat alone.
Bottom line
From public pages alone, the three are close. Teams Essentials is the cheapest way to give 50 people chat and meetings under Microsoft's certifications and default BAA; Google Chat puts the most admin controls on its cheapest plan because they come with Workspace; Slack is the most complete chat product sold on its own, with the only free team plan, while its compliance controls step up by plan.
How we checked
We read the vendors' pricing, help, licensing and trust or compliance pages on Oct 15, 2026, and used the billing switches on Slack's and Google's pricing pages for the annual and monthly prices. We did not sign up, create a workspace or send a message. Facts the pages did not state, such as whether Google's trial asks for a card or which Purview features Teams Essentials includes, are left out rather than guessed. Every figure is on the vendors' pages as of that date or, where marked, computed from them.
