by Slack Technologies (Salesforce)Team chat
Chat sold on its own: a free plan with 90 days of history, Pro from $7.25 per active user, and channels shared with other companies.
Chat on its own terms: channels shared with other companies, unlimited history and custom retention from $7.25 per active user.
Slack is the only product here sold as chat alone, so you pay for messaging without buying an email and office suite. Pro adds unlimited history, custom retention, guests and Slack Connect channels that link your workspace with other companies that use Slack. Billing counts active members only: someone inactive for more than 28 days is credited back. The Free plan works as a real team workspace, with 90 days of history.
Against 3 other products we reviewed in Team chat: what you pay for with each, the five access facts, the plan limits we recorded and each review's bottom line. The note under the table says how each one was checked.
| Metric | Slack | Microsoft Teams | Google Chat | Zoom Workplace |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What you're paying for | Built-in reachChat on its own terms: channels shared with other companies, unlimited history and custom retention from $7.25 per active user. | Worth the priceChat, meetings and guest access for $4 a user, under Microsoft’s SOC 2, ISO 27001 and default HIPAA BAA terms. | Compliance includedChat included with Workspace from $7 a user, with SSO, Chat audit logs and a HIPAA BAA on the cheapest Business plan. | Compliance includedRetention periods, legal holds and searchable chat exports on the entry paid plan, with meetings, mail and calendar in the same app. |
| Overall score | 7.1 | 7.5Best | 7.0 | 5.9 |
| Free option | Free plan | Free plan | 14-day free trial | Free plan |
| Card to start | –Not measured | –Not measured | –Not measured | –Not measured |
| Getting access | Self-serve | Self-serve | Self-serve | Self-serve |
| Starter priceCheapest paid plan | $7.25/user/mo | $4/user/mo | $7/user/mo | $14.16/user/mo |
| Pricing model | Per seat | Per seat | Per seat | Per seat |
| Pricing page | Public prices | Public prices | Public prices | Public prices |
| Plan priced for 50 people | Pro, $7.25/user/mo billed annually ($8.75 monthly) | Teams Essentials, $4/user/mo paid yearly | Workspace Business Starter, $7/user/mo with a 1-year commitment ($8.40 flexible) | Workplace Pro, $14.16/user/mo billed annually ($16.99 on the monthly view) |
| What else the plan includes | Chat only: huddles, canvases, lists, workflows | Meetings up to 300 people, 10 GB storage per user | Gmail, Meet, Drive (30 GB pooled per user), Docs | Meetings up to 30 hours, Mail and Calendar clients, 10 GB cloud recording per user |
| 50 people, annual terms | $362.50/mo | $200/mo | $350/mo | $708/mo |
| Free option | Free plan: 90 days of history, data older than 1 year deleted | Free Teams for personal accounts; 1-month business trial with a card | 14-day Workspace trial | Basic: one free license; cloud chat copies kept 2 years |
| Retention, legal hold, eDiscovery | Custom retention on Pro; legal holds and Discovery API on Enterprise+ | Retention policies from Business Basic ($7); eDiscovery cases need Microsoft 365 E3 or E5 | Vault on Business Plus ($22) | Retention periods, legal holds and Chat History search and export on every paid plan |
| SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 | Both | Both (Teams in scope) | Both (Google Workspace) | Both (Zoom Chat in scope) |
| HIPAA BAA | HIPAA support listed on Enterprise+ | By default through Microsoft’s data protection addendum | Accepted by an admin in the Admin console | Zoom signs BAAs; plans not named, healthcare through sales |
| EU data storage | Business+ and up, set up through sales | For tenants that sign up in the EU | Data regions from Business Standard ($14) | Regional Infrastructure for Education and Enterprise accounts |
| Company SSO | SAML from Business+ ($15); Pro has Google OAuth | Microsoft Entra ID (free version included) | Third-party IdP on every Business plan | SAML from Business ($18.33) |
| Audit log | Enterprise+ | Purview Audit (Standard) from Business Basic | Chat log events on every Business plan | Admin activity logs from Pro |
| Working with outside people | Pro: guests and Slack Connect channels | Guest access included | Starter: external 1:1 and group DMs; external spaces from Standard | External contacts in chats and channels, admin-controlled |
| Bottom line | From its public pages, Slack is the most complete chat product sold on its own, with the only free team plan here. Admin and compliance controls step up by plan: SAML on Business+, audit logs, legal holds and HIPAA on Enterprise+. | From its public pages, Teams Essentials is the cheapest way here to give 50 people chat and meetings, under Microsoft’s certifications and default BAA. Plan on Business Basic or above if you need retention policies or an audit log. | From its public pages, Google Chat gives the strongest admin controls on the cheapest plan here, because they come with Workspace. It is not sold alone, and retention, eDiscovery and EU regions start on higher plans. | From its public pages, Zoom Workplace puts the most records controls on its entry paid plan here: retention, legal holds and chat exports on Pro. It is also the most expensive way here to give 50 people chat, and SSO starts on Business. |
Evidence: Slack: facts checked 2026-10-15 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run; Microsoft Teams: facts checked 2026-10-15 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run; Google Chat: facts checked 2026-10-15 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run; Zoom Workplace: facts checked 2026-10-15 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run. Prices in USD as listed, excluding tax. "–" means not recorded.
Review from public pages
Written from Slack's public pages (pricing, security or privacy, and docs) as read on Oct 15, 2026. We did not sign up, and no hands-on run is published yet.
We read Slack's pricing page, its plans, retention, guest, billing and data residency help articles, and its compliance page on Oct 15, 2026; we did not sign up for this review. The pricing page opens on monthly prices with a 50% discount for three months; the annual rates ($7.25 for Pro, $15 for Business+) appear when you switch the billing period. Enterprise+ is listed at $45 per user billed annually, through sales.
The help center fills in what the pricing table only marks. On the Free plan, members see the most recent 90 days of messages and files, and anything older than a year is deleted. Paid plans keep data for the life of the workspace unless an owner sets a retention period. Billing counts only active members, and single-channel guests are free, up to five per paid member.
One detail differs between pages: the plans help article marks SSO and SCIM on Free and Pro for workspaces connected to a Salesforce org, while the pricing table lists Google OAuth on Pro and SAML from Business+. Data residency is marked on Business+, but the residency article says to contact sales to set it up.
Pro is priced for chat alone, at $7.25 per active user billed annually, so you are not paying for email or office apps you may already have.
vs Google Chat: Google Chat comes with Workspace Business Starter at $7, which also buys Gmail, Meet and Drive.
The Free plan is a full workspace with 90 days of visible history, 10 apps and one-to-one huddles.
Compared: Microsoft offers a free Teams for personal accounts; Google offers a 14-day Workspace trial.
Pro includes Slack Connect group channels and guests; single-channel guests are free, up to five per paid member.
Custom retention policies for messages and files are on Pro.
Compared: Teams retention policies are licensed from Microsoft 365 Business Basic; Google lists Chat auto-delete and Vault on Business Plus.
Members inactive for more than 28 days are credited for the unused part of the billing period.
The Free plan shows 90 days of messages and files and deletes data older than one year.
Workaround: Upgrading to a paid plan reveals hidden history that is still within the year.
Pro lists Google OAuth sign-in; SAML SSO and SCIM are on Business+ ($15 billed annually) and Enterprise+.
Audit logs, legal holds, the Discovery API and HIPAA support are listed only on Enterprise+, sold through sales at $45 per user billed annually.
Residency is marked on Business+, but the help article says to contact sales to set it up; without it, data is stored in the US.
Slack bills per active member. Pro is $7.25 a month billed annually or $8.75 monthly; Business+ $15 or $18; Enterprise+ $45 billed annually through sales. Multi-channel guests are billed as members; single-channel guests are free, up to five per paid member.
For 50 people on Pro: 50 × $7.25 = $362.50 a month, or $4,350 a year, if all 50 are active. Billed monthly it is $437.50. Business+, for SAML SSO, SCIM and full message exports, comes to $750 a month for 50. Slack includes no email, calendar or document apps.
The pricing table lists data exports for all messages on Business+ and Enterprise+, exports of a single user’s messages and the Discovery API on Enterprise+. The help center also documents importing messages from a CSV file.
From its public pages, Slack is the most complete chat product sold on its own, with the only free team plan here. Admin and compliance controls step up by plan: SAML on Business+, audit logs, legal holds and HIPAA on Enterprise+.
| Limit | As recorded |
|---|---|
| Plan priced for 50 people | Pro, $7.25/user/mo billed annually ($8.75 monthly) |
| What else the plan includes | Chat only: huddles, canvases, lists, workflows |
| 50 people, annual terms | $362.50/mo |
| Free option | Free plan: 90 days of history, data older than 1 year deleted |
| Retention, legal hold, eDiscovery | Custom retention on Pro; legal holds and Discovery API on Enterprise+ |
| SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 | Both |
| HIPAA BAA | HIPAA support listed on Enterprise+ |
| EU data storage | Business+ and up, set up through sales |
| Company SSO | SAML from Business+ ($15); Pro has Google OAuth |
| Audit log | Enterprise+ |
| Working with outside people | Pro: guests and Slack Connect channels |
Read from the vendor's public pages on Oct 15, 2026. No hands-on run is published yet. How we check
We have not published a sign-up run for Slack yet. The access facts above were read from its sign-up and pricing pages on Oct 15, 2026.
We have not published API calls for Slack yet.
Slack lists 4 plans. The cheapest paid plan, Pro, costs $7.25/user/mo.
Prices as listed, USD, excluding tax; observed 2026-10-15.
Source: slack.com pricing page. Prices change; the observed date above is when our agent read them.
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.
