How Much Does it Cost to Use Slack and Microsoft Teams?

If there’s one thing that this grand experiment of working from home has taught us, it’s that a team collaboration tool is the most important tool in the work-from-home tool belt. Snail mail is completely out of the question for two reasons: incredible lack of speed, and the potential to spread COVID-19. An email has proven itself to be the new snail mail — there’s nothing worse than waiting for a response from a coworker in an email conversation.

No — in order to stay afloat during these unprecedented times, and continue the operation of your business, a team collaboration tool like Slack, Microsoft Teams, or Google Hangouts is necessary.

HOW MUCH DOES SLACK COST?

Slack offers customers four different pricing plans:

Free

That’s right — if you’re a small team or company, you can communicate together for free. Through this free plan, you’ll have access to 5GB of file storage, ten thousand of your most recent messages between users, one workspace in total, two-factor authentication security, one channel, and one-to-one internal voice and video calls, and up to ten integrations with other apps like Google Drive or Zoom.

Standard

For $6.67 per user per month ($8 per user if paying monthly rather than yearly), you’ll have access to all of the features listed above, plus: unlimited message history, unlimited third party app integration, 10 GB of storage per team member, the ability to collaborate with other organizations and individuals, custom compliance guidelines, custom user groups, video calls with up to 15 participants, and screen sharing.

Plus

For $12.50 per user per month ($15 per user if paying monthly), you’ll have access to all of the features listed above, in addition to 20 GB of storage per team member, the ability to attach corporate exports for all messages, follow data residency guidelines, create an unlimited number of channels, use a real-time active directory sync with third party API integration, and user management with SCIM provisioning.

Enterprise Grid

For a price that is undisclosed by Slack (customers must contact Slack sales for this information), you’ll have access to all of the features listed above, as well as: 1TB of storage space per team member, integration with Enterprise Mobility Management, HIPPA compliance, backup support, domain claiming, and custom terms of service.

HOW MUCH DOES MICROSOFT TEAMS COST?

Teams offers three different pricing plans:

Free

Just like Slack, you can use Microsoft Teams for free. Through this free version, you can create 300 users, unlimited chat and search, the ability to provide guests with access to your teams account, attach files in chats, share files through channels, collaboration in Office documents (Word, Excel, Outlook, Powerpoint, and Access), and over 250 integrated apps.

Office 365 Business Premium

While there is a paid option of Office 365 below the premium subscription, the standard Office 365 Business Plan does not include Microsoft Teams. For $12.50 per user per month (with the option for a 1 month free trial) you’ll have access to the all of the features listed above, as well as the following: access to Exchange, OneDrive, and SharePoint, access to all Office licenses (Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Access), Web and Mobile Office apps, email and calendaring, file storage and sharing, security and compliance guidelines, 1 TB of storage per organization (plus 10 GB per user), and the ability to host up to 10,000 users simultaneously in a single meeting.

Office 365 Business Essentials

For $5.00 per user per month, you’ll have access to all of the features listed above, minus access to Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Access.

MICROSOFT TEAMS PROVIDES MORE FLEXIBILITY AT A LOWER PRICE

In the end, Microsoft Teams — due to it being one solution in the wide array of offerings through Office 365 — ends up providing businesses with more options, tools, and standard integrations. While Slack does provide plenty of functionality for collaboration, it doesn’t meet the standards of Office 365.

This isn’t to say the purchase of a Slack account is a bad idea — and for a small team or business that uses Creative Cloud, or products other than those provided through Office 365 — a Slack account can be a financially sound option. If your business is already an Office 365 customer however, Microsoft Teams is the obvious choice.