What are the best Slack alternatives in 2026?

Best Slack Alternatives in 2026

Slack remains the default team messaging tool, but Microsoft Teams has surpassed it in enterprise deployments. Alternatives differ on cost, self-hosting, and integration with broader productivity suites.

Microsoft Teams — Microsoft 365-Native

Teams is included with Microsoft 365 Business and Enterprise plans, offering chat, video meetings, and file collaboration.

• Deep integration with Outlook, SharePoint, and Office apps
• Video meetings up to 1,000 participants
• Included with Microsoft 365 Business Basic ($6/user/month)

Discord — Community-Oriented

Discord is used by gaming communities and some tech teams for its voice channels and low-friction onboarding.

• Voice channels with persistent rooms
• Free for most use cases
• Not typically used for enterprise team chat

Google Chat — Workspace-Native

Google Chat is included with Google Workspace, offering rooms (spaces), threaded conversations, and integration with Gmail and Drive.

• Included with Google Workspace Business Starter ($6/user/month)
• Spaces for topic-based collaboration
• Integration with Gmail and Drive

Mattermost — Self-Hosted Open-Source

Mattermost is the leading self-hosted messaging platform, used by organizations requiring data sovereignty.

• Self-host on-premises or private cloud
• Open-source Team Edition; paid Enterprise
• MIT/AGPL dual licensing

Zulip — Threaded Topic Model

Zulip uses a stream-and-topic model that keeps conversations organized for larger teams with heavy async communication.

• Threaded by topic within streams
• Open-source self-hosting available
• Cloud plans from $6.67/user/month

Selection Criteria

• Microsoft 365 organizations: Teams
• Google Workspace organizations: Google Chat
• Data sovereignty required: Mattermost
• Async-heavy teams: Zulip
• Community or gaming: Discord