What is Slack and what is it used for?
Quick Answer: Slack is a business communication platform developed by Slack Technologies (acquired by Salesforce in 2021 for $27.7 billion). Launched in 2013, it provides channels, direct messaging, Workflow Builder, and integrations with over 2,600 apps. Over 200,000 organizations use Slack daily as of 2026.
What Is Slack?
Slack is a cloud-based business communication platform that organizes team conversations into channels. It was developed by Slack Technologies, founded in 2013 by Stewart Butterfield, Eric Costello, Cal Henderson, and Serguei Mourachov. Salesforce acquired Slack in July 2021 for $27.7 billion.
Company Background
Slack originated as an internal tool developed during the creation of a video game (Glitch) by Tiny Speck. The team recognized the communication tool was more valuable than the game itself and pivoted. As of early 2026, Slack reports over 200,000 paid organizations and is available in 150+ countries.
Key Features
- Channels: Organized conversation spaces by topic, team, project, or client
- Direct messages: One-on-one or group conversations
- Huddles: Audio and video calls directly within Slack
- Workflow Builder: No-code automation for forms, routing, and notifications
- Canvas: Collaborative documents embedded within channels
- Slack Connect: Communicate with external organizations in shared channels
- Search: Full-text search across messages, files, and channels
Pricing (April 2026)
- Free: Message history limited to 90 days, 1:1 huddles
- Pro: $8.75/user/month — unlimited history, group huddles, Workflow Builder
- Business+: $12.50/user/month — SAML SSO, data exports, compliance features
- Enterprise Grid: Custom pricing — org-wide deployment, DLP, eDiscovery
Primary Use Cases
Slack is used for team communication, project coordination, customer support (via Slack Connect), incident response, and workflow automation. It competes with Microsoft Teams, Google Chat, and Discord (for developer communities).
Integration Ecosystem
Slack's App Directory includes over 2,600 integrations: Jira, Google Workspace, Salesforce, GitHub, Zoom, Asana, and Trello among the most popular. The Slack API supports custom bot and app development.
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Workflow AutomationRelated Rankings
Best Durable Workflow Engines for Production in 2026
A ranked list of the best durable workflow engines for production deployments in 2026. Durable workflow engines persist execution state to a database so that long-running workflows survive process restarts, deployments, and infrastructure failures. The ranking covers Temporal, Prefect, Apache Airflow, Camunda, Windmill, and n8n. Tools were evaluated on production reliability, developer experience, scalability, open-source health, and documentation quality. The shortlist intentionally mixes code-first engines (Temporal, Prefect, Airflow) with hybrid visual platforms (Camunda, Windmill, n8n) to reflect how production teams actually choose workflow engines in 2026.
Best No-Code Automation Platforms in 2026
A ranked list of no-code automation platforms in 2026. The ranking covers visual workflow builders that allow non-engineering teams to connect SaaS apps, route data, and add conditional logic without writing code. Entries cover proprietary cloud platforms (Zapier, Make, Pipedream, IFTTT) and open-source visual builders (n8n, Activepieces). Scoring reflects integration breadth, pricing accessibility, visual editor ease, reliability and error handling, and self-hosting availability.
Dive Deeper
Migrating 23 Make Scenarios to Self-Hosted n8n: a 3-Week Breakdown
Anonymized retrospective of a DTC ecommerce brand migrating 23 Make scenarios to a self-hosted n8n instance over three weeks. Tooling cost dropped from $348/month on Make Teams to roughly $12/month on a Hetzner VPS, but credential and webhook recreation consumed about 40% of total project time.
Trigger.dev vs Inngest 2026: OSS Durable Runners Compared
Trigger.dev (2022, London) is a fully Apache 2.0 durable runner with task-based authoring, machine-size selection, and first-class self-host. Inngest (2021, San Francisco) is a developer-first event-driven step platform with an open-source dev server and a managed cloud (50K step runs/month free, $20/month Hobby). This 2026 comparison covers license, programming model, pricing, observability, and self-host options.
Inngest vs Temporal 2026: Durable Functions vs Durable Workflows
Inngest (2021, San Francisco) is a developer-first durable functions platform with TypeScript and Python SDKs, 50,000 step runs/month free, and Hobby pricing from $20/month. Temporal (2019) is the heavyweight durable workflow engine with seven-language SDK coverage, Cassandra-backed scale, and Cloud pricing from roughly $200/month at low volume or $2.5-4.5K/month self-host. This 2026 comparison covers programming model, pricing, scale ceiling, and operational footprint.