5 tools compared
Best team chat software
Where day-to-day conversation happens: channels, threads, huddles and the search that has to find all of it a year later.
The field
Every chat tool worth considering
Cheapest first. Ranked properly once you tell us about your team.
Discord
Free, fast, voice-first chat that scales to very large communities.
Free · free tier
Microsoft Teams
Chat and meetings bundled into Microsoft 365, so the marginal cost is often zero.
$4 · free tier
Zulip
Topic-threaded chat designed so asynchronous and distributed teams can catch up quickly.
$6.67 · free tier
Slack
The default team chat tool, with the deepest app directory of any.
$8.75 · free tier
Mattermost
Open-source, self-hostable team chat built for regulated and air-gapped environments.
$10 · free tier
Prices are unverified estimates — useful for comparing orders of magnitude, not for budgeting. Confirm the current figure with the vendor before you commit to anything.
Feature matrix
What each chat tool can do
Generated from the dimensions this category is compared on, so it stays true as the catalogue changes. Blank means we have not established it either way.
| Capability | Discord | Mattermost | Microsoft Teams | Slack | Zulip |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conversation modelHow messages are organised, which decides whether catching up is possible. | Voice rooms | Channels with threads | Channels with threads | Channels with threads | Named topics |
| External guests | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Voice and video | Full meetings | Basic calls | Full meetings | Basic calls | Basic calls |
| Retention and export controlsEnforceable retention policies and compliance exports, not just search. | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Integrations | 1,000 apps | 200 apps | 1,900 apps | 2,600 apps | 120 apps |
| SAML single sign-onAvailable on some tier — check which, it is usually the expensive one. | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SOC 2 | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| EU data residency | No | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Self-hostable | No | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| Open source | No | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| Public API | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Native mobile apps | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
How to choose
The questions that actually decide a chat tool
Everyone asks about price and seat count. These are the ones specific to this category — and the ones our questionnaire asks you.
- 01
How should conversation be organised?
Channels with threads · Named topics you can catch up on later · Always-on voice rooms · No strong preference
- 02
Do people outside your company need to join?
Daily — clients, agencies or contractors · Occasionally · Internal only
- 03
Do you need message retention and export controls?
Yes — we are audited on it · We would like full history · Not a concern
The trade-offs
What each one asks you to accept
No tool here is strictly better than the others. These are the prices of admission.
No SAML SSO, no SOC 2 posture aimed at enterprise buyers, no compliance exports.
The client is heavy, and channel/thread structure frustrates teams used to Slack.
The topic model needs a real onboarding push — teams that skip it revert to chaos.
Per-seat price climbs steeply once you need compliance exports and unlimited history.
Self-hosting is a real, ongoing operations cost — budget for the people, not just the licence.
10 comparisons
Head to head
If you have narrowed it to two.
Questions
Choosing a chat tool
What is the best chat tool?
There is no single best one, and any page that names one without asking about your team is guessing. The credible options are Discord, Mattermost, Microsoft Teams, Slack, Zulip. Which fits depends on the answers to the 3 questions this category turns on, plus your team size and budget — our questionnaire scores all 5 against them in about three minutes.
Is there a free chat tool?
Discord, Mattermost, Microsoft Teams, Slack, Zulip all have a free tier. The limits differ sharply though — usually on history, seat count, or exactly the features that pass a security review. Check what the free tier withholds before you plan around it.
How much should we expect to pay for a chat tool?
Median list price across the tools we cover is about $8 per seat per month, which is roughly $4,800 a year for 50 people. Real bills land above that once you add the tier that includes single sign-on, and again once add-ons appear.
When is it worth switching chat tool?
When the problem is a capability the current tool does not have — a price that scales the wrong way, a compliance control it cannot enforce, an integration that does not exist. When the problem is how your team uses the tool, a new one reproduces the same mess in a fresh interface within six months, and you will have paid for the privilege.
What should we compare chat tools on?
The dimensions that actually separate them: conversation model, external guests, voice and video, retention and export controls, integrations. Price matters, but it is rarely the thing that decides whether a tool survives contact with your team.