Microsoft Teams vs Slack – what’s the difference?

Posted on December 20, 2021 by Louise Howland

The need for video conference calls and instant messaging platforms has never been so high, and many business owners have had to choose between the range of options out there, including Microsoft Teams and Slack. We take a closer look at the features of each, including the advantages and disadvantages of these popular business applications.

Microsoft Teams Explained

Since the coronavirus outbreak, with more people working from home, Microsoft Teams has exploded in popularity.

What is Teams?

Microsoft Teams is essentially a comprehensive collaboration platform that has a wide array of functionalities. As with Slack, it can be used for instant messaging, video calls, and file sharing, however, it has a number of other capabilities which are ideal for business settings. These include document storage, and also the synchronisation with other Microsoft applications like OneDrive, SharePoint, and Planner. These allow you to coordinate work with other colleagues, and also make live edits to documents within the application.

Advantages of Teams

The main advantages of using Microsoft Teams are:

• Users can be split into multiple teams and channels, such as for different departments or projects
• Simple file sharing
• Searchable chat history
• Files can be modified within Teams
• Access to calendar
• Synchronisation with other apps – both Microsoft and third party

Find out more about how to use Microsoft Teams effectively, to thoroughly understand what this platform has to offer businesses.

Disadvantages of Teams

While Teams has a number of fantastic features, there are a few disadvantages to be aware of:

• Alerts can appear disorganised
• Storage of files can seem disorganised

Microsoft Teams is a part of Microsoft’s 365 software bundle, which varies in price from around £3.80 to £15.10 per user per month (for Microsoft 365 Business plans). Read our Office 365 comparison page to learn more about the different packages and what they include.

Microsoft Teams Overview

Microsoft Teams is now the flagship business application offered for business or personal use. Celebrated for its range of beneficial features, Teams ultimately has a lot to offer users, including:

• Online meetings for up 10,000 users
• Instant messenger
• Integration with Office 365 apps
• Enterprise-grade security
• File sharing

Slack Explained

Free and easy to use, Slack is one of the most popular communication apps in offices all over the world.

What is Slack?

Slack is a communication and collaboration platform designed to facilitate digital conversation between colleagues. It can be used not only to chat but to share files such as documents and images among one or more users too. As well as instant messages, Slack can also be used for phone calls and video calls, and screen sharing during such calls.

Advantages of Slack

Some of the well-loved features of Slack that continue to make it such a popular app are:

• The basic package is free
• It’s very user-friendly
• Users can be split into channels, such as for different departments or projects
• Simple file sharing
• Searchable chat history

Many companies find that the basic package is plenty, however for extra benefits such as more memory, or multi-user video calls, the price increases to either £5.25 or £9.75 per month*. (Prices are correct at the time of writing, according to slack.com.)

Disadvantages of Slack

However, despite its popularity, there are a few drawbacks to opting for Slack as your company’s main communication application. These include:

• Limits to the number of users on a call (in the free package)
• Limited storage (in the free package)
• You cannot collaborate externally (with the free package)
• There is nowhere to organise and store files in a folder on the application, only share via a chat

Those willing to pay the monthly fees can enjoy more services, however, the functionalities within Slack are somewhat limited compared to Teams and other applications.

Since more people are now working from home, the need to communicate and collaborate in creative ways has led to a significant growth of businesses signing up to use platforms like Slack and Microsoft Teams. Each has their merits, but ultimately, Microsoft Teams offers more in the way of functionality and versatility.

As part of the Office 365 package, our experts here at ramsac will be able to talk you through everything you need to know about Teams, as well as about using the wider suite of software. We can help you migrate seamlessly, find out more about our Microsoft Office 365 service.