Fuze vs. Slack

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Fuze
Score 5.8 out of 10
Enterprise companies (1,001+ employees)
Fuze is a cloud-based unified communications platform that includes IP PBX voice service, video conferencing, and collaboration tools such as content sharing and instant messaging capabilities. It also integrates with a wide range of popular CTI, CRM, and click-to-call solutions.
$0.02
Per Minute
Slack
Score 9.1 out of 10
N/A
Slack is a group messaging or team collaboration app that aims to simplify communication for businesses. Features include open discussions, private groups, and direct messaging, as well as deep contextual search and message archiving, and file sharing. Slack integrates with a number of other tools, such as MailChimp, Dropbox, and Google Drive. Slack was acquired by Salesforce in December 2020. The product is free to use, and also has paid plans with more features and greater controls. The…
$0
Pricing
FuzeSlack
Editions & Modules
US Outbound
$0.02
Per Minute
Fuze Meetings
$15
Per User/Per Month
Free
$0
Pro
$7.25*
per month per user
Business+
$12.50*
per month per user
Enterprise
Contact Sales
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
FuzeSlack
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeRequiredNo setup fee
Additional Details*Per active user, per month, when paying once a year. Pro is $8.75 USD per active user when paying month to month. Business+ is $15.00 USD per active user when paying month to month.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
FuzeSlack
TrustRadius Insights
FuzeSlack
Highlights

TrustRadius
Research Team Insight
Published

Fuze and Slack are two communication platforms with very different features, but with some areas of overlap. Both provide video conferencing and collaboration capabilities to certain extents. Fuze’s core identity is as a VoIP provider, with robust video conferencing, calling, and contact center capabilities. Based on reviewer demographics, it is more commonly used by midsized companies and enterprises. 

Slack’s core function is messaging and collaboration, with a wide range of integrations into the rest of businesses’ collaboration or development tools. The messaging platform is commonly used across business sizes. 

Features

Both Fuze and Slack have strong features to suit their target audiences but they serve very distinct needs. 

Fuze stands out for its robust calling and video conferencing capabilities. These functions are very robust, including high-quality screen sharing. It also offers more advanced call routing and contact center capabilities, which help manage inbound calls from clients, customers, and prospects. 

In contrast, Slack’s specialty is its role as a collaboration hub. It offers a superior messaging infrastructure that businesses can customize to their needs. It also has an immense range of prebuilt integrations, which allows businesses to centralize communications across multiple applications to the Slack dashboard. 

Limitations

While Fuze and Slack both excel in their respective niches, they are limited beyond their core roles. 

Fuze lacks any mature messaging functionality in the product. It’s support for collaboration functions beyond the actual meetings, such as file sharing, are also not as developed. There are also fewer prebuilt integrations available. This requires post-implementation developer work to integrate Fuze with businesses’ other technologies. 

In contrast, Slack’s face-to-face communications offering are very weak compared to its messaging capabilities. The platform’s video chatting feature is still immature at best, with lower quality and far fewer features available compared to true video conferencing and VoIP products. It’s also very reliant on third party integrations for its expanded range of capabilities. For instance, Slack lacks any scheduling capabilities for meetings or events, relying instead of integrations with apps like Google Calendar to deliver this ability. 

Pricing

Fuze’s pricing is a set amount per minute of communication, based on what product or service is being used and where the communication is going to. Calls in the U.S., Canada, much of western Europe, and East Asia range from $.02-$.40 per minute for outbound tolled rates and can be several times higher for toll-free rates. Fuze meetings that are “Dial-In” range from $.08-$.75/min, and dial-out is free. Call recordings cost $.02/min.

Slack offers 3 pricing packages for its platform. The Standard package, at $6.67/user/month when billed annually, is designed for SMBs and offers the core collaboration mechanisms, including group video calls and screen sharing. The Plus package, at $12.50/user/month when billed yearly, adds additional administrative tools and more guaranteed uptime. The Enterprise Grid plan, which is priced by quote from the vendor, adds unlimited workspaces, data loss prevention support, a dedicated customer success team, and HIPAA compliance. 

Features
FuzeSlack
Cloud PBX
Comparison of Cloud PBX features of Product A and Product B
Fuze
5.5
Ratings
37% below category average
Slack
-
Ratings
Hosted PBX5.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Multi-level Interactive Voice Response (IVR)6.00 Ratings00 Ratings
User templates5.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Call reports6.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Directory of employee names5.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Call Management
Comparison of Call Management features of Product A and Product B
Fuze
6.5
Ratings
25% below category average
Slack
-
Ratings
Answering rules7.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Call recording6.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Call park7.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Message alerts6.10 Ratings00 Ratings
VoIP system collaboration
Comparison of VoIP system collaboration features of Product A and Product B
Fuze
7.1
Ratings
11% below category average
Slack
-
Ratings
Video conferencing7.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Audio conferencing7.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile apps
Comparison of Mobile apps features of Product A and Product B
Fuze
8.0
Ratings
1% above category average
Slack
-
Ratings
Mobile app for iOS8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile app for Android8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Project Management
Comparison of Project Management features of Product A and Product B
Fuze
-
Ratings
Slack
8.2
Ratings
6% above category average
Task Management00 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Gantt Charts00 Ratings6.90 Ratings
Scheduling00 Ratings7.90 Ratings
Workflow Automation00 Ratings8.40 Ratings
Mobile Access00 Ratings9.40 Ratings
Search00 Ratings8.70 Ratings
Visual planning tools00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Communication
Comparison of Communication features of Product A and Product B
Fuze
-
Ratings
Slack
8.8
Ratings
11% above category average
Chat00 Ratings9.80 Ratings
Notifications00 Ratings9.10 Ratings
Discussions00 Ratings9.50 Ratings
Surveys00 Ratings8.10 Ratings
Internal knowledgebase00 Ratings7.80 Ratings
Integrates with GoToMeeting00 Ratings8.90 Ratings
Integrates with Gmail and Google Hangouts00 Ratings8.70 Ratings
Integrates with Outlook00 Ratings8.90 Ratings
File Sharing & Management
Comparison of File Sharing & Management features of Product A and Product B
Fuze
-
Ratings
Slack
8.7
Ratings
10% above category average
Versioning00 Ratings8.30 Ratings
Video files00 Ratings8.80 Ratings
Audio files00 Ratings9.10 Ratings
Document collaboration00 Ratings8.40 Ratings
Access control00 Ratings8.40 Ratings
Advanced security features00 Ratings8.40 Ratings
Integrates with Google Drive00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Device sync00 Ratings9.10 Ratings
Best Alternatives
FuzeSlack
Small Businesses
CloudTalk
CloudTalk
Score 7.2 out of 10
Stackby
Stackby
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
CloudTalk
CloudTalk
Score 7.2 out of 10
Troop Messenger
Troop Messenger
Score 9.8 out of 10
Enterprises
Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)
Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)
Score 8.7 out of 10
HCL Connections
HCL Connections
Score 9.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
FuzeSlack
Likelihood to Recommend
6.0
(0 ratings)
9.4
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
7.7
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
7.1
(0 ratings)
9.2
(0 ratings)
Availability
8.9
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Performance
8.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
7.4
(0 ratings)
9.9
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
8.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Configurability
8.7
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
8.0
(0 ratings)
7.0
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
7.8
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.6
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
8.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
FuzeSlack
Likelihood to Recommend
Fuze has way more capability than we need for our small office so it might be best suited for large installations, call centers, and complex environments. Our office is small and our needs [are] minimal, so when we need support we are challenged to understand the support person due to our lack of technical sophistication. We sometimes feel like we should switch to a solution more geared for consumers or SOHO. Nevertheless, Fuze provides reliable service at [a] reasonable cost that meets our needs, and because support is rarely needed we are happy with them most of the time, i.e. when support isn't needed.
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Slack is really effective for smaller teams to use as an internal communication platform. I think that it's still suitable even for companies of up to 500-1000 employees, but for larger teams it's less appropriate (or would require more aggressive organization, e.g. keeping channels protected and on an invite-only basis). It's really helpful for small team-to-small team communication too (like in our case where we create external channels to support POCs/business partnerships). It's not great for direct collaboration (e.g. it's hard to iterate on a project spec or a document together, directly in Slack) but it's well suited for conversational coordination, like planning meetings or asking informational questions.
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Pros
  • Availability to use your work number anytime anywhere. Our recruiters make themselves available as much as they can. Being able to answer calls from their worklines while not in the office and make calls from their work numbers is a big deal.
  • Setting up new phones and numbers is very easy with their hub. I don't always have to go directly to their support team to setup new users. As long as I have the mac address of the phone and we have free numbers I can set a new user up in minutes.
  • Their support team is great as well. If I do need to get help with an issue their support team is quick to respond and very knowledgeable about their systems. Their team is also able to fix most support cases within the same day.
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  • Huddles Run smoothly without any interferences.
  • Smooth individual calls quick and easy without any interruptions.
  • seamless notifications across multiple devices
  • The ability to easily tag a team member to urgently attend to a specific escalation.
  • Slack being user friendly and able to integrate easily with other platforms and apps.
  • How to easily open up different channels for different escalations and needs.
  • a safe direct messaging option.
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Cons
  • Desktop application stability and compatibility with certain hardware.
  • Better installation - Per-user and per-computer installs sometimes compete with one another and/or upgrades fail to install.
  • [The] desktop app is not best for touchscreen-enabled devices due to lack of ability to scroll through messages using a finger or stylus.
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  • Undoubtedly Slack’s search function is powerful but sometimes it is difficult to find specific messages or files in very active channels with high message volumes. This needs an improvement.
  • I have experienced notification issues on my phone. I am not receiving notifications and have missed important updates as a result. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the app, but the problem still persists.
  • The Business Plus plan does not include support for data loss prevention or offline backup providers.
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Likelihood to Renew
Cost and support and the primary driving factors. The management team has been extremely responsive and assisting even with the obstacles and hurdles we experienced during implementation. We are still learning how best to manage the solution and comfort and pleasure with the solution will increase as our knowledge and skillsets improve.
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Slack sitll lacks in functionality. It's better than Skype for Business in many ways, but it is still another chat/message board app. It has limits in free version and paid versions. Also Windows app has errors that bother me, for example, I see number on one of my team's icons. It suggests that one of channels has unread messages; I check all channels - no unread messages, but that "1" still appears
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Usability
For most user, Fuze is very user friendly and easy to get use to. When it comes to the admin portal, it can be a little more challenging. There are also a lot of feature you unable to do as an admin that would normally be accessible. This cause the admin to have to rely on Fuze support, which could delay the resolution of a problem
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The product is fantastic, it keeps everyone connected and ensures detailed connection.
User interface of Slack software is very is very straightforward no need for training.
Availability of unlimited tutorials and demos.
Slack can be easily tailored to perform specific tasks.
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Reliability and Availability
We've had a few outages over the past year. More than other vendors I've used. They usually have outages fixed within an hour. The downside is they do not provide root cause of outages. If they do at takes them at least a month to get it to you
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Yes, the app works 24/7. I don't even recall having any period that we could not use since the implementation. Even the maintenance periods are barely noticeable and our work is not impacted by it when it happens.
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Performance
Since Fuze runs across multiple devices and platforms they really strived to make a lightweight interface that is optimized for phone calls, chat, and collaboration. The web client loads fast, the chat is always up-to-date, phone calls arrive on-time. The desktop client is the most feature rich and basically it just adds desktop sharing functionality as well as VoIP for calling, and the mobile client doesn't consume a lot of battery, and it stays running to get phone calls, chats, and can do meetings over Wifi, Cellular Data, or Cellular voice.
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Slack is a soft app, we don't have many issues with it. I recall one or two people complaining about something during our usage period, but I didn't have a bad experience. When the app is slow, usually the problem is with my computer or my internet. The app works just fine.
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Support Rating
Our experience with Fuze support has been overall very positive. Their technicians seem to be well trained and able to handle a variety of requests and issues without unnecessary delays or extensive troubleshooting. Fuze allows enough customer access to avoid the need to call support for every little issue but is ready to assist when issues are beyond our capabilities to resolve.
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Whenever I've had to troubleshoot an issue with Slack (which, to be honest, has not happened very often), their online documentation has been easy to locate, easy to understand, and effective in resolving my issue. Slack's ever-growing popularity also means that there's a large community of practice out there that can be depended upon.
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In-Person Training
At many of our sites with more than 50 users, Fuze sent someone onsite to train. This worked surprisingly well, as the trainer allowed the users to set the pace and answered TONS of questions. Fuze has a very streamlined training process, their staff is very professional, very knowledgeable and very engaging.
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No answers on this topic
Online Training
Fuze has vast amounts of training videos and guides on how to use its products and services. There are literally endless-hours of training and I often point end-users to a particular video which addresses the specific needs of the user, for example: how to check voicemail. Or, how to share your desktop, etc.
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No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
Personally, I didn't have any trouble getting started with Fuze. It was installed on my computer on my first day and I was good to go! Little to no hiccups. I was not with the company when they first adapted Fuze so I can not speak to the implementation as a whole.
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I was not part of the implementation team, but I recall being 100% happy and excited to learn and use a new tool. I'm still am to be honest.
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Alternatives Considered
We have had several vendors try to get our phone business, and I have always given my opinion to management why we need to stay with Fuze. Customer service is wonderful and the support staff puts up with me and they are very helpful. We use another company to do our dialing campaigns. Not sure why, but I think the reason was Fuze didn't offer that service. Fuze from the beginning appealed to our business due to the fact that it seemed so easy to use and manage.
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I like Slack better than ClickUp, because I would spend 30-60 minutes a day updating my ClickUp tasks. The way ClickUp was used was very micromanaging. I billed by the hour, so I was willing to put in the time to alert the boss what tasks I was working on.
One of my jobs used Hive - I mostly just ran it in the background in case anyone messaged me. I did not use it often.
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Scalability
Fuze does have scalability limits but most of that is how many end-points they can put on a virtual PBX, or VCX as they call them, I THINK its limit is somewhere between 2,000 and 5,000, but we've not had issues with that because we have put users into various VCXs some by location, some by department or function. Either way, we have 7,000 currently deployed, and are going to end up with over 15,000 when we are done, Fuze is VERY scalable.
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No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
  • We receive constant negative feedback from mangers about the system not functioning correctly. (This is mainly due to lack of support from Fuze)
  • This has had a positive impact in that the system is cheaper and we are missing less calls due to the functionality of the system.
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  • Slack has been incredibly helpful in connecting various tech apps and ecosystems, creating a more streamlined and responsive process.
  • Slack has made it significantly easier to communicate with our team members across multiple time zones, creating a more engaging environment for our all-remote team.
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ScreenShots