Google Chat vs. Slack

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Google Chat
Score 8.3 out of 10
N/A
Google Chat, formerly Hangouts Chat, is a collaboration tool competing with Slack, designed to make it easy for teams to be able to get their work done in one place. From direct messages to group conversations, Chat helps teams collaborate, and with dedicated, virtual rooms to house projects over time — plus threaded conversations — Chat helps users track progress and follow up tasks. Chat currently supports 28 languages and each room can support up to 8,000 members.N/A
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…
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Pricing
Google ChatSlack
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Free
$0
Pro
$7.25*
per month per user
Business+
$12.50*
per month per user
Enterprise
Contact Sales
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Google ChatSlack
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo 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
Google ChatSlack
Features
Google ChatSlack
Project Management
Comparison of Project Management features of Product A and Product B
Google Chat
8.4
Ratings
9% above category average
Slack
8.2
Ratings
6% above category average
Task Management8.00 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Gantt Charts8.50 Ratings6.90 Ratings
Scheduling9.00 Ratings7.90 Ratings
Workflow Automation7.90 Ratings8.40 Ratings
Mobile Access9.30 Ratings9.50 Ratings
Search9.00 Ratings8.70 Ratings
Visual planning tools7.00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Communication
Comparison of Communication features of Product A and Product B
Google Chat
8.9
Ratings
12% above category average
Slack
8.8
Ratings
11% above category average
Chat10.00 Ratings9.80 Ratings
Notifications10.00 Ratings9.10 Ratings
Discussions8.30 Ratings9.60 Ratings
Surveys8.40 Ratings8.10 Ratings
Internal knowledgebase9.00 Ratings7.80 Ratings
Integrates with GoToMeeting8.00 Ratings8.90 Ratings
Integrates with Gmail and Google Hangouts8.20 Ratings8.70 Ratings
Integrates with Outlook9.00 Ratings8.90 Ratings
File Sharing & Management
Comparison of File Sharing & Management features of Product A and Product B
Google Chat
9.0
Ratings
14% above category average
Slack
8.7
Ratings
10% above category average
Versioning8.70 Ratings8.40 Ratings
Video files8.00 Ratings8.80 Ratings
Audio files8.30 Ratings9.10 Ratings
Document collaboration9.90 Ratings8.40 Ratings
Access control9.50 Ratings8.40 Ratings
Advanced security features9.90 Ratings8.40 Ratings
Integrates with Google Drive8.10 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Device sync9.30 Ratings9.10 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Google ChatSlack
Small Businesses
Stackby
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Score 9.0 out of 10
Stackby
Stackby
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Troop Messenger
Troop Messenger
Score 9.8 out of 10
Troop Messenger
Troop Messenger
Score 9.8 out of 10
Enterprises
HCL Connections
HCL Connections
Score 9.0 out of 10
HCL Connections
HCL Connections
Score 9.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Google ChatSlack
Likelihood to Recommend
9.0
(0 ratings)
9.4
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(0 ratings)
9.2
(0 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
7.3
(0 ratings)
9.9
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
7.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Google ChatSlack
Likelihood to Recommend
Google Chat is well-suited for businesses. Where it fits in my organization is to maintain communication between teams. Collaboration between teams to solve issues our customers cannot resolve without using Google Chat. Our Organization depends on it. When someone needs assistance from another team in the organization, we use Google Chat to solve this issue.
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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
  • Google Hangouts Chat allows you to send and receive messages real time with emoticons that can help you express your mood.
  • You can download and upload image file that can be use for business process and more.
  • Google Hangouts Chat also allows you to make a calls to reach other users.What I like the most is the awesome screen sharing while on call.
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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
  • I wish it was easier to turn the sound off, I hate being in meetings and my chat is blowing up.
  • Needing to "accept" a chat invite from someone within my org seems counter-intuitive.
  • Some people have trouble getting their notifications before midnight, somehow?
  • Prior to downloading the app, group messages didn't come up for me on my computer.
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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
The updates, support, general reviews on Google Chat are great everywhere. The development of the features is ongoing and this adds a great value to Google as a big company in the market. Other applications are limiting communication while Google Chat is allowing communication to grow. It is very easy to use it and teach others how to use Google Chat.
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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
As stated from the starting we found this application is well suited for a small audience and a group of people across the organization can be communicated easily with no additional hectic of doing any setup. When you have a Gmail account ready then you can easily access google chat and continue the communication. This tool is simple,secure and robust helping the global leading partner for their internal precise communication and handling the tasks in a great way
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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
No answers on this topic
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
No answers on this topic
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
I have not needed to contact the support folks for Google Hangouts Chat, so I can't speak to this with any accuracy. The online instructions are fairly clearly written, so it is fairly intuitive to start with. I did not feel the need to use the support people anyway.
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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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Implementation Rating
No answers on this topic
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
It doesn't need to much to get started if you have a personal Google account. If you have a business account setup by your organization, you need permissions to use it, however this is something good to have this customizable part from Google Chat. We can create groups, attach files, and have online conversations from the gmail page, in a new window or using the mobile.
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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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Return on Investment
  • Through seamless communication across remote workers, Google Chat has significantly reduced the time spent on back and forth emails.
  • Undoubtedly Google Chat is great for communication but because of a lack of task management tools, we have to rely on other platforms for organizing and tracking tasks.
  • 200MB file size limit in Google Chat often forces us to use other services like Google Drive for sending large files.
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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