Slack

Score9.1 out of 10

9,074 Reviews and Ratings

What is Slack?

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 company has raised $340M in funding and boasts 800k users.

Categories & Use Cases

Chat
Instant messaging tool allows users to communicate with select other users in real-time threads.
Category average: 8.7
Discussions
Users can join groups or message boards for forum-style collaboration.
Category average: 8.3
Mobile Access
Mobile access is the ability to access the software from a smartphone or tablet.
Category average: 8.2

Scheduling
Scheduling capabilities allow users to set schedules on tasks, and create timelines and milestones.
Category average: 7.6
Internal knowledgebase
Users can author or access “How-to” help and reference tips about internal processes.
Category average: 7.4
Gantt Charts
Gantt charts are charts that show tasks or events along the y-axis displayed against time along the x-axis.
Category average: 7.1

Tim Lacine View profile

Accountant in Finance and Accounting at Rochester Montessori School (11-50 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We used Slack at [...] School. We employ about 50 total employees - teachers, assistants, specialists, and administrative. The goal was to get everyone on the same page communication-wise. Also, we wanted to have groups that could keep track of the history of discussions regarding annual events. The employee who instituted the use of Slack had used it very successfully at a previous job.

Pros

Communication can be tailored to the recipients.
The dashboard let's you see what you need to deal with.
You can message a group or an individual.

Cons

Hard for some, non-tech employees.
We didn't have 100% adoption of the tool.
Debate between should this topic be a Slack message or an email?

Return on Investment

Positive: those who implemented it, really liked it.
Negative: not 100% of our employees implemented it.
Decrease in meetings because we used Slack.
Some confusion/double work to email and Slack the message.

Usability

Alternatives Considered

ClickUp and Apache Hive

Other Software Used

Amilia SmartRec, QuickBooks Online

Anshuman Varshney

Engineering Manager in Engineering at Gameskraft (501-1000 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We primarily use Slack for internal communication within the company, including chat, calls, discussions via channels, and threads. It is very useful for communication within the team and across stakeholders and departments. We are also using Slack for external vendor communication. Business problems we are addressing: When we are working on the project with all the stakeholders for effective communication and updates, we are using Slack to be on the same channel, and all discussions are in a single place. We are also utilizing Slack for general communication, org-wide, in the dedicated channel.

Pros

Real time chat.
Organized channel with private and public option.
Integration with tools.

Cons

Search functionality to find exact message from.
Multiple threads can be better handled.

Return on Investment

Faster incident resolution - by communicating in the channel with all the relevant members.
Reduction of email and relevant communication over email.
So many channels and threads create noise sometimes.

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Built for Teams and Google Hangouts (Classic)

Other Software Used

Ameyo by Exotel, Freshdesk, Databricks Data Intelligence Platform

Kelsey Wong

Software Engineer in Engineering at Cleanlab (11-50 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Slack for the majority of our asynchronous work-related communication. This includes asking questions for feature development, project management, prioritization, managing customers and business, and more. We use a lot of the integrations as well, like Zoom, Google Calendar, Notion, or Forkable, to integrate with the other tools that we use. Slack helps us to have open communication, keep history of important conversations, track issues and resolution, and support each other debugging. We also have external channels with some of our customers or technical partners for coordination. We typically use Slack for any internal communication, and then we'll use email for corresponding with people outside of the company.

Pros

Channels for separating conversations by topics
Integrations with other platforms
Threads for consolidation of messages and to avoid unnecessary notification noise
Activity tab for managing reactions, threads, responses, and DMs

Cons

Would love a better integration with GitHub. For example, notifications when your PR is updated, when review is requested, @-mention in comments, etc.
Improved "Later" tab, for example the ability to create to-do lists or making the "Later" tab into a more powerful to-do list (annotate items with notes)
More powerful integrations, e.g. Google Calendar could render a calendar view within Slack, rather than sending the daily schedule

Return on Investment

Improved communication and coordination to move companies from pre-POC, to POC, and then to paid partnership at a faster pace
Increased observability and visibility, in terms of time to detection and time to resolution of issues on production environments
Reduced friction in scheduling and executing synchronous communication, either directly through Slack huddles for quick calls or through the Zoom integration for longer meetings

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Google Chat and Discord

Other Software Used

Anthropic Claude, ChatGPT, Datadog

Michael Grey View profile

Director of Operations in Human Resources at Rise, Inc. (11-50 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use it internally for our national team, and we also use it when we’re part of other coalition groups. When we’ve had a model of different departments, we created channels for each department and for each initiative/program.

Pros

Keeping everything organized neatly and efficiently.
Integrating with other apps (Asana/Hubspot in our case).

Cons

I don’t think there are areas where I see improvement - I really do love Slack, and I’ve used other platforms before.

Return on Investment

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.

Usability

Other Software Used

Hootsuite, HypeAuditor, DocuSign

Norton Wachuma

CEO Chief Executive Officer in Finance and Accounting at Unibusiness Consulting (51-200 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Slack has transformed our team communication to a great length. The product integrates well with our systems and channels. Use of the tool has ensured real-time collaboration and effortless sharing of information. It has also speeded up project tracking and allowed us to timely fix our issues before they become threats to service delivery. Slack is easy to use and very customisable to meet specific needs. It has instant chat features that helps in speeding up information exchange.

Pros

The product integrates well with google drive and zoom software, savings us considerable amount of time.
Smooth software implementation process.
Flexibility and usability of the software.
The product allows cross devices sync.

Cons

Developers of Slack should improve search functionalities of the software and allow advanced inorder to narrow down search results.
Mobile application of the software is very unreliable. I don't like push notification feature of the product.

Return on Investment

Use of Slack has enabled us to stay aligned with sales and ensure accurate forecasting.
The product has reduced delays in decisions making and helps us to improve on transparency in our departments.
Slack has eliminated the use if emails as it allows direct messaging. This has ensured real-time communication.

Usability

Other Software Used

HeyGen, Vimeo, Zapier

Slack

What is Slack?

Categories & Use Cases

Key Features

Top Performing Features

Chat

Discussions

Mobile Access

Areas for Improvement

Scheduling

Internal knowledgebase

Gantt Charts

Reviews

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

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Cons

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Usability

Alternatives Considered

Other Software Used

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

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Alternatives Considered

Other Software Used

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

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Alternatives Considered

Other Software Used

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

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Other Software Used

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

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Other Software Used

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