ompanies: if earlier employees could share information with each other at least in person or via email services, today, especially after the mass transition to remote work, there is a need for tools more tailored to corporate communications. In this article, we will consider two platforms that are leaders in the corporate messenger market: Microsoft Teams and Slack.
Before you start reading this article, we would like to note once again: the choice of a tool for your company depends directly website development service on your tasks or preferences, but it is very important to avoid the possibility of using services from the category of so-called “shadow IT” in the company, which cannot provide complete security from leakage of confidential information, which can lead to serious consequences for the work of the organization. As Winston Churchill said: “Security must be paid for, and its absence must be paid for,” so those free services that are suitable for communication on personal matters cannot serve as reliable tools for exchanging information within the company.
Returning to the main topic, let us briefly explain why these two services are being compared.
At the end of 2016, Microsoft announced the release of a new product - Microsoft Teams, which became available for global use only in 2017. At this time, Slack had already secured its position as a service for corporate communication and had its own gradually growing audience, which made it a direct competitor to the still “newcomer” Microsoft Teams. A surprising turn of events was the sharp increase in the number of users of Teams: at the end of 2019, the daily audience was 20 million users, which was almost 2 times more than Slack.
To date, Microsoft Teams' growth trends still outperform its competitor, which you can see in the graph beloSlack is also seeing user growth and has its fans who consider this service the most convenient for corporate communication. Below, we will compare the main functionality of these two products, which will help you decide between the two market leaders.
Chats, channels, interface
Both products have the ability to create channels (public and private) in addition to using regular chats. The appearance is quite similar for both platforms, but there are still several differences that can be advantages:
Slack users have noted that the channel panel interface is cluttered. Teams allows you to create structured teams and channels, while in Slack the main difference will be the name itself.
Teams has 3 color schemes to choose from: light, dark, contrast. Slack has more, plus there is an adapted version for colorblind users and the ability to create a custom theme for a specific user's preferences.