Slack Overview
What is Slack?
Slack is a workplace communication tool that connects users with the people and tools they work with everyday, no matter where they are or what they do. Teams in Slack work together in channels that can be organized by project, department, office location, or anything else, really. This makes it easy for users to follow the topics that are important to them. Public channels are open to anyone on the team so marketing can see what designers are working on, sales can see what’s on the product team’s roadmap, and new hires can easily get up to speed instead of starting with an empty email inbox.
Slack connects to the tools and services that businesses already use and centralizes the notifications, files, and data from hundreds of different applications. This means no more searching through emails for that one follow-up, constantly switching between different tabs and dashboards, or juggling dozens of tools - each with their own login. Slack helps teams work smarter by providing all of the information and context needed to make effective decisions quickly.
Everything shared in Slack is automatically indexed and archived so that companies can create a comprehensive knowledge base with zero effort, simply by working in Slack. And, Slack’s search makes it easy find the information users need, whenever they need it.
Slack Overview
Pricing
Pricing options
Slack is available across three premium tiers with pricing based per user per month, outlined below:
Standard Plan: $6.67/user/month (billed annually) or $8.00/user/month (billed monthly)
Plus Plan: $12.50/user/month (billed annually) or $15.00/user/month (billed monthly)
Enterprise Grid: contact Slack for custom pricing details
Slack Features
Screenshots
Slack Reviews
Slack Reviews
An industry leader for a reason
I love slack and it is always getting better. Finding my chats, creating channels, and adding integrations are easy. I can’t recommend it for business enough. It’s so fun that I am trying to find other uses for it just so I have an excuse to use it.
Great for communicating with coworkers and friends!
I actually do not use Slack much in a business environment, but in a personal setting for a book club. We transitioned to primarily using Facebook for communication to Slack, as not all members of the book club are on Facebook. Slack has made communication a lot easier and fully centralized.
Simple Collaboration Tool
Using Slack software, I was able to organize various web and offline projects by their topics or themes. So, m employees, business partner and myself could focus our response on a specific project at a time. We were also able to document past responses to tagging bugs, content update issues or customer complaints, so we could refer to those notes when similar errors or challenges were encountered in the future. This ability to organize projects and documents our actions or responses, improved our revenue numbers with dip in cost.
Slack is the backbone of what we do
Slack is used by everyone in the business on a daily basis, it allows us to work efficiently and makes working remotely a breeze.
Never Slacks
I was first introduced to the product when I was working at a photographic agency. It's a very fast-paced environment that requires incredibly efficient communication and swift project management. I was doing my research and experimented with Slack for a brief time. I felt inspired by the benefits and presented it to the workplace. They immediately downloaded the solution and I set up the software for them from my side. Within minutes, we had a newly impressive communication tool that eased our stresses at a colossal level. Very great build and I look forward to its growth.
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An industry leader for a reason
Pros
Slack has become the industry leader in workplace communication and for good reason. It makes for a flexible place to have contextual conversations and integrates Into your workflow by easily allowing tools to integrate Into the application. From shopping carts to service monitoring alerts to team polls, there are integrations for just about everything. These integrations also allow meaningful, yet simplified, interactions so I don’t always have to leave The context of my conversations.
Cons
The largest problem is cost as well as limits in how I can leverage Slack For both work and for non-work related communication. It wasn’t built for non-work communication so I can’t truly complain. But I would love to see some focused paradigms show up in the ecosystem to make it so I don’t have so many chat applications. One other issue is the confusing of finding and managing my custom web hooks. As often as I use it I always end up spending 5 minutes on the site trying to figure out what we hook integrations I have and where to reconfigure them.
Great for communicating with coworkers and friends!
I actually do not use Slack much in a business environment, but in a personal setting for a book club. We transitioned to primarily using Facebook for communication to Slack, as not all members of the book club are on Facebook. Slack has made communication a lot easier and fully centralized.
Pros
Slack is really easy to setup and provides a great solution for secure communication b/w coworkers and even friends. The interface, while slightly confusing at first, is easy to learn. In addition, it is easy to create different channels - as to have multiple conversations on multiple topics without those conversations overlapping. There are both mobile and desktop clients, and they are cross platform. There is even a web interface so you don't have to install a local client. Finally, you can't argue with the price as it starts with free version that is suitable for many use-cases.
Cons
Slack utilizes various shortcuts and tags to implement features (such as adding a poll to a conversation), but these tags are not obvious and usually need to be looked up.
Simple Collaboration Tool
Using Slack software, I was able to organize various web and offline projects by their topics or themes. So, m employees, business partner and myself could focus our response on a specific project at a time. We were also able to document past responses to tagging bugs, content update issues or customer complaints, so we could refer to those notes when similar errors or challenges were encountered in the future. This ability to organize projects and documents our actions or responses, improved our revenue numbers with dip in cost.
Pros
When adding new products and implementing tracking on new pages of my e-commerce website, I ask my employees and business partner to test or qa the content as well as analytics. So, we don't waste time testing the same products or tags, I created a Slack channel for QA. In the #qa channel, my employee team posts their comments once they are done testing a piece of content or tag, so others can test another item or analytics. My favorite feature is the ability to include screenshots and direct message a specific member of the channel without others knowing it. Plus, the fact that an email confirmation is sent on every new post in the Slack channel. Some of my team members enjoy using emoticons as well. My partner appreciates the integration with Google Drive, Gmail and ability to reply to individual user.
Cons
Once we create multiple channels in Slack to cover various projects, it becomes difficult to respond or maintain to every channel efficiently. For example: I created separate Slack channel for: web analytics, content update, marketing tactics, accounting or budget and my physical store business. My inbox gets overwhelmed with Slack channel notifications or when I open Slack app I see too much activity from every channel. It will be great if I could have the ability to prioritize the messages so I could respond to each based on how critical its business or customer impact was. So, an ability to flag by value would help.
Slack is the backbone of what we do
Slack is used by everyone in the business on a daily basis, it allows us to work efficiently and makes working remotely a breeze.
Pros
There are other products out there that provide a similar service, but for me nothing compares to slack's flexibility to integrate with the other online services we use and automate workflows and reporting.
Cons
The video call feature could do with some slight improvements, a grid view would be great for group calls for instance.
Never Slacks
I was first introduced to the product when I was working at a photographic agency. It's a very fast-paced environment that requires incredibly efficient communication and swift project management. I was doing my research and experimented with Slack for a brief time. I felt inspired by the benefits and presented it to the workplace. They immediately downloaded the solution and I set up the software for them from my side. Within minutes, we had a newly impressive communication tool that eased our stresses at a colossal level. Very great build and I look forward to its growth.
Pros
I love this application for a majority of reasons. Slack is very minimalistic but also beautifully done. It presents your desired information in a very organized manner and makes it easy for the receiver to understand. It balances colors well and provides brief templates for you to use. Another aspect I like about Slack is the multiple formats of data you can send into a single chatroom space. It's extremely convenient and essential for your company's needs.
Cons
I don't have any negative thoughts for Slack because it fulfills our company's needs to a great extent.
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Slack Pricing
Slack Pricing
Slack is available across three premium tiers with pricing based per user per month, outlined below:
Standard Plan: $6.67/user/month (billed annually) or $8.00/user/month (billed monthly)
Plus Plan: $12.50/user/month (billed annually) or $15.00/user/month (billed monthly)
Enterprise Grid: contact Slack for custom pricing details
Slack is available across three premium tiers with pricing based per user per month, outlined below:
Standard Plan: $6.67/user/month (billed annually) or $8.00/user/month (billed monthly)
Plus Plan: $12.50/user/month (billed annually) or $15.00/user/month (billed monthly)
Enterprise Grid: contact Slack for custom pricing details
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Slack Features
Slack Features
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Categories
Categories
Videos and Tutorials
Videos and Tutorials
Additional information for Slack
Additional information for Slack
Key features of Slack
- 1:1 and group calls
- @mentions
- API availability
- Activity logging
- Activity tracking
- All data transfer is encrypted
- Always In Sync
- Archiving & retention
- Audio / video conferencing
- Authentication & security
- Business intelligence
- Call sharing
- Chat
- Chat functionality
- Collaboration tools
- Collaborative workspace
- Commenting
- Communication management
- Compliance management
- Contact history
- Create open channels
- Deep, Contextual Search
- Desktop & mobile messaging
- Desktop notifications
- Document distribution
- Document imaging
- Document indexing
- Drag & drop interface
- Email notifications
- File Sharing
- File transfer
- Full text search
- Indexing
- Mobile integration
- Nearly 100 integrations
- Notifications
- Open API to build your own integrations
- Personalized profiles
- Prioritizing
- Private text chat
- Real time data
- Real time notifications
- Real time updates
- Screen sharing
- Search functionality
- Single sign on
- Support for private groups and 1:1 direct messaging
- Tagging
- Tags, keywords & @mentions
- Two-way audio & video
- Video support
- Workflow management
Benefits
Slack surveyed thousands of Team Owners and Admins to see how Slack helps their teams work. The average team using Slack sees:
These findings have both tangible and intangible benefits for any business. Fewer meetings, reply-all email threads, and lengthy conference calls means teams can work smarter and be more productive. Additionally, this helps teams feel more connected and engaged at work.
GetApp Analysis
GetApp Analysis
Email, voicemail, instant messages, text messages, and phone calls are just a few of the ways that busy teams communicate, but manually checking and responding to the messages coming from so many platforms consumes far too many resources for today’s busy teams. Slack is a cloud-based solution that replaces traditional forms of messaging, and brings all group communication together in one place.
Designed for businesses of all sizes, Slack is frequently used by leading technology companies such as BuzzFeed, Salesforce, Spotify, and eBay. Top features include real-time messaging, drag-and-drop file sharing, automatic indexing, and integration with hundreds of popular business apps. Slack offers its own native apps for iOS and Android, which means users are able to stay updated whether they’re working inside or outside the office.
What is Slack?
Slack is a real-time communication platform designed for teams. The cloud-based solution brings group communication together into a centralized environment and replaces long email threads and status update meetings. Conversations are automatically indexed and archived, which enables users to pull up past files—including PDFs and Google documents—regardless of how long ago those files were shared and discussed. Slack searches within files, and it also allows users to share documents with virtually anyone.
In addition to its powerful messaging and document sharing capabilities, Slack also serves as a hub for integrated business apps. Organizations are able to integrate many of the tools they use every day with their Slack accounts. Pulling this data into a single platform saves time and increases efficiency for busy teams.
Slack Main Features
Real-time messaging
Slack is best-known as a real-time messaging platform for teams. In addition to facilitating open conversations between groups of people, Slack also offers the ability to conduct private conversations in a one-on-on setting and within smaller sub-groups. (These sub-groups are ideal for handling more sensitive topics that may not apply to everyone in the company.)
Login to Slack to start participating in a group conversation. These conversations will replace lengthy email threads, and they enable you to work more quickly when communicating with large groups of people. Use the @mention feature to tag a specific colleague within the context of a larger conversation, or add an emoji to demonstrate how you’re feeling at the time when a message is sent.
Team channels
Communication within Slack is divided up into channels, private groups, and direct messages. Channels are the place where open conversations take place. These conversations are easily archived and searchable.
Anyone can join a channel, including team owners, admins, and regular users. However, you do have the option to prevent users with restricted access and single-channel guests from searching specific channels. Clicking on the information icon for each channel pulls up information about that channel’s purpose, along with the ability to add other users and browse shared files. The information icon is also what you’d select to leave any channel.
Drag-and-drop file sharing
Slack has developed a method for quickly sharing files of all types. Users can drag-and-drop files from their computers, or the cloud, directly into Slack. Slack supports PDFs, images, and videos, along with many other types of files.
Once you’ve shared a document with your colleagues, get ready for the feedback. With Slack, your colleagues can comment on the file you’ve shared. These internal discussions can take place through the comments section. You can also add stars to the documents your colleagues have uploaded to mark which files you’d like to keep handy for future reference.
Indexing and archiving
Slack automatically indexes and archives everything that goes on within a team’s account. This includes all messages, notifications, and files. Slack also indexes the content of every document that’s uploaded, which means users can search for keywords contained in specific PDFs or Word documents.
When you use Slack, you don’t have to worry about accidentally losing track of an important file, even after the group discussing that file has been disbanded. Private groups can be archived or closed after they’ve served their purpose. Archiving a group removes it from the list of available groups, but keeps all data secure for future reference.
Contextual search
The search features in most email platforms are not robust enough to handle the needs of growing organizations, which is why Slack has developed its own contextual search tools. Users are able to search for keywords across entire team archives, or within specific documents, images, and other files.
In cases where the one thing you remember about a particular file is a generic keyword, you can use Slack’s filtering tools to dig deeper into the archives and pinpoint whatever it is you need. Search results can be filtered by date range, relevancy, and person, along with many other factors.
Slack Integrations
Integrations are a major part of Slack’s platform. Slack integrates with virtually every major business app. Users are able to set up their apps to post notifications inside the app and bring data together into one place.
Slack integrates with more than 80 external services, including Asana, Box, Dropbox, Desk.com, Google Drive, JIRA, and Stripe. Users with programming knowledge also have the option to create their own integrations.
Slack Pricing
Slack is free for teams of all sizes. Teams can use Slack for an unlimited amount of time without paying a dime. Organizations that need upgraded features, such as searchable archives with unlimited messages and unlimited external integrations, can sign up for a Standard plan at $6.67 per user, per month. Slack’s Plus plan costs $12.50 per user, per month. Enterprise plans are coming soon.
Slack Bottom Line
- Real-time conversations in an open or private environment
- Creates transparency within groups and teams
- Integrates with hundreds of popular business services
- Mobile push notifications keep users updated 24/7
- Free to use for teams of all sizes
Slack FAQs
Slack FAQs
Below are some frequently asked questions for Slack.
Q. What type of pricing plans does Slack offer?
Slack offers the following pricing plans:
Starting from: US$8.00/month
Pricing model: Free, Subscription
Free Trial: Available
Slack is available across three premium tiers with pricing based per user per month, outlined below: Standard Plan: $6.67/user/month (billed annually) or $8.00/user/month (billed monthly) Plus Plan: $12.50/user/month (billed annually) or $15.00/user/month (billed monthly) Enterprise Grid: contact Slack for custom pricing details
Q. What are the main features of Slack?
Slack offers the following features:
- 1:1 and group calls
- @mentions
- API availability
- Activity logging
- Activity tracking
- All data transfer is encrypted
- Always In Sync
- Archiving & retention
- Audio / video conferencing
- Authentication & security
- Business intelligence
- Call sharing
- Chat
- Chat functionality
- Collaboration tools
- Collaborative workspace
- Commenting
- Communication management
- Compliance management
- Contact history
- Create open channels
- Deep, Contextual Search
- Desktop & mobile messaging
- Desktop notifications
- Document distribution
- Document imaging
- Document indexing
- Drag & drop interface
- Email notifications
- File Sharing
- File transfer
- Full text search
- Indexing
- Mobile integration
- Nearly 100 integrations
- Notifications
- Open API to build your own integrations
- Personalized profiles
- Prioritizing
- Private text chat
- Real time data
- Real time notifications
- Real time updates
- Screen sharing
- Search functionality
- Single sign on
- Support for private groups and 1:1 direct messaging
- Tagging
- Tags, keywords & @mentions
- Two-way audio & video
- Video support
- Workflow management
Q. Who are the typical users of Slack?
Slack has the following typical customers:
Freelancers, Large Enterprises, Mid Size Business, Non Profit, Public Administrations, Small Business
Q. What languages does Slack support?
Slack supports the following languages:
English, French, German, Japanese, Spanish
Q. What type of pricing plans does Slack offer?
Slack has the following pricing plans:
Free, Subscription
Q. Does Slack support mobile devices?
Slack supports the following devices:
Android, iPhone, iPad
Q. What other apps does Slack integrate with?
Slack integrates with the following applications:
Aircall, Asana, Bitium, Breezy HR, Datadog, Dropbox Business, Help Scout, LiveChat, PagerDuty, Resource Guru
Q. What level of support does Slack offer?
Slack offers the following support options:
FAQs, Knowledge Base, Online Support, Video Tutorials
I love slack and it is always getting better. Finding my chats, creating channels, and adding integrations are easy. I can’t recommend it for business enough. It’s so fun that I am trying to find other uses for it just so I have an excuse to use it.