Visibility in this ranking can be paid for. Payment gives a vendor more visibility, higher up on the review pages; it never adds a vendor, and it never changes a word of the review. The largest vendors in team chat software
cannot hold places 1 to 3. Places 1 to 3 go to challengers, vendors outside the best-known brands in a category,
wherever the category has them; the established names follow from place 4 in their ranked order. How it works: placement disclosure ·
editorial process.
The 14 tools, reviewed
#1 Pumble
Free-first team chat from the makers of Clockify · United States · pumble.com
Free history Low price Slack alternative
Pumble solves the complaint that sends most small companies shopping for a Slack replacement: the history disappears or the bill climbs. Its free plan allows unlimited users, channels and message history, and the first paid tier costs about two and a half dollars per seat on annual billing.
- Pricing: Per seat / month. Free plan with unlimited users and history. Free plan: free plan.
- Best for: Cost-conscious small teams
- Strengths: Channels and threads; Unlimited message history; Guest access.
Where it falls short
The integration catalog is far thinner than Slack's, and the free plan limits storage to 10 GB for the whole workspace and video to one-to-one calls.
Wrong for
Companies that run their business through dozens of connected apps or need deep workflow automation should stay on Slack or Microsoft Teams.
Visit Pumble →
#2 Zulip
Open source team chat built around topics · United States · zulip.com
Open source Topic threads Self-hostable
Zulip changes the unit of conversation. Each message belongs to a channel and a topic, so a discussion about a release, an invoice dispute or a hiring decision stays together, and a person returning from vacation reads topics instead of scrolling a river of replies.
- Pricing: Per user / month. Cloud: free plan with 10,000 searchable messages; Standard $6.67 per user per month annual. Free plan: free plan.
- Best for: Technical and async-heavy teams
- Strengths: Topic-based threading; Open source code; Cloud or self-hosted.
Where it falls short
The topic habit has to be learned, and people used to Slack often find it fussy at first. The cloud free plan searches only the latest 10,000 messages and holds 5 GB.
Wrong for
Teams that want quick casual banter, a huge app marketplace or a tool nobody has to be taught should pick Slack or Pumble.
Visit Zulip →
#3 Chanty
Simple team chat with built-in tasks and calls · United States · chanty.com
Built-in tasks Low price Voice-first
Chanty is chat for a team that also wants a to-do list in the same window. A message can be turned into a task, tasks live on a board, and voice messages and group calls are part of the paid plan.
- Pricing: Per user / month. Free for up to 5 members. Free plan: free plan.
- Best for: Small teams of five to twenty
- Strengths: Channels and direct messages; Task boards; Voice messages.
Where it falls short
The five-member cap forces an upgrade early.
Wrong for
Companies with more than fifty people, deep compliance duties or heavy app integration should look at Slack, Teams or Mattermost. Teams already running a full project management tool will find the task features redundant.
Visit Chanty →
#4 Slack
The original business chat platform, now part of Salesforce · United States · slack.com
App ecosystem Salesforce company Huddles
Slack is what the rest of the category is compared to. Channels, threads, huddles and the integration directory are well tuned, and shared channels let two companies work in one place without email.
- Pricing: Per user / month. Free plan with 90-day history. Free plan: free plan.
- Best for: Companies living in many apps
- Strengths: Channels and threads; App integrations; Workflow automation.
Where it falls short
The free plan shows only 90 days of history and 10 integrations, and group meetings need a paid plan.
Wrong for
Cost-sensitive companies, nonprofits and teams that mostly need channels and files should compare Pumble, Zulip and Chanty.
Visit Slack →
#5 Microsoft Teams
Microsoft's chat, channel and meeting hub · United States · microsoft.com
Microsoft 365 Meetings built in Enterprise admin
For a company that already runs Outlook, SharePoint and Word online, Teams is chat that costs nothing extra to try and connects to documents people already edit.
- Pricing: Bundled with Microsoft 365. Included in Microsoft 365 business plans, with a free version for basic use; confirm current prices on Microsoft's site. Free plan: free plan.
- Best for: Microsoft 365 organizations
- Strengths: Chat and channels; Video meetings; File co-authoring.
Where it falls short
The product tries to be chat, meeting room, file store and phone system, so the interface is crowded and search is uneven.
Wrong for
Companies on Google Workspace, or those that want a light, fast channel tool, should skip it for Google Chat, Pumble or Slack.
Visit Microsoft Teams →
#6 Google Chat
Google Workspace's built-in messaging and spaces · United States · workspace.google.com
Workspace bundle Spaces Gemini AI
Google Chat suits a company that already pays for Workspace and wants conversation next to its documents. Spaces are permanent rooms that, per Google's page, can hold up to 500,000 members, messages sit beside Gmail, Calendar and Drive, and tasks can be assigned inside a conversation.
- Pricing: Bundled with Google Workspace. Included with Google Workspace plans, which list at €6.80, €13.60 and €21.10 per user per month. Free plan: free trial.
- Best for: Google Workspace organizations
- Strengths: Direct messages; Spaces; Meet huddles.
Where it falls short
It is built around Google's identity and suite, so a company on Microsoft 365 gets little from it.
Wrong for
Companies not using Google Workspace, and teams wanting deep workflow integrations or data control outside Google's cloud, should look at Slack, Pumble, or Mattermost.
Visit Google Chat →
#7 Zoho Cliq
Team chat inside the Zoho business suite · India · zoho.com
Zoho suite Free plan Automation
Cliq is chat for companies that already keep customers in Zoho CRM, invoices in Zoho Books and projects in Zoho Projects, because messages and bots can pull records from those apps. It offers meetings with a shared whiteboard, automation and custom components for developers, and Zoho cites around 500,000 users.
- Pricing: Per user / month. Free plan plus Standard, Professional and Enterprise tiers; 10% off for yearly billing; Professional and Enterprise need 10 users. Free plan: free plan.
- Best for: Existing Zoho customers
- Strengths: Channels and chat; Meetings with whiteboard; Chat summaries by AI.
Where it falls short
It is plainly tied to Zoho, so outside that suite the integration advantage shrinks.
Wrong for
Companies without any Zoho product should pick Pumble, Chanty or Slack.
Visit Zoho Cliq →
#8 Mattermost
Self-hosted collaboration for secure and regulated work · United States · mattermost.com
Self-hosted DevSecOps Air-gapped
Mattermost targets organizations that treat chat as part of an operational system: incident response, DevSecOps pipelines, government and defense work. It runs on your own infrastructure, on a private cloud or as a single-tenant managed service, including air-gapped networks, and its company page describes offices in several countries chosen for data residency.
- Pricing: Quote only. Prepaid annual seat licenses with Professional, Enterprise and Enterprise Advanced tiers priced on request; limited-use evaluation edition at no cost. Free plan: free trial.
- Best for: Security-focused technical organizations
- Strengths: Channels and threads; Self-hosted or single-tenant cloud; Air-gapped deployment.
Where it falls short
No prices are published, and the page lists no free production tier, only a limited evaluation edition. Running it requires infrastructure and someone to patch it.
Wrong for
Small companies wanting quick cloud chat at a low price should choose Pumble, Chanty or Slack.
Visit Mattermost →
#9 Nextcloud Talk
Open source chat and calls inside Nextcloud · Germany · nextcloud.com
Open source Self-hosted German vendor
Talk is the communication layer of Nextcloud, the open source file platform used by public bodies and European companies that want to keep data on their own servers.
- Pricing: Open source + paid tiers. Open source software you host yourself. Free plan: open source.
- Best for: Companies already running Nextcloud
- Strengths: Chat with threads; Encrypted calls; Webinars with lobby.
Where it falls short
It makes sense mainly as part of Nextcloud, not as a stand-alone chat product, and the channel experience is plainer than Slack's.
Wrong for
Companies without a Nextcloud installation or an administrator should choose a hosted tool such as Pumble, Slack or Chanty.
Visit Nextcloud Talk →
#10 Wire
End-to-end encrypted chat and calls for business · Switzerland · wire.com
End-to-end encrypted Swiss vendor On-premises option
Wire is for teams whose messages are sensitive enough that the vendor should not be able to read them. Chat, calls and file sharing are end-to-end encrypted, the company is Swiss, and it offers cloud, on-premises and hybrid deployments.
- Pricing: Per user / month. Free for up to 5 people. Free plan: free plan.
- Best for: Privacy-sensitive small businesses
- Strengths: End-to-end encrypted messaging; Video conferences up to 150; File sharing.
Where it falls short
It costs more per seat than mainstream tools and has a much smaller integration catalog.
Wrong for
Cost-driven companies and anyone who wants a large marketplace of bots and integrations should use Pumble, Slack or Chanty.
Visit Wire →
#11 Threema Work
Swiss end-to-end encrypted messenger for organizations · Switzerland · threema.com
Swiss-hosted Encrypted OnPrem option
Threema Work takes a messenger with a strong privacy record and adds an administrator console.
- Pricing: Per user / month. Core is CHF 3 per user per month and Professional CHF 5. Free plan: free trial.
- Best for: Regulated and privacy-first firms
- Strengths: End-to-end encrypted chat; Voice and video calls; Group chats.
Where it falls short
There are no rich channels, threads or app integrations to speak of, so it replaces WhatsApp more than Slack. The on-premises edition has a three-year minimum and is aimed at large organizations.
Wrong for
Companies wanting searchable channels, a bot marketplace or project-style collaboration should choose Slack, Pumble or Zulip.
Visit Threema Work →
#12 Element
Matrix-based secure collaboration you host yourself · United Kingdom · element.io
Matrix protocol Federation Self-hosted
Element is the best-known client for Matrix, an open standard that lets separate organizations run their own servers and still talk to each other. Everything is end-to-end encrypted by default, and every plan is self-hosted, including a Sovereign tier that runs in air-gapped networks with a custom push gateway.
- Pricing: Open source + paid tiers. Community edition is free and open source (AGPL). Free plan: open source.
- Best for: Governments and sovereign deployments
- Strengths: Matrix federation; End-to-end encryption by default; Synapse Pro homeserver.
Where it falls short
All plans are self-hosted, so there is no simple hosted option to start with, and Enterprise is priced for 100 or more users.
Wrong for
Small teams wanting hosted chat in five minutes should choose Pumble, Chanty or Slack.
Visit Element →
#13 Rocket.Chat
Sovereign chat for regulated and public-sector buyers · United States · rocket.chat
Air-gapped Matrix federation Government
Rocket.Chat is built for organizations that must control where their communications run. Its plans, Commercial, Government and Defense, support on-premises, sovereign cloud and fully air-gapped deployments, and the company lists ISO 27001, SOC 2 Type 2, HIPAA and GDPR compliance, as well as federation through Matrix.
- Pricing: Quote only. Free Starter plan for evaluation and small organizations; Commercial, Government and Defense plans are quoted. Free plan: free plan.
- Best for: Public sector and defense
- Strengths: On-premises deployment; Dedicated cloud hosting; Air-gapped environments.
Where it falls short
Pricing is not published, the headquarters is a registered address with a fully remote team, and the pricing pages push buyers toward sales.
Wrong for
Small and mid-sized companies wanting self-serve cloud chat should choose Pumble, Chanty or Slack.
Visit Rocket.Chat →
#14 Discord
Community chat with text and voice channels · United States · discord.com
Voice channels Nitro subscription Community servers
Discord organizes conversation as servers made of text and voice channels, and the pages we read describe free use with optional Nitro subscriptions at $2.99 and $9.99 a month that raise upload limits to 50 MB and 1 GB.
- Pricing: Free, optional per-user subscription. Free to use. Free plan: free plan.
- Best for: Informal groups and communities that talk by voice
- Strengths: Servers and channels; Voice and video chat; Screen streaming.
Where it falls short
Nitro is bought by individuals, so the pages we read show no per-seat business plan, no company-wide billing and no description of retention rules or audit logs.
Wrong for
Companies that need single sign-on, message retention and one administrator who controls every account.
Visit Discord →
Questions and answers
What is the best team chat software in 2026?
Pumble ranks first of 14, best for cost-conscious small teams. Zulip is second (technical and async-heavy teams) and Chanty third (small teams of five to twenty). Places 1 to 3 go to challengers, vendors outside the best-known brands, wherever the category has them.
Is Slack still worth paying for?
Slack's integrations directory and polish are still the broadest in the category, and for a company that lives in dozens of connected apps that has real value.
Can a free team chat plan really work for a business?
It can, if you check the limit first. Pumble's free plan has unlimited message history, Chanty's free plan stops at five members, Zulip's cloud free plan searches only 10,000 messages, and Zoho Cliq's free plan has the same 10,000-message search cap.
What is the difference between channels and topic threads?
A channel is a standing room, usually organized by team or project, where messages arrive in time order and replies hang off individual posts.
Which team chat tools can be self-hosted?
In this list, Zulip, Mattermost, Rocket.Chat, Element, Nextcloud Talk and Wire can run on your own servers, and Threema Work offers a separate on-premises edition called OnPrem. Element is self-hosted only.
Is end-to-end encryption available in business chat?
Some products offer it by default and others do not. Wire, Threema Work and Element describe end-to-end encryption as a core design, and Nextcloud Talk offers encrypted calls and chats.
How much does team chat cost per user?
Dedicated tools run from about $2.49 per user per month for Pumble Pro, through €3 for Chanty Business and CHF 3 for Threema Work Core, to €6.75 for Slack Pro and €7.45 for Wire's small-business plan, all on annual billing.
Do guests and clients need a paid seat?
It depends on the vendor. Chanty's Business plan includes three free guest seats per paid member, while Pumble reserves guest access for its Business plan and above, so its free and Pro tiers have none.
Can we move our history from Slack to another tool?
Usually yes for public channels, less so for private ones. Check whether the destination documents an importer for Slack's export file before you commit.
Should chat replace email inside a company?
It should replace internal email, not external. Chat works for quick questions, status and coordination, and it fails for formal approvals and anything that needs a record outside the tool.
What happens to chat history on a free plan?
The answer varies. Slack keeps older messages but hides them from view after 90 days until you upgrade. Zulip's cloud free plan searches only the most recent 10,000 messages.
