Switching from Microsoft Teams to Slack
Teams-to-Slack is the harder direction of this pair: Slack has no equivalent native importer for Teams content, so this migration is largely a manual export-and-rebuild process.
Why teams switch from Microsoft Teams to Slack
Preferring Slack’s app ecosystem and threading model
Product and engineering teams often prefer Slack’s more flexible threading and its larger catalog of developer-focused integrations.
Cross-company collaboration via Slack Connect
Companies that regularly collaborate with external partners or clients in shared channels find Slack Connect more mature than Teams’ guest-access model.
Decoupling chat from a Microsoft-only stack
Organizations moving away from an all-Microsoft toolset, or running a mixed Google/Microsoft environment, often prefer a chat tool that isn’t tied to either ecosystem.
Switching Cost & Friction Estimator
Estimate the real hidden cost of moving from Microsoft Teams to Slack — not just the subscription price.
How to migrate your data
With no official migration tool in this direction, treat this as a manual export-and-rebuild project.
| Step | What happens |
|---|---|
| 1. Export what Teams data you can | Use Microsoft’s compliance/eDiscovery export tools (where licensed) to pull channel message history, since there’s no consumer-friendly one-click export. |
| 2. Recreate channel structure in Slack | Manually rebuild your Teams-and-channels hierarchy as Slack channels, deciding how to flatten Teams’ nested structure into Slack’s flatter model. |
| 3. Migrate files separately | Teams files actually live in SharePoint/OneDrive rather than in Teams itself, so plan a separate file migration alongside the chat move. |
| 4. Rebuild integrations as Slack apps | Recreate any Teams bots, connectors, or Power Automate flows as their Slack app or Workflow Builder equivalents. |
| 5. Reapply channel membership and permissions | Manually add members and configure channel privacy settings in Slack to match who had access in the corresponding Teams channels. |
| 6. Run a parallel period before retiring Teams chat | Keep Teams available for reference during a transition window, especially if you’re keeping Teams for calling while moving only chat to Slack. |
Pricing during the transition
Here’s how Microsoft Teams and Slack plans stack up as of late 2026, from free tier to the mid-market plan most switching teams land on.
| Plan | Microsoft Teams | Slack |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Teams Free: $0 — chat, calling, and basic meetings for individuals/small groups | Free: $0 — 90-day searchable message history limit |
| Entry paid tier | Teams Essentials: around $4/user/month (billed annually) | Pro: around $7.25-8.75/user/month |
| Mid tier | Microsoft 365 Business Basic (bundles Teams + email + 1TB storage): around $7/user/month (billed annually) | Business+: around $15-18/user/month, adds SAML SSO and compliance exports |
If Teams is bundled into your Microsoft 365 subscription, you may end up paying for both Teams (for calling/meetings) and Slack (for chat) unless you fully decouple from Microsoft 365 messaging.
Feature-parity checklist
Slack offers more flexible threading and a bigger third-party app ecosystem; Teams keeps chat unified with Microsoft 365 calling and files.
| Feature | Microsoft Teams | Slack equivalent |
|---|---|---|
| Chat + calling + meetings in one app | Full chat, calling, and meetings in one app | Chat-focused, calling/meetings via Slack Huddles are lighter-weight |
| Threading model | Threaded replies, generally viewed as less flexible than Slack’s | Flexible threaded replies within channels |
| Third-party app/bot ecosystem | Growing but smaller marketplace, strong on Microsoft 365 apps | Very large third-party app marketplace |
| External guest/vendor chat | External access via Teams guest accounts, more setup involved | Slack Connect for cross-company channels |
| Bundling with existing software stack | Bundled into Microsoft 365 subscriptions | Standalone product, separate billing |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there any official Teams-to-Slack migration tool?
No, Slack does not offer a native importer for Teams content, so this direction relies on manual exports and rebuilding channel structure by hand, or a third-party migration vendor.
Can we export our full Teams chat history?
Only with the right Microsoft 365 compliance/eDiscovery licensing, and even then the export format isn’t designed to be re-imported into Slack — it’s for archival and legal purposes.
What happens to files shared in Teams channels?
They actually live in SharePoint document libraries linked to each team, so migrating them to Slack (which would mean moving them to a separate cloud storage tool) is a distinct project from the chat migration.
Should we keep Teams for meetings even if we move chat to Slack?
Many companies do exactly that — keep Teams for calendar-integrated meetings and calling while running day-to-day chat on Slack, though it does mean managing two tools.
How risky is losing Teams chat history?
It depends on your compliance requirements; if message retention matters legally, export and archive Teams data through Microsoft Purview before decommissioning any licenses.
Canonical data for the tools on this page
Every pricing fact, rating, AI billing model and switching guide we hold on each tool, on one page — with the date each figure was last verified.