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Home › Categories › Team Communication

Team Chat & Communication Software, Compared: Verified 2026 Pricing

Bill BelcaminoBy Bill Belcamino · Last updated September 12, 2026 · Our methodologyResearched and fact-checked by the HelpCompare team

Side-by-side pricing for Slack and Microsoft Teams: entry price, free plan, how each vendor bills for AI, and the date we last checked each figure against the vendor’s own pricing page.

Team Chat & Communication Software, ComparedVerified Sep 12, 2026
Bill Belcamino
Bottom line up frontby Bill Belcamino, founder of HelpCompare
Editorial assessment

Bottom line up front: Slack or Microsoft Teams: which chat tool fits a growing team?

Teams is cheaper on paper, from $4/user/mo on Teams Essentials against Slack's $7.25/seat/mo, and the free plans break in different places.

Slack's free plan keeps 90 days of message history, and Teams caps group meetings at 60 minutes, so first decide if you're buying a chat tool or a meeting tool. My bigger warning is about chat itself. It's a poor system of record, and a team that makes decisions in threads will lose them, fastest on a plan that hides history after 90 days. Write decisions into a doc and link it in the channel. Guests need a rule too: Slack guests need a paid plan (Single-Channel Guests are free, up to 5 per paid member) and Teams admits external guests with any email address, so review guest access when each contract ends, not once a year.

Verified data · quick answer
  • Lowest published entry price: Microsoft Teams — From $4/user/mo (Teams Essentials).
  • Free plans: Slack (90-day message history); Microsoft Teams (60-minute group meeting cap).
  • How AI is billed: Slack — bundled free; Microsoft Teams — flat-fee add-on.

My read of the verified data on this page, checked against vendor sources on September 12, 2026. Disagree or spot an error? Tell Bill

Team Communication pricing at a glance

Every row links to the comparison where the figure was verified and to the vendor’s pricing page.

ToolEntry priceFree planAI billingG2 ratingVerifiedSource
SlackFrom $7.25/seat/moYes — 90-day message historyBundled free4.5 / 539,795 reviewsSeptember 12, 2026in Slack vs Microsoft TeamsVendor pricing ↗
Microsoft TeamsFrom $4/user/mo (Teams Essentials)Yes — 60-minute group meeting capFlat-fee add-on4.4 / 519,300 reviewsSeptember 12, 2026in Slack vs Microsoft TeamsVendor pricing ↗

Head-to-head comparisons

Slack vs Microsoft TeamsUpdated September 12, 2026

Switching guides

Microsoft Teams to SlackSwitching guideMicrosoft Teams to ZoomSwitching guideSlack to Microsoft TeamsSwitching guideZoom to Microsoft TeamsSwitching guide
Video ConferencingRelated category
Verified data

Team Communication: security, offline & remote work

The team communication tools we track, side by side on compliance, single sign-on, offline access and remote or office controls. Every value links to the vendor page it came from.

What we checkedSlackMicrosoft Teams
Security & compliance
SOC 2 reportSOC 2 Type IIsourceSOC 2 Type IIsource
ISO/IEC 27001CertifiedsourceCertifiedsource
Other certificationsISO/IEC 27017, ISO/IEC 27018, ISO/IEC 27701, ISO/IEC 42001, SOC 3, CSA STAR (registry listing), FedRAMP Moderate, TISAX, IRAP, ISMAP, C5, ENS High, Korea CSP Safety Assessment, FINRA 17a-4 configurablesourceISO/IEC 27017, ISO/IEC 27018, ISO/IEC 27701, SOC 1source
HIPAA (BAA)BAA availableEnterprisesourceBAA availablesource
GDPR data processing agreementDPA offeredsourceDPA offeredsource
Single sign-on (SAML/OIDC)YesBusiness+sourceYessource
SCIM user provisioningYesBusiness+sourceNot published
Two-factor authenticationYesEnforcement: Free (available on all plans)sourceYesEnforcement: Microsoft Entra ID Free (security defaults)source
Admin audit logYesEnterprisesourceYessource
Data residency choicesUS, Germany, France, SE, Switzerland, Japan, India, Singapore, South Korea, Australia, UK, Canada, BrazilBusiness+sourceAustralia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, IT, Japan, NO, PL, QA, South Korea, South Africa, SE, Switzerland, UAE, UK, Americas, APAC, EMEAsource
EncryptionEncrypted at rest and in transit by default; optional customer-managed keys via Slack EKMsourceTLS 1.2+ with AES-256 in transit; BitLocker plus per-file encryption at rest; optional end-to-end encryption and Customer Keysource
Self-hosting optionNot publishedNot published
Offline access
Offline modeNot documentedNot documented
Desktop appsWindows, macOS, LinuxsourceWindows, macOSsource
Mobile appsiOS, AndroidsourceiOS, Androidsource
Remote, hybrid & in-office
IP allowlistingNot publishedYesMicrosoft Entra ID P1 (included in Microsoft 365 Business Premium)source
Device & session controlsYesFreeBlock desktop/mobile file downloads (desktop downloads can be limited to allowed IP ranges) and mobile message copying on all plans; session duration controls; EMM-managed mobile device requirement on Enterprise Grid/Enterprise+.sourceYesMicrosoft Entra Conditional Access policies apply to Teams sign-ins (device compliance, location); Intune mobile application management; Conditional Access requires Entra ID P1.source
Office & room hardware—Microsoft Teams Rooms turn meeting spaces from huddle areas to large conference rooms into one-touch-join Teams rooms, sold as Windows and Android devices from partners.source
Editorial assessment

What this means for your team

  • Audit reports: both publish a SOC 2 report, and Slack and Microsoft Teams also hold ISO/IEC 27001. Ask each vendor for the report under NDA before you sign; security reviews usually want the latest one.
  • Single sign-on: Slack includes it on Business+; Microsoft Teams includes it. If your team signs in through Okta, Microsoft Entra ID or Google, price the plan that includes SSO, not the entry plan.
  • Health data: Slack and Microsoft Teams will sign a HIPAA business associate agreement (Slack: Enterprise).
  • Working offline: Slack and Microsoft Teams don’t document an offline mode. Details are in the Offline mode row above.
  • Office-only access: Microsoft Teams can restrict sign-ins to approved IP ranges on Microsoft Entra ID P1 (included in Microsoft 365 Business Premium). That suits an office network or a company VPN; fully remote teams need a VPN for it to work.
  • Where your data lives: Slack lets you choose US, Germany, France, SE, Switzerland, Japan, India, Singapore, South Korea, Australia, UK, Canada, Brazil on Business+; Microsoft Teams lets you choose Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, IT, Japan, NO, PL, QA, South Korea, South Africa, SE, Switzerland, UAE, UK, Americas, APAC, EMEA. This matters for teams hiring across the EU, UK or Australia.
  • In the office: Microsoft Teams: Microsoft Teams Rooms turn meeting spaces from huddle areas to large conference rooms into one-touch-join Teams rooms, sold as Windows and Android devices from partners.

Slack: worth knowing

  • OfficeSlack huddles need UDP/3478 (or legacy UDP/22466) and TCP/443 open on office networks. source
  • SecurityAdmins can block desktop file downloads except from specified IP ranges, e.g. office or VPN addresses. source
  • RemoteGuest accounts for contractors or clients require a paid plan; Single-Channel Guests are free, up to 5 per paid member. source
  • OfficeSlack needs a persistent WebSocket connection over port 443; proxies and firewalls must allow it. source

Microsoft Teams: worth knowing

  • RemoteMicrosoft says Teams can deliver HD video in under 1.5 Mbps; actual use varies per call. source
  • RemotePhone dial-in (Audio Conferencing) needs an add-on license for each organizer; people who dial in need none. source
  • RemoteExternal guests with any business or consumer email address can be added to teams. source
  • OfficeThere is no native Linux desktop app; Linux users use Teams on the web or as a PWA. source

Checked September 19, 2026 against each vendor’s own trust center, help docs and app pages. Hover or tap “source” to see the exact wording we relied on. “Not published” means we could not find the vendor saying it on its own site; it doesn’t mean the feature is missing. Plan names are the lowest plan the vendor says includes the feature. Security · Offline · Remote vs office · Download the data

Frequently asked questions

Which team communication tool is cheapest?

Of the 2 team communication tools HelpCompare tracks, the lowest published entry price belongs to Microsoft Teams (From $4/user/mo (Teams Essentials), verified September 12, 2026). Entry prices are the cheapest paid tier each vendor publishes; the right answer at your team size depends on seat minimums and add-ons, which each head-to-head comparison breaks down.

Which team communication tools have a free plan?

Free plans: Slack (90-day message history); Microsoft Teams (60-minute group meeting cap).

How do team communication tools charge for AI?

Slack: Bundled free (AI search, recaps, translation). Microsoft Teams: Flat-fee add-on (Copilot).

Where does this pricing data come from?

Every figure was recorded from the vendor's own pricing page during research for a HelpCompare comparison, and is dated. The most recent check in this category was September 12, 2026. Nothing is estimated: where a vendor publishes no price, we say so. The full dataset is free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 at helpcompare.com/data/.

Sources

Figures come from each vendor’s pricing page, recorded on the date shown. Download the full dataset from Open Data (JSON and CSV, CC BY 4.0).

Cite this page: HelpCompare, “Team Chat & Communication Software, Compared: Verified 2026 Pricing”, helpcompare.com/team-communication/ (updated ).

Source links on this site are checked every month; last check . How sources are checked.

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Bill Belcamino, founder of HelpCompare
About the author

Bill Belcamino

Founder and author, HelpCompare

Engineer by training, operator by experience, marketer by choice. Bill spent eight and a half years as an engineer at HP, was COO of Auctiva (the number one third-party selling platform on eBay, past 200,000 users) and ran Google’s $70M/year search syndication partnership at Alot.com. Then he spent 13 years building his own web properties with his own money at stake. He has bought, trialled, integrated and cancelled more SaaS tools than he can count, and started HelpCompare because the real cost of switching tools is the part nobody covers.

“I’ve sat on both sides of the table: the agency recommending the tool and the client paying for it.”

Researched and fact-checked by the HelpCompare team. Pricing on this page was last verified on September 12, 2026. No paid sponsorships, no affiliate commissions.

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