The new year brings a ton of new things: new workflows, new tech, restructured business plans, etc. But, one thing the new year isn’t going to bring is HipChat.
The popular Atlassian competitor to Teams and Slack is being discontinued after Slack scooped up the IP to reduce competition in the space. This upcoming shutdown will see a mass migration of HipChat users to various other workplace chat apps. Of course, there’s going to be pressure put on businesses utilizing HipChat to merge over to Slack — especially given that Slack is the one pulling the trigger that ends HipChat.
Today, we’re going to talk about this mass migration. In particular, we’re going to try to convince you to switch to Microsoft Teams instead of Slack. As it currently stands, Teams is a better player in the space, and we think that the rising numbers that Microsoft Teams is seeing (along with its robust new features) make it a nearly perfect workplace chat option. Don’t feel pressured to make the jump to Slack, explore your options first.
Let’s see why Teams may be a better option for many of you that are now in “shopping mode” after HipChat’s unfortunate early departure from the workplace chat space.
Teams vs. Slack (The Basics)
Both Teams and Slack are workplace collaboration packages. Both of theme sports features that allow users to connect with each other and each of them leverages business-first solutions. But, the similarities end here. Slack and Teams aren’t the same product — not by a longshot.
Recently, Teams announced that it’s serving over 200,000 organizations 1 year after launch. Those are some massive numbers for a new player in the chat space. Of course, part of this is due to Microsoft merging Teams right into Office 365, which means existing parameters can be instantly utilized by Teams.
Slack, on the other hand, has some huge individual numbers (+3 million paid members) — though it hasn’t released how many organizations comprise those users. Slack has been around a while and it’s definitely the most recognizable work chat name. But, that’s slowly changing.
Teams has grown during its first year, and with better Freemium options than Slack and more comprehensive paid plans, Teams is leveraging Office 365 and Microsoft capital to compete directly with Slack. We’re going to compare Slack and Teams based on the following “buckets.”
- Plans and Features
- Price
- Integrations
- Security
Teams vs. Slack (Plans and Features)
Comparing plans between Teams and Slack isn’t a fair fight. Since Teams is integrated into Office 365, you get a whole lot more band-for-your buck when it comes to Teams. Let’s do a quick comparison:
Slack Plus ($12.50 per user/month)
- Unlimited message history
- Conference and video calls with up to 15 participants
- 20GB storage per team member
- SSO
- Compliance reports
- Priority Support
Office 365 Premium ($12.50 per user/month)
- Unlimited message history
- Compliance reports
- 1 TB per/user One Drive
- 1 TB per/team storage
- 10 GB per user
- Microsoft Word
- Microsoft Excel
- PowerPoint
- SharePoint
- OneDrive
- OneNote
- Publisher
- Access
- Yammer
- Sway
- PowerApps
- Microsoft Flow
- Voice video calls with up to 80 participants
- Integrations
- Meetings
Really, the main point here is that Teams is contained within Office 365. So, for the same price as Slack Plus, you get the entire Office 365 suite plus Teams, which includes richer video chat, more overall storage, and tons and tons of other features like Flow and Apps.
Teams vs. Slack (Price)
Before we talk features, security, or integrations, let’s touch on the most significant factor for most businesses, cost.
While both Teams and Slack now offer Freemium, which is a great way to give users a test-drive, Teams also offers free trials of each of its paid versions. Slack Standard costs $6.67 per user/month while the comparable Teams Essential package costs $5 per user/month. This means that Teams offers a savings of $1.67 per user/month, which is excellent for smaller agencies and businesses that don’t need the upper tiered packages.
Beyond the basics, both Slack and Teams Premium (or Plus) plans cost $12.50 per user/month. Of course, Teams is richer in features, which makes its pricing more appealing than Slack in the upper tiered price plans as well.
It’s also important to note that Teams offers free trials on both Essential and Premium — something that Slack lacks.
Integrations
Both Slack and Teams have plenty of integration options. Currently, Teams has integrations with some of the largest market players (BitBucket, Jira, Confluence, etc.) while Slack has tons of integrations with some smaller apps.
It’s important to note that while Teams and Slack have tons of integration options, Slack only allows 10 integrations in their Freemium plan. Of course, Microsoft naturally integrates with all other Microsoft products, which means Teams can leverage Skype video controls and other rich Microsoft products.
Security
Patel on Unsplash. Slack “Time to Hack”.
If we’ve learned one thing over the last few years, it’s that security is critical. 64% of small businesses get attacked by hackers at some point, and 60% of those businesses close doors within 6 months post-attack. And, with team chat containing an incredibly vast amount of sensitive business information, it seems like an obvious place to address security concerns.
With Slack, you’re going to have pay for 3rd party security. Slack doesn’t have native cybersecurity elements beyond the basics, so it’s critical that anyone using slack outsources security efforts.
Unlike Slack, Teams has native enterprise-level Microsoft security — which is included across Office 365 apps. This means that the costs associated with Slack go beyond the base price point. Simply put, Teams has vastly better security.
How to Make the Switch
For HipChat users, making the switch to Teams can seem like a daunting task. Migration from major platforms is always a dense process, regardless of the migration. Currently, there is at least one known open source tool that can migrate HipChat exports directly into Teams — Lombiq HipChat to Microsoft Teams Migration Utility.
This tool makes the process significantly less complicated, though you will need to have administrative power on both Teams and HipChat to make the transfer.
Final Thoughts
Now that the final days of HipChat are upon us, it’s time to look forward and consider your options. We’ve seen Slack position the closing of HipChat as a forced migration to Slack, but that’s not the case. You can transfer all your existing HipChat exports directly into Teams. Not only does Teams come with the incredible suite of Office 365 tools and apps, but it’s also more feature rich, more secure, and less costly than Slack.
Sure, Slack may be more “hip,” but Teams is more functional. We hope that any of you who are being forced to migrate from HipChat to another team chat app carefully consider your options. Don’t be sold on names and don’t think that you’re being forced to migrate to Slack simply because they bought and axed HipChat. For most of you, Teams is probably a better option. If you’re ready to make the move to Teams and you need a little help, contact us.
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Sales@AgileIT.com