We used the solution to communicate within the team and with other people outside the company. We only used the solution for chatting.
SysAdmin at a manufacturing company with 501-1,000 employees
Used to communicate within the team and with other people outside the company
Pros and Cons
- "The solution's most valuable feature is the search functionality, which I can use to search for full text."
- "The solution’s initial setup is not very easy."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
The solution's most valuable feature is the search functionality, which I can use to search for full text.
What needs improvement?
The solution’s initial setup is not very easy.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Slack for two years.
Buyer's Guide
Slack
October 2024
Learn what your peers think about Slack. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: October 2024.
816,562 professionals have used our research since 2012.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution has a very high stability.
I rate the solution’s stability ten out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Around 40 people used the solution in my organization.
I rate the solution’s scalability an eight out of ten.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have previously used Microsoft Teams.
How was the initial setup?
You need an administrator and must create a team to implement the solution, which is far too much to do.
On a scale from one to ten, where one is difficult and ten is easy, I rate the solution's initial setup a three out of ten.
What was our ROI?
The solution has increased our productivity.
What other advice do I have?
I used the latest version of Slack. It was easy to transfer files over Slack. We used it to send gifts or messages related to the job.
Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Last updated: Aug 9, 2024
Flag as inappropriateFounder & CEO at Pathbreaker Pty Ltd
A clean and efficient communications platform that is good for large teams
Pros and Cons
- "With respect to being a clean and efficient communications platform, I think that it does the job quite well."
- "I have found it cumbersome to create and set up groups, or channels."
What is our primary use case?
I use Slack primarily for communications. This includes communicating with individuals as well as grouping people into cells to work on specific parts of a project. We don't use the features beyond just the basic communicative side of it.
What is most valuable?
With respect to being a clean and efficient communications platform, I think that it does the job quite well.
It's very good for when you have a large number of people working within the team. It can be a challenge to ensure that people are working within the bounds of the project that they are assigned to, and Slack is effective for ensuring that happens.
What needs improvement?
I have found it cumbersome to create and set up groups, or channels. I recall having to go through the application, then back to the web site, and then back to the application. I didn't really like that and this is something in the interface that should be improved. If it were possible or easier to create those working groups within the application, without being taken into a browser and working entirely within the software itself, that would be ideal.
I would like to see integration with collaborative tools, such as word processing software or programming environments and coding software, made clear, easy, and as broad as possible. It should handle simple products, all the way to complex ones. It should be easily embeddable inside a channel so that anyone can use it.
I think that changing the privileges to remove restrictions would help the users to adapt to the platform more easily, removing bottlenecks. Having to request access for particular users is time-consuming and it would be better if more people can do these things themselves.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using slack since the beginning of 2019.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I have not noticed any bugs, glitches, or other issues with stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have between 30 and 50 users.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
A lot of the work that we're doing now ends up on Microsoft Teams. Whether I like it or not, it tends to marginalize and eventually push Slack out of the picture.
How was the initial setup?
I found the initial setup to be straightforward. You can also bombard people with reminder messages that they should be joining a channel or discussion. In fact, I've had less trouble with slack than I've had with Teams.
What other advice do I have?
From my perspective, this is a good product and I definitely recommend it. My advice for anybody who is implementing this type of product is to first consider what it is that they want to achieve, and then make the decision about which product to implement based on that. If you're trying to pick between platforms, like Teams versus Slack, I would recommend Slack for a variety of reasons. Even if you are using Teams already, I would suggest using Slack in addition because you can't go wrong.
I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Buyer's Guide
Slack
October 2024
Learn what your peers think about Slack. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: October 2024.
816,562 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Devops engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Helps to communicate with colleagues
Pros and Cons
- "I use Slack for communication with my colleagues."
- "When someone responds to my message in Slack, a new window opens. There should be an option to roll down the answers."
What is our primary use case?
I use Slack for communication with my colleagues.
What needs improvement?
When someone responds to my message in Slack, a new window opens. There should be an option to roll down the answers.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with the product for three months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would rate the product's stability a ten out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I would rate Slack's scalability a nine out of ten. My company has 60 users for the solution.
How was the initial setup?
Slack's installation is very simple and I don't think I spent more than five minutes to complete it.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Slack a nine out of ten. I use the application on my desktop and I don't use a mobile version now. However, I may use it in the future.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PhD Researcher and Data Scientist at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Helps to communicate with teams and share links
Pros and Cons
- "I like Slack's notifications. It is more user-friendly and pleasing than Teams."
- "The tool is a bit slow."
What is our primary use case?
We use the tool to communicate with the design team, and exchange links, and code needs. I use it for collaborating with outside spaces.
What is most valuable?
I like Slack's notifications. It is more user-friendly and pleasing than Teams.
What needs improvement?
The tool is a bit slow.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the product for six years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The product is a bit slow but stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Slack is scalable.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Teams is a Microsoft product and not free. You have to buy a 365 account and everyone cannot do that. Slack has a facility to avail free accounts.
How was the initial setup?
Slack's setup is easy. The product does not require any maintenance.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
There are no licensing costs associated with the solution.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Slack a five out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Product Development Manager at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
The product enables efficient communication and collaboration, but it crashes when used on the desktop
Pros and Cons
- "Slack provides very fast communication."
- "The product crashes when I use it on the desktop."
What is our primary use case?
We use the product in the office for communication. It's our main channel for any communication.
What is most valuable?
Slack provides very fast communication. The communication is sent directly to me, so I do not miss out on anything. The product provides various channels to communicate. A channel is like a team, where all communication regarding a team is sent. The product gives the flexibility of having many channels. Communication is isolated and sent to the right person at the right time. Slack has a voice messaging feature.
What needs improvement?
The product crashes when I use it on the desktop. The product must improve user experience. It would be quite interesting if Slack works with Microsoft Teams.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for six years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The product crashes sometimes. I've never understood what the problem is. It happens intermittently. I don't know what really makes it crash, but it happens once in a very long time.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable. We are a huge team. We’re about 40 people. All of us use it seamlessly. It achieves our objective as a small team.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
In 2006, we used IP Messenger. It worked the same way but could be used only in the office. We didn't have any visibility of the communication outside the office. It did not have channels. It had many drawbacks, and Slack solved a lot of those problems.
How was the initial setup?
The solution is quite easy to set up. Anyone can easily set up the product, whether senior employees, junior employees, or professionals.
What other advice do I have?
I use Slack on my desktop. I have it on my phone too. All communications reach me as soon as they are sent, whether I’m in the office or outside. I don't look at the product for improvement. I appreciate what the product is doing. I'm not an administrator. I am a typical user. I joined the Slack channel because I was invited. I have access to Slack as a user, not as an administrator. I used IP Messenger as a software developer for a medium-sized organization in Kenya. We could share files. We could send text messages and all of it. We couldn’t use IP Messenger outside the office. It did not have channels.
For people who need constant communication and don’t want to rely on emails, Slack is the right tool for them. We can work on the mobile phone to communicate on the go. As long as we have internet connectivity, it is secure. We can create as many channels as we like and collaborate. We can also do voice calls and send voice notes. Overall, I rate the product a seven out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Desktop Support Analyst at a non-tech company with 51-200 employees
I think Slack is a very creative application to help unify communication across all team sizes.
What is most valuable?
The channels feature is the selling point for me. Being able to create a conversation for both public and private purposes through some channels is an absolute plus.
How has it helped my organization?
I was the president of a college event planning organization. Being able to have a conversation with my executives separately from the organization members was very convenient.
With multiple events happening and multiple conversations going on, I was able to divide the conversations into their respective groups and create channels for focus groups. This increased our productivity and efficiency by more than 80%.
What needs improvement?
Archiving for direct messages made tracking back conversations very difficult once the group started to grow large.
From what I noticed while using Slack, once a channel starts growing in
its number of messages, older messages are archived. This made it more
difficult to reference older messages. To be able to search for a particular message, you'll need to remember the exact phrases or the sender.
I think it would be much easier to "Scroll back" into older messages even
though it archived.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Stability was not an issue at any point. My team and I used it across multiple devices and platforms and the flow was seamless.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We had no issues with scalability. I was able to create more channels as the team grew bigger.
How are customer service and technical support?
I never had to contact the support team.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We were initially using email and IM chat to communicate. We switched because the conversations became unorganized and inefficient when conversations started overlapping.
How was the initial setup?
The setup was very straightforward. Once I sent an invite to my new team members, all they had to do was create a password and sign in. Their channels were pre-assigned and they had no issues joining the conversation. It was also easy to navigate.
What about the implementation team?
Through an in-house one. Level of expertise was as great as it could get.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I had a relatively small team, so I didn’t have to worry about pricing and licensing. I only encountered pricing third-party apps and bots to help facilitate automations.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I did not evaluate any other options as I did not have a reason to. Eventually I heard of Ryver. I was not compelled to switch though.
What other advice do I have?
I think Slack is a very creative application to help unify communication across all team sizes. I will definitely suggest this as my first choice.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Moving to Slack from different communication tool changed our development team productivity 100% for better. And it is not only about specific teams, but it is also just a great way to communicate across all business globally. I personally love all the automation capabilities and integration with other tools, which makes your life easy and keep you up-to-day with all important things which going on.
Full-Stack Python Developer at Optisol
Great for thread based communication, but sometimes logging in can be difficult
Pros and Cons
- "We use thread-based communication. So that if a new person comes to look into a problem for a particular task, they can easily go and look into the particular thread it is discussed in."
- "Sometimes there are login issues."
What is our primary use case?
We use it with our clients for sharing files and for communication.
How has it helped my organization?
What is most valuable?
We use thread-based communication. So that if a new person comes to look into a problem for a particular task, they can easily go and look into the particular thread it is discussed in.
We also send/download multiple files at a time.
It's also helpful that we can do group and individual calls on Slack.
There is a great search functionality.
What needs improvement?
Sometimes there are login issues.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have experience using Slack.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Slack is east to scale.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It is an affordable solution.
What other advice do I have?
Overall, I rate the solution a six out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Last updated: Apr 11, 2024
Flag as inappropriateSenior BA at a financial services firm with 11-50 employees
Easy-to-use and intuitive collaboration tool
Pros and Cons
- "The solution is scalable."
- "Its capabilities to provide security features could be better for corporations."
What is our primary use case?
We use the solution for communication within our internal teams and with external organizations.
What is most valuable?
The solution is intuitive, easy to use, and has many essential features. Also, the notifications features for its mobile version work the best. In addition, we can set it up as per our preferences, which is helpful and advanced.
What needs improvement?
The solution's capabilities to provide security features for corporations could be better. Along with it, the mobile version's calls and sharing video features could be faster.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using the solution for more than four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution's stability for the mobile version could be better as it freezes sometimes. At the same time, it works fine for the desktop version.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable. We have 150 users in our organization.
What other advice do I have?
It is a good collaboration tool. It makes communication within our organization easier. Our Administrators can also lock down the channels for exchanging messages and use them as an announcement tool.
I rate it an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Slack Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Updated: October 2024
Product Categories
Enterprise Social SoftwarePopular Comparisons
Atlassian Confluence
Microsoft Teams
Yammer
Symphony
Workplace by Facebook
SAP Jam
Jive
Chatter
ChatWork
Zulip
Oracle Beehive
Zoho Cliq
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Slack Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Quick Links
Learn More: Questions:
- What project documents, artifacts and activities should be on Sharepoint, JIVE, or network drives?
- When evaluating Enterprise Social Software, what aspect do you think is the most important to look for?
- SharePoint Online VS. Jive - which is a better collaboration platform?
- Which social software do you use at your organization? What do you like best about it?
- Social customer community platform for B2B company?
- How do Sharepoint and Yammer match up to IBM’s connection solution?
- Drupal vs. Liferay: Which one is better? Pros and Cons?
- What is a good alternative to Yammer? Has anyone tried Hipchat?
- What are the tools you recommend to support teleworking?
- How does Confluence compare to alternative enterprise social solutions?
I am really impressed with Slack, it quickly helps to organise different teams and collaboration across different projects and clients.