Slack Reviews

Pros

Slack is a user-friendly, robust collaboration tool that allows for quick setup and access to channels both public and private. Asynchronous communication is a cinch and the Mentions and Reactions feature allows for easy access to what recent messages you have received.

Cons

Due to Slacks' third party app space, there are some features that might seem to be missing at first but need to be found as a third party feature. This involves an admin or an owner having to approve the app being installed. This can sometimes be a bit of a headache on the admin end, as it requires going to obscure parts of the app to approve. It could be an easier experience.

Alternatives Considered

Microsoft Teams

Reasons for Choosing Slack

Yammer was too slow and "social media" like for us. We wanted a faster, easier tool for us to quickly communicate with one another.

Switched From

Yammer

Reasons for Switching to Slack

Teams lacked a lot of the features Slack has, such as custom reactions, quick calls and file uploading. We decided to stick with Slack as it offered what a more agile-friendly experience.

Pros

I like how I can set my own color themes and pick my notification sound. I have access to all the Apple emojis as well as Slack's fun emojis to set a status. The developers in my company have created new emojis as well and those are fun to use. Slack is the easiest way – and I have several tools at my disposal for this including Google Meet, Zoom and Uberconference/Dialpad – to do an audio call, video call or screen share with one other person. I prefer to use Google Meet for meetings with several people, but my go-to is slack for a call with just one other person. The pencil tool to highlight something is so handy when someone is sharing their screen with me. When on a call, the little phone emoji appears next to my name so others know that I'm on a call and can't respond right away.
I like being able to respond to a message in a thread too. My company has a channel for everyone in the company and the notification can get out of hand if lots of people are responding back and forth. But threads simplify that and make it so I can respond to a message in a thread versus the entire company seeing it. They can see the thread if they click on it, but it requires an extra step.
I also love the shortcuts for sharing gifs from giphy, setting reminders and others.
Oh, and setting notification preferences is amazing. I have my Slack set to only receive notifications during certain hours during the day so I'm not getting them all through the night and before the next workday starts.

Cons

I don't like that I can't create a Slack channel on my own. My company has it set up that only the admins can create new public and/or private channels. I can create a group to direct message with, but that's it. If I want a channel created, I have to go to the admin. I think this is more of a gripe for my company making that rule and not a Slack thing, though.
I also wish I could blur my background or set a fun background like you can in Google Meet and Zoom.

Pros

The fundamental component that I love about Slack is the part beneath the principle board, where I can get to uninitiated messages, explicit strings of discussions and furthermore gives me admittance to every one of the notices that have been during my vacation . Moreover, I additionally have a perception of the messages saved in this segment, so I have everything in one spot, everything exceptionally coordinated.

Cons

Slack's inquiry framework is one of the provisions that doesn't work effectively. This inquiry framework has a long defer when I embed a word in the pursuit, it consumes a large chunk of the day to play out the hunt, what's more, it doesn't show every one of the consequences of the looked through word, it just shows the most extraordinary and latest outcomes.

Pros

I've used Slack for several years now and at this point, can't remember how I communicated with team members before. We are a completely remote team and Slack allows us to quickly reach out to colleagues to discuss issue, socialize, share files, and much more. I think a lot people on my team enjoy the emoji options and the ability to group message and create channels allow for a lot of flexibility for multi-member communication. Slack offers a wide variety of features, like snoozing, scheduling, and setting up notifications, and they continue to add to their feature set regularly.

Cons

Managing permissions and settings around channels can be confusing. I've created channels only to realize that I needed to set it up differently and then not have the permissions to make the needed change (or that the change isn't an option and you'll just have to delete the channel and start all over). Also, if you are a member of multiple workspaces, it can be easy to miss a notification or message.

Pros

Slack is incredibly easy set up and deploy. The Settings and Administration dashboard is very intuitive and easy to maneuver, making onboarding and offboarding new members a very quick process. Slack has API integrations with a lot popular, commonly used software services such as Google, JIRA, etc., which allows users to monitor a larger spectrum of notifications within a single platform. The message service is also relatively customizable, which allows you to add both fun and productive features to what would otherwise be a monotonous instant messaging tool.

Cons

Slack does not current offer advanced features for content organization. Individuals topics or groups need to be separated into channels, but you cannot add subdirectories to those channels for more granular organization. This results in an excessive number of Slack channels that need to be maintained and monitored on a regular basis, creating disorganization. Slack also has below average phone and video quality when compared to competing services such as Zoom and Google Meet. I often experience issues with bluetooth headphone connectivity when using these features.

Alternatives Considered

Google Hangouts

Reasons for Choosing Slack

We needed something more reliable and with more robust features.

Reasons for Switching to Slack

Slack had the best overall service offering.

Pros

It is very intuitively designed and you can start using this software from day one without much of a learning curve. You don't have to be a tech person to get it started. I like the feature like being able to send codes/commands in a differentiated text (framed with red color etc) and directing message in a large chat group by using "@", or copy and pasting older message, etc.. those are all very practical features that I use often. I also like the mobile app version which allows me to be connected even when I'm away from my computer. I also like the reminder feature which I set up for recurring meetings or just as my personal reminder.

Cons

It seems like they do have a service interruption a couple of times a year. When the entire company is relying on slack for internal communication, the service outage stops our operation (although we use google chat for a backup during those outages). Also, image loading via mobile app seems to take quite a long time even with a stable network.

Pros

- Allows superb enterprise-level communication.
- Integrates with other software seamlessly and allows productivity to be maximized.
- Allows simple tasks/interactions to be automated - which ultimately saves time per user & organization.
- Great user interface on desktop, web & mobile app.
- Lots of functionality available - in terms of user groups/channels.

Cons

- Initially, it takes some time to get used to fully. Although eventually its worth getting used to!
- It doesn't work perfectly on slow wi-fi but that's understandable and area dependant.
- Doesn't show user/contact last seen as it time specific.
- If you have alot of groups/channels you can possibly miss priority messages if your settings are not adjusted to bring messages to the top. Although this can be customised to your liking and only is a problem initially.

Pros

Personally for myself, as a manager who is too busy to follow-up and check on my staff's progress. Slack has been very helpful in allowing my staff to update the board without me having to reach out. I just log on daily to see the progress of my team on an easy to view dashboard.

Cons

Sorting & Filtering old projects - Perhaps maybe achieve old projects I no longer need to view. It can be quite a clutter to see a project that was discuss 2 years ago. Its not a big deal since the project are able to have old ones at the bottom.

Pros

Slack is a great collaborative software that helps users to collaborate across cities, countries, and timezones. It is a crucial part of our project workflow and helps to let developers, project managers, and clients speak to each other in a collaborative enviroment.

It has numerous integrations that allow for third-party apps to interact, create, and receive messages and alerts. These integrations allow us to have one place in which all communications can flow and makes it easier for a worldwide team to be up on the latest updates and critical alerts that may happen.

Cons

The slack tool can be a little battery intensive, especially as you add more slack channels. It also gets quite expensive as you add additional paid members to the group. If you are not aware of all your paid members, or you add guests as paid it can get very expensive quickly.

Because this is a discussion, it is also possible that critical conversations can get lost in the stream of texts coming through.

Pros

It's a very cheap and easy to use tool with a friendly user interface and I can change it to a dark theme which I like a lot.
I like the chat option because I can send and receive real-time messages and chat with my team directly and the Slack messaging app is very powerful and amazing.
I also like the emojis and gifs in the chat because it brings a lot of fun to the workspace.
I feel very safe using Slack because they have a strong security system and I don't need to worry about the safety of my files when I share them.
It helped me to save a lot of time and to stay organized and have all my projects in just one place and I really don't need to use other tools to do this.
I really don't need to train my VA's to use Slack because some of them used it before and some they find it very easy to use and they get used to it in just a few days.
I improved my productivity and now I don't need to waste any time because Slack helped me and the Team to developed focused channels and to focus on what's important for the company and for the business in general.
I love the integration option Slack has because I can use it with multi-useful tools now for example Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Calendar, Zoom, Trello...etc.
Their support is amazing and they have a lot of videos and tutorials about these tools and I learned a lot from them.

Cons

They can improve the mobile app and add more cool features in the future.
They can Improve the search feature because sometimes It's really hard to find something especially if the workspace is big and there are many channels.
They can add a video chat feature to this tool because a lot of companies now are using the video option in other tools for better communication.

Pros

Our team adopted Slack in preparation of becoming a fully virtual, distributed company, and also as an alternative to email, which creates blind spots of knowledge within the organization. Our work has been completely transformed by adopting Slack! First, we had 100% adoption of the platform as our primary internal communications medium. Second, the transparency of information and project cycles have allowed us to be far more efficient and effective for our clients (response times, clarity of recommendations, deliverables), and finally, it has eliminated about 50% - 75% of our daily emails. A massive win!

Cons

While Slack has several tools for tagging information and prioritizing information, it provides limited tools for prioritization. While it's primarily a communications/collaborations platform and not a project management tool, adding ability to better prioritize certain tasks would help make this tool even more effective for a professional services company.

Alternatives Considered

Yammer, Zoho One, Microsoft Teams and Trello

Reasons for Choosing Slack

Workamajig is too rigid and too outdated, and not nearly as nimble.

Switched From

Workamajig

Reasons for Switching to Slack

Ease and adoption. People started using Slack naturally, even during a trial period.

Pros

Possibility to have 1:1 discussions with colleagues. Valuable when dealing with a task together. Group Collaboration - The capability to bring an undertaking together and share with a team. Gathering Chat - The ability to have one zone/space where the group teams up, shares thoughts, and cooperates to convey issues. Bot Integration - The ability to incorporate different apparatuses and bots that can make the day simpler. Capacity to integrate web conferencing devices such as Zoom, Webex, Teams etc. Able to make plans for the day, track time, and so on Oversee a Team - Great approach to deal with a group that is working distantly in remotely geographic areas.

I am especially fond of how easy and respectful the communication with other team members is. Practically all different Saas suppliers are integrated which permits the user to do practically all activities inside the Slack. The Advanced Search History is another extraordinary component for group correspondence Channels are keeping correspondence simpler inside the team or with non-team members.

Cons

Some of the time the ´´Search in History´´ function does not work as it is supposed to. However, this is the case with most visiting instruments that occasionally you have to look up one small step at a time to discover the set of experiences you are searching for. Video and voice meeting actually need to improve. anticipating utilizing Slack just as opposed to having different programming introduced

The by far greatest limitation of the app is that the free version has a constraint of messages that can be saved, which incorporates the documents that are sent.

Slack's paid arrangement is extravagant for new companies and organizations having low income/large groups.

Pros

The overall ease of this software is superb. Every one of our team members found it easy to use immediately.

Cons

The one thing that bugs me is the return button. If you are writing a message then if I want to use a new line by pressing return Slack actually sends the message. So I then have to go in and edit my message. Return in Slack is another key. You would think would be easy to remember but then every other product has the return key used as a new line so I'm always having to edit my messages of they are spaced out.

Pros

Slack was easy to use and implement at work. The web version of slack works completely fine. The slack interface is streamlined and ideal for business communication. We are able to replace emails at work and use communication on slack, which is quick and easy for project teams. The most significant thing I loved about Slack is, it can be integrated with other productivity, communication, and collaboration tools to make the work more streamlined and can be an optimum choice for automation and scripting.

Cons

The only downside to this application is its pricing. The standard plans lack most of the important features, so we thought of upgrading to Plus. Since the price is based on per person per month, we found the pricing for Plus too high. So, we had expected if the price could be pay-per-module, but that can’t be helped either.

Alternatives Considered

monday.com

Reasons for Choosing Slack

Salesforce has lot of complexities at work and all we need is an easy and efficient tool to beat the performance. And we found Slack worthy of it.

Switched From

Salesforce Sales Cloud

Reasons for Switching to Slack

Slack is easy to use and implement at work. Well, it has ability to integrate with lots of apps, and outruns all other alternative applications in performance.

Pros

Team Communication is easy and respectful to other team members.
Integrations with almost all other Saas providers allows users to do almost all actions within the Slack.
Advanced Search History is a great feature for team communication
Channels are keeping communication easier within the team or with external members.

Cons

The in-app call and video call options are still terrible in September 2020.
Exporting communication only available to admin. This should be done for everybody at least for private communications.
File search is still not good.

Alternatives Considered

Quip and Jira

Reasons for Choosing Slack

Jira is more likely to for developers so we want to use a team communication tool that can be used by everybody in the team easily so we choose Slack.

Switched From

Jira

Reasons for Switching to Slack

Slack has more integrations and it looks much more professional.

Pros

I LOVE that you can create your own channels to keep conversations and shared documents organized and easily accessible for different groups you are collaborating with.
I also LOVE that these channels don't expire and can be accessed by anyone across the globe that you are collaborating with. This has changed the way collaboration can happen virtually in real time!

Cons

The # hashtags can cause me issues when I am searching for things but I am starting to get better at using them.

Pros

I love this application for a majority of reasons. Slack is very minimalistic but also beautifully done. It presents your desired information in a very organized manner and makes it easy for the receiver to understand. It balances colors well and provides brief templates for you to use. Another aspect I like about Slack is the multiple formats of data you can send into a single chatroom space. It's extremely convenient and essential for your company's needs.

Cons

I don't have any negative thoughts for Slack because it fulfills our company's needs to a great extent.

Alternatives Considered

Google Meet, Chanty and Microsoft Teams

Reasons for Switching to Slack

One thing I've noticed with the other products, as opposed to Slack, was their visual approach. As minor as it may seem, this factor plays a major role for creative professionals. Especially for photographers, we strive on communication that is clear and easy to read. So Slack was tested with our teams and delivered promising results. Google Hangouts and Microsoft Teams, unfortunately, made the connection and networking far more difficult than necessary.

Pros

Communication with my entire team is easily available within Slack as well as subsets of my team. Slack has played a key role for several years but that role has become critical as we have shifted operations entirely online. We have channels for different topics and the ability to easily customize alert settings for channels has been a huge plus. The ability to integrate with outside systems has allowed us to automate many tasks such as letting the service desk know when issues occur.

Cons

Traffic can get busy so I need to be particular about how my notifications are set up. I then check in periodically on the channels that I don't receive notifications for to keep up with what is going on.

Pros

I love that almost any service can send notification through Slack either directly or with an integration tool. Jira ticket creations get alerted in specific channels based on project/issue type for example. And Slack can be used to create polls, set reminders, etc. The sidebar organizes your channels (which can be public or private) as well as your DMs (which can be with 1 person or a group of people). The search function is neat, and channels/DMs can be searched/saved/archived/etc.

Cons

Ok, the downside can be astronomical- but it can be controlled with good administration. Slack can easily get out hand with multiple channels that confuse standard-authoritative messaging, and if the channels get too numerous then Slack monitoring can become a very distracting activity (so make rules on channel creation). Similarly, the flexibility of Slack can lead to a wide range of input from folks (GIFs, emoji-reactions, etc.).

Pros

Slack is very easy to use with its simple and highly professional UI making things easily available, like the search, using emojis and reactions, etc. Unlike Microsoft Teams, here in Slack you can search for a message using a keyword, and trust me this is a lifesaver. You can have multiple channels set up for a variety of communication purposes. The mobile version is also good and reliable. The app is easy to use but at the same time has very professional UI and all the necessary features.

Cons

Slack is expensive when compared to its competitors. It should have a feature to search for gifs online like MS teams. You may miss out on some important emails as most messages are conveyed on the chat. So you have to be clear about it, emails are still a priority when it comes to professional communication.

Pros

How easy it was to use. There has been other software that does the same thing and recently Microsoft has been pushing teams. However in my opinion Slack was the first one on the block. We used skype but it seemed "clunky". The group functionality and the ability to integrate with API is awesome. We have it linked both to snow and outlook calendar.

Cons

The only thing I dislike is that you can not see if a user has read your message (somewhat like whatsapp or imessage)

Alternatives Considered

Microsoft Teams

Reasons for Choosing Slack

Ease of use and the unwillingness of everyone on our team to keep skype running.

Reasons for Switching to Slack

Ease of use and integration across web/smartphone and desktop

Pros

I like team workspace like design of app, especially the channels for teams, private channels, taggings by team, threads, and bots inside it which are very useful for variety of reasons, helping to increase users productivity and contributing for team to work fast.
Another thing seems to me very useful is integrating google calendar with slack which show to my teammates when I am busy or in a meeting or when I am free near my name on app.

Cons

Sometimes it has problems with mobile app push notifications, e.x many times I tried to reply message from push notifications but seems it not sends message showing could not send without notifying me.

Another thing I noticed in recent times It has problems with video streaming, I mean when someone uploads video It sometimes streams very slowly .

Alternatives Considered

Cisco Jabber

Reasons for Choosing Slack

As I mentioned above It's specially designed for teams and had much more user experience.

Reasons for Switching to Slack

I have heard about Cisco Jabber, but it does not seems more functional and convenient for me and my team.

Pros

The integrations with other software are amazing. I can get instant updates from websites, tools, CRM's, and much more all in slack. It makes the "instant messaging" tool much more valuable. Instead of needing to log into 20 different tools I can just check channels that we have created.

Cons

Nothing really. I came from a Hangouts/Chat world where there are a lot of limitations so to use a tool that doesn't have those are amazing.

Alternatives Considered

Asana and monday.com

Reasons for Choosing Slack

Integrations

Switched From

Google Meet

Reasons for Switching to Slack

Those other tools were more for project management whereas this was communication. And I can still use those tools in conjunction with Slack.

Pros

with Slack, you can have multiple workspaces within the one app, so I can be working on a project for a client who has their own instance of Slack, get added to their channels for the project, and interact with them in their environment, all the while still being able to remain in my company environment, which lets me separate my comms, but keeps it all in the same app. I also enjoy the fact that I can create my own custom Emojis to use in the chats, it makes for a more personalised experience when I am reacting to a colleague with my own emojis rather than the default smilies.

Cons

I have not seen a guest functionality on Slack, so you have to be a registered user to be able to interact with other users. I have also noticed a few colleagues who have had issues with audio calls not picking up the microphone, certainly on older model Macbooks. But I have never had the issue myself.

Pros

ease of use. Liked that you weren't tied to same domain email. Liked that you could have unlimited channels for dialogue. Liked that you could customize many areas like colors, pictures and even emojis. Liked that they had a decent free version. It's a good, solid product.

Cons

The push notifications were inconsistent. At times, messages were posted without any team notifications.
The storage limits for channels were limited even with the free version.
Was looking for a tasking option built in. The integrations with other apps was a little bit wonky for us.
Wished it had a "read" option where we could see which team members had seen or read the message.

Alternatives Considered

River, Basecamp, Twist, Microsoft Teams and Asana

Reasons for Switching to Slack

Slack seemed to have the better program overall with options and their channels and ability to have different groups with privacy levels and customization that we needed for church.