Pick up to 4 tools and see their free plans, entry prices, platforms and limits in one table. Every fact comes from each vendor's own pages, checked 7 November 2026.
Chat has no separate price; it comes with a Workspace subscription. Price shown in EUR, excluding tax, with a 1-year commitment. Google also lists a 50% intro price (EUR 3.40) for a limited period.
List prices. Slack also lists a 50% promotional price for the first 3 months on monthly Pro billing for teams that buy online within 7 days of creating the workspace. Members active in a 28-day period are billed.
Not stated
Not stated
Free trial
14-day trial of Google Workspace for people not already using it
None stated
None stated
A 1-hour trial environment is offered from the Try Mattermost menu; no longer trial terms were stated
Teams that already use Google Workspace for email, Docs and Meet
Organizations that want chat without paying for a separate messaging tool
Teams building small custom chat apps with webhooks or AppSheet
Teams that want channel-based conversation with a large set of connected apps
Companies that need to message people at other organizations through Slack Connect
Workspaces that want to automate approvals and routine requests without code
Gaming groups and friend communities
Open communities and fan groups that want voice and text in one place
Creators and developers building a public community around a project
Government and defense teams that must keep chat on their own infrastructure
Engineering and security operations teams running incident response in chat
Regulated companies that need retention and audit controls
Watch out for
Sold only as part of a Google Workspace subscription, not on its own
Some features are available only on Business and Enterprise plans
Whether personal Google accounts can use Chat free was not stated on the pages read
The Free plan keeps only 90 days of message history and 10 apps
Group huddles and group external messages need a paid plan
Single sign-on needs Business+ and above
Aimed at gaming and social use; Discord describes itself as a platform for connections around playing games
Nitro adds personal perks and is not a team plan with admin or compliance controls
The pages read do not state business pricing or enterprise controls
Prices are not published; the pricing page directs buyers to sales
Licenses are sold as prepaid annual per-seat subscriptions, with each server needing its own license
Marketing focuses on high-security sectors, so it may be more than a small team needs
Made by
Google
Slack Technologies (Salesforce)
Discord
Mattermost
Entry prices are the cheapest paid plan, as each vendor publishes it; “What it covers” says what that price is per (a user, a channel, a brand, a number of contacts). The sources are listed on each tool's page.
Every tool in team chat apps is on its category page, with the written head-to-heads on Compare.
