Microsoft Teams vs Slack vs Google Chat vs Zoom Workplace

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.

Compared on	Microsoft Teams From $4/user/mo Visit Remove	Slack Free plan · from $7.25/user/mo Visit Remove	Google Chat Free trial · from €6.80/user/mo Visit Remove	Zoom Workplace Free plan · from $14.16/user/mo Visit Remove
What it is	Chat, meetings and calling, sold alone or inside Microsoft 365	Team messaging built around channels, with huddles, canvases and workflow automation	Direct messages and spaces inside Google Workspace, with Meet and Gemini built in	Video meetings with team chat, mail, calendar, docs and an AI companion in one app
Free plan	No	Free plan keeps 90 days of message history, allows up to 10 app integrations, and limits huddles and Slack Connect external messages to 1:1	No	Meetings up to 40 minutes; up to 100 participants per meeting; 3 editable whiteboards; 5 two-minute clips; local recording only; 3 meeting summaries a month
Cheapest paid plan	$4/user/mo billed annually (Teams Essentials)Microsoft Teams pricing	$7.25/user/mo billed annually (Pro)Slack pricing	€6.80/user/mo billed annually (Google Workspace Business Starter (includes Chat))Google Chat pricing	$14.16/user/mo billed annually (Pro)Zoom Workplace pricing
What it covers	Paid yearly; annual subscription that auto-renews.	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.	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.	Pro is $16.99 per user a month billed monthly, or $14.16 per user a month billed annually; USD list prices on zoom.us/pricing.
Free trial	Free trials offered on the business plans (trial terms on Microsoft's page)	None stated	14-day trial of Google Workspace for people not already using it	None stated
Platforms	Web	Web, Windows, Mac, iOS, Android	Web, iOS, Android	Web, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android
Integrations (vendor's figure)	Not stated	Over 2,600 apps in the Slack Marketplace	Not stated	Not stated
Open source	No	No	No	No
Good for	Businesses already using Microsoft 365 and Outlook Small teams that want chat and meetings in one inexpensive plan Companies replacing a desk phone system with cloud calling	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	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 meetings and team chat in one app Short free calls with up to 100 people (40-minute cap) Companies that need SSO and admin controls on a business plan
Watch out for	The prices shown are for annual subscriptions paid yearly Calling to regular phone numbers needs a separate Teams Phone licence and calling plan Some AI features on Business Standard are billed by usage	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	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	Free Basic plan caps meetings at 40 minutes Free plan records locally only; cloud recording needs a paid plan Participant caps per plan are shown inconsistently on Zoom's pricing page
Made by	Microsoft	Slack Technologies (Salesforce)	Google	Zoom Communications

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 and video conferencing apps is on their category pages, with the written head-to-heads on Compare.