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Slack Software Review

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Microsoft Teams Review

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Choosing Between Slack and Microsoft Teams: A Complete Feature Showdown

Discover how Slack and Microsoft Teams compare—choose the right platform to streamline communication, collaboration, and workflow integration across your team, with Siit enhancing both for seamless support management.

Choosing between Slack and Microsoft Teams isn't about adding another app—it's about fixing your daily information hunt. Teams waste time searching multiple places for answers. Slack's channels keep conversations flowing; Teams integrates with your Microsoft environment. Choose wisely to eliminate hours of tab-switching weekly.

Slack vs. Microsoft Teams at a glance

You're picking between the two biggest names in team chat. Here's how they stack up:

Feature Slack Microsoft Teams
Purpose Channel-based workspace for streamlined team communication. Unified hub for Microsoft 365 collaboration and meetings.
Best when you need External collaboration and rich third-party app integration. Seamless Microsoft ecosystem experience with built-in video.
Primary user(s) Startups, agencies, and cross-functional project teams. Enterprise organizations heavily invested in Microsoft tools.
Headline strength Flexible, intuitive interface with a robust app marketplace. All-in-one Microsoft integration with superior meeting capabilities.
Limitation Video conferencing less robust than dedicated solutions. Steeper learning curve for non-Microsoft users.
Free trial Unlimited free tier with 90-day message history limits. Free personal version; business trials require a Microsoft account.
Signature integration Slack Connect for secure multi-org collaboration. Real-time Office document co-authoring within channels.

Overview of Slack

Slack centralizes team conversations, files, and tools in one searchable workspace, eliminating scattered communications across emails and apps. Teams create dedicated channels for projects and topics while integrating essential third-party tools directly into their workflow.

Key Features:

  • Channel-based organization for team discussions and project management
  • Direct messaging for quick one-on-one communications
  • Slack Connect for secure external collaboration without email chains
  • Huddles and voice clips for instant verbal communication
  • Powerful search functionality across all messages and files
  • AI features that summarize discussions and identify action items
  • Workflow Builder for automating routine processes and approvals
  • Canvas for creating workspace-native documents and knowledge bases

Ideal for: Teams seeking to reduce communication silos and integrate their essential tools into one flexible, searchable platform.

Overview of Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams consolidates chat, meetings, and documents in one interface, eliminating the need to switch between communication tools. It integrates seamlessly with Microsoft 365, allowing teams to collaborate on documents, join video calls, and manage projects all in one platform.

Key Features:

  • Topic-based channels for organized team conversations
  • High-quality video conferencing with screen sharing capabilities
  • Real-time co-authoring of Office documents
  • AI-powered meeting transcription and note-taking
  • Deep integration with Outlook, OneDrive, and Power Platform
  • Enterprise-grade security and compliance controls
  • Guest access management for external collaboration

Ideal for: Operations teams in the Microsoft ecosystem needing integrated chat, meetings, and document collaboration, especially for distributed teams.

Side-by-Side Feature Comparison

You don't need a thirty-page RFP to see where each tool shines. Here's what actually matters when you're trying to get work done.

Feature Slack Microsoft Teams
Channels & Threads Topic-based channels with threaded replies keep chats tidy. External work lives in Connect. Private or public channels under each "Team"; threaded chat is built-in.
Meetings & Calls Huddles for quick audio/video plus screen share—no calendar dance needed. Full-blown video meetings, webinars, and PSTN calling baked in.
Integrations Library App directory with thousands of options; custom bots hit new API rate limits if they're not Marketplace-approved. Tabs, bots, and connectors tie into the full Microsoft 365 stack plus third-party apps.
No-Code Automation Workflow Builder triggers actions inside channels—handy for approvals or on-call rotations. Power Automate flows launch straight from the platform for deeper, cross-app automation.
AI Assist & Summaries AI surfaces natural-language search, thread recaps, and auto-generated huddle notes. Copilot summarises shared files in chat and suggests tasks during meetings.
External Guest Access Partners join via Connect without needing a full account. Guest access sits at the team level—once inside, guests see every channel unless you spin up a separate team.
Search & History Unlimited history on paid plans; Free tier caps at 90 days. Enterprise search spans chat, files, and even external data sources—and there's no hard history cap.
Pricing Snapshot Per-user tiers starting at Free → Pro ($8.75) → Business+ ($18) → Enterprise+ (custom). Per-user tiers paid yearly → Essentials ($4) → Business Basic ($6) → Business Standard ($12.5)
Security & Compliance Enterprise-grade encryption, granular app permissions, and SSO options. Builds on Microsoft 365's security stack—GDPR, HIPAA, and advanced eDiscovery baked in.

When to Choose Slack vs. Microsoft Teams

The right platform saves hours weekly managing communications and tasks.

Choose Slack if you need:

  • Quick channel-based chats with external partners (Connect handles 250+ organizations)
  • Practical app integrations that turn messages into tasks without context switching
  • Lightweight huddles and team culture tools with flexible pricing for growing teams
  • Custom emoji and reaction sets that build stronger team identity and engagement
  • Searchable knowledge base creation through pinned messages and saved items
  • Streamlined onboarding for new team members with organized channel history
  • Workflow automation that reduces repetitive tasks and standardizes processes

Choose Teams if you value:

  • Microsoft 365 integration for editing documents and planning without switching apps
  • Enterprise security and compliance controls
  • Built-in video meetings that scale to webinars, plus unified sign-on across Microsoft tools
  • Shared calendaring and scheduling across organization departments
  • Seamless file storage with OneDrive and SharePoint integration
  • Simplified IT management with centralized admin controls
  • Collaborative whiteboarding during virtual meetings

How Siit Integrates With Both Tools

Siit seamlessly connects with both Slack and Microsoft Teams, transforming casual conversations into structured workflows. Install our bot in any channel to automatically convert requests into trackable tickets, complete with AI-powered routing and prioritization.

With Siit integration:

  • Messages from either platform become organized tickets on shared Kanban boards
  • AI automatically routes requests to appropriate teams based on content analysis
  • Requesters receive updates directly in their original conversation thread
  • Teams gain cross-platform visibility when managing requests from both tools
  • Routine tasks get automated, reducing manual handling 

This unified approach eliminates platform silos, speeds resolution times, and centralizes operations across your entire communication ecosystem. Sign up for a free trial and see for yourself. 

Explore Siit integrations or Book a demo today.

FAQs

How fast can I get started?

Slack takes about three minutes to set up—no IT approval needed. Teams requires your Microsoft admin to flip a few switches, but you're talking maybe 15 minutes if they're not busy.

Which one syncs with Office docs?

Teams opens Word and Excel right inside the chat. No new tabs, no downloading files to edit them. Slack shows you previews and makes you click through to actually work on anything.

Who handles outside partners better?

Slack Connect lets you pull external people straight into your channels—super handy when you're working with vendors or contractors. Teams does guest access, but it's more like inviting someone to your entire house instead of just one room.

Any limits on finding old messages?

Slack's free version only lets you search the last 90 days. After that, your messages exist but you can't find them. Teams keeps everything searchable as long as your admin hasn't set up automatic deletion.

How does Siit fit in?

Siit turns any conversation into a proper ticket. Someone mentions they need software access? It's already routed to IT with AI triage handling the sorting. We pull context from Jira, Zendesk, or whatever system you're already using.

Try Siit for free