Best Slack Alternatives (I Actually Use Now)

Quick Verdict

Slack is overpriced and their search is broken. I left after they raised prices again and I spent 20 minutes hunting for a file from yesterday. Here’s what I actually use instead.

Discord **** (4/5) – best for small teams who want free voice chat Mattermost **** (3.5/5) – best if you hate paying and love self-hosting Microsoft Teams *** (3/5) – only if your company forces it Rocket.Chat *** (2.5/5) – free but rough around the edges Twist **** (4/5) – best for asynchronous, deep work teams

So I was on Slack for three years. Paid $8/user/month. It was fine. Then they hiked it to $9.25. Then they redesigned the sidebar and I couldn’t find anything. The breaking point? I searched for a document I’d uploaded last week. Slack gave me results from three months ago. I spent fifteen minutes scrolling. I wanted to throw my laptop out the window. That’s when I started looking.

Discord

I moved my side project team to Discord first. It’s free. Voice channels are actually useful – you can just drop in and talk without calling someone. We use text channels for everything, and the bot ecosystem is wild. There’s a bot for polls, reminders, even a D&D dice roller. I accidentally posted a meme to the wrong channel and my boss saw it. That was embarrassing. But Discord isn’t built for work. No threaded replies in channels – you get @everyone spam if someone’s loud in general chat. Notifications are a mess. And it looks unprofessional when you invite a client and they see anime profile pictures everywhere. If your team is small and casual, go for it. For anything formal, skip it.

Mattermost

This is the open-source Slack clone. I self-hosted it on a $5 DigitalOcean droplet. It worked… mostly. I liked that I own everything – no data leaving my server, no privacy concerns. It’s highly customizable: you can tweak permissions, integrations, even the UI colors. But self-hosting is a pain unless you’re comfortable with Linux. I broke the server twice – once during an upgrade that wiped the database. I lost a week of messages. Never again. If you have a sysadmin, Mattermost is great. If you’re just a team of developers who want to save money, prepare for headaches.

Microsoft Teams

I tried Teams because my client used it. Holy crap, it’s slow. Starts up like a freight train. Eats 2GB of RAM on idle. The UI is a maze of tabs and sub-menus. I spent five minutes looking for the "files" tab once. That said, it integrates with Office 365 beautifully – if you live in Word, Excel, and Outlook, Teams pulls everything together. Calendar sync, shared documents, all in one place. For large orgs with IT support, it’s tolerable. For a small team? Never. And don’t get me started on the notification system – you either get 50 pings or none at all.

Rocket.Chat

Another free self-hosted option. I tried it after Mattermost annoyed me. Rocket.Chat is… fine. It looks like Slack, works like Slack, but the mobile app is buggy as hell. Notifications don’t push half the time. The documentation is weak – I had to guess how to set up LDAP. But it’s free, and you can run it on a Raspberry Pi if you’re cheap. I liked that it supports federated chat – you can message users on other Rocket.Chat servers. But the community is small, and plugins are limited. If you’re ultra-budget, it’s a workable alternative. If you value your sanity, pay for something else.

Twist

Twist is different. It’s async-first: each topic is a thread, and you reply in threads, not as a stream of messages. It’s designed for deep work – no @here pings, no noisy channels. I loved it for a few weeks. Conversations actually stayed organized. I could catch up on a thread without reading 200 messages. But the pricing stings – $8/user/month for a service that’s less popular than Discord. Integrations are sparse: no Jira, no GitHub (well, there’s a basic one, but it’s clunky). And your team has to buy into the async philosophy. If someone likes real-time chat, they’ll hate Twist. For a remote team that does long-form writing (like writers or developers), it’s gold.

If you’re rich and your company already uses Office 365, just buy Teams Premium. It’s $10/user/month extra for stupid features like custom backgrounds. But it’s fine. Expensive, but fine.

Right now, I use a mix – Discord for my side project (free, voice chat is too convenient), Mattermost for our dev team (self-hosted, we have a sysadmin), and I keep Slack for one client who refuses to move. I’m not happy about it. But at least I’m not paying for Slack myself anymore.

Pros & Cons

Discord

• Completely free for voice and text
• Huge bot ecosystem for fun and productivity
• Voice channels are great for quick calls

• Not designed for professional/commercial use
• No threaded replies – messages get lost
• Notifications are a nightmare; @everyone abuse is real

Mattermost

• Open source – you own your data
• Highly customizable with plugins and integrations
• Works great if you have a dedicated sysadmin

• Self-hosting is a time sink; easy to break
• Mobile app is clunky and buggy
• Setup requires Linux skills; not turnkey

Microsoft Teams

• Deep integration with Office 365 (Word, Excel, etc.)
• Good for large enterprises with IT support
• Calendar and file sharing built in

• Slow startup, eats RAM (2GB+ idle)
• UI is cluttered and confusing
• Notifications are either too many or none

Rocket.Chat

• Free self-hosted; runs on cheap hardware
• Supports federated chat (cross-server messaging)
• Familiar Slack-like interface

• Mobile app is unreliable – missed notifications
• Documentation is poor; setup is guesswork
• Small plugin ecosystem; limited integrations

Twist

• Async-first design keeps conversations organized
• No noisy real-time pings – good for deep work
• Thread topics are easy to search and follow

• Pricing is high for its niche ($8/user/month)
• Fewer integrations than Slack or Discord
• Team must buy into async style; not for real-time

Pricing at a Glance

| Tool | Starting Price | What You Actually Get | |——|—————|———————-| | Slack | Free / $9.25/user/month | Free is crippled (10k messages, few integrations). Paid is okay but overpriced. | | Discord | Free / $9.99/month (Nitro) | Free is excellent for small teams. Nitro gives you bigger uploads and better emoji. | | Mattermost | Free (self-hosted) / $10/user/month (cloud) | Free if you host – but you pay in time. Cloud version costs similar to Slack. | | Microsoft Teams | Free / $4/user/month (business basic) | Free is decent with 2GB storage. Business Basic adds more integrations but still slow. | | Rocket.Chat | Free (self-hosted) / $2/user/month (cloud) | Free self-hosted works if you’re patient. Cloud is cheap but limited features. | | Twist | $8/user/month | No free plan (only trial). Expensive for what you get – but unique async workflow. |

FAQ

Q: Is Discord good for business communication? A: No, unless your business is a gaming server or a casual hobby project. It’s fine for small teams who don’t need formal threads or professional appearance, but most companies will find the lack of structure frustrating.

Q: Which Slack alternative is best for remote teams? A: For async remote teams, Twist. For real-time collaboration with voice, Discord. For enterprise with Office 365, Teams. For security-focused teams, Mattermost.

Q: Can I use Mattermost for free forever? A: Yes, if you self-host it. You’ll pay for server hosting and time spent maintaining it. The cloud version costs money. No hidden fees, but you need technical skills.

Q: What’s the biggest difference between Slack and these alternatives? A: Slack has the best ecosystem of integrations and a polished UI. Everything else trades that for lower cost (Discord), data ownership (Mattermost), or a different workflow (Twist). You lose something no matter what.

Q: Which tool is closest to Slack in features? A: Mattermost is the most direct clone – same channel structure, integrations, and search. Rocket.Chat is also close but buggier. Both lack Slack’s polish and app directory.