Bitrix24 vs. Slack

In this comparison, you will not find anything about the CRM business processes and many other matters — that's because one of the contestants simply does not have all of that. Thus, we will turn our attention over to the general functionality as well as the quality of its realization and the cost. 

Slack Interesting Facts

Slack is a corporate manager, a single working space for communication inside the company. The program has been launched in a test mode in 2013, presented publicly on 12 February 2014, and became an instant success. Slack is known for being the most fast-growing business application in history, as almost 8 thousand companies have signed up during the first testing mode date; and the number of the service's users has been increasing by 5% for the next 70 weeks in a row. They also call the service as "Skype and internal corporate email killer" on the Internet. Despite the overall preference of Slack, it's not the all-time favorite in Microsoft: the employees of the IT giant are strictly forbidden to use this app at work. 

Comparison of platforms' capabilities

Slack integrates a working space with the "channels" and personal chats of the employees in one window. A chat can be both private and public, if the invitation has been sent. The messenger provides the possibility to edit the text, make it bold or italic, create lists and all of that can be done directly from the text layout panel. There are also audio messages and video chats with a limitation up to 15 members. The platform provides the possibility to bulk-mail: for general and specific channels.

To be objective, Bitrix24 has all of that, but on a slightly different scale. Slack provides the possibility to create chats for separate tasks and projects, while the groups, projects and tasks in Bitrix24 automatically create the chats for the members. Video calls in Bitrix24 are available for 48 users, which is 69% more than the number the opponent offers. In addition to communication and search, the chats allow transforming the messages into tasks or topics for new chats. 

And when it comes to text editing. Not many know, that Bitrix24 supports many of the bb-codes, and if wished, something like this can be done. 

Why then users like Slack so much?

Analyzed the feedback and comments of Slack users, the service is most often praised for:

• Setting up the bot assistants that store chats history and find there all the requested information; 

• The possibility to turn off chats notifications;

• Setting up the hot keys for the commands within the system;

• Assistance on the following systems: Windows, Windows Phone, MacOS, Linux, IOS, Android;

• The local time is set for each user.

Oddly enough, but Bitrix24 has all the same features. Except that rather than messing with the bots, you can simply search for words, phrases or files within the whole communication period without any limitations. And if we look at the negative feedback about Slack, which is also available, we can notice examples not applicable to Bitrix24:

• The systems takes up a lot of operational memory;

• It's unclear if your dialog partner read your message;

• The option to cooperate with the clients is not available;

• Lack of backup in several locations.

Integrations

Slack is equipped with a wide as well as Bitrix24 variety of integrations, however, as we can see from the graph, Bitrix24 is still ahead of the opponent in terms of quantity. 

Tariff plans

Slack exclusively works by monthly subscription for the cloud service system, while Bitrix24 box edition, excluding the possible expenses for hosting, costs nothing. Basically, as the free cloud service too, where chats can be used by an unlimited number of users. Free Slack version also allows an unlimited number of employees, but it is limited to an archive of 10 thousand messages with an integration of 10 external services. 

There are three commercial based tariff plans where you get additional features and some of the limitations removed. "Pro" tariff plan includes the use of a general channel and 10 GB of files storage for a single team member. "Business+" tariff provides 20 GB per each team member and an unlimited number of channels. There is also the "Enterprise Grid" tariff, but you can only get its price directly from Slack managers, as it's not indicated on the official web-site. This tariff offers 24/7 priority support and 1 TB of storage space per each member of the team.

Conclusion

Is there something to love Slack for? Definitely, as it is indeed a good program for team communication. In any case, this is a specific business software, and not a constantly demanding tool for communication, which Slack, according to users, should have destroyed. 

At the same time, the intent to guarantee the communication between employees is no longer a goal, but an obligation. And, if you are looking for business tools for your team, the number of useful programs should be minimal. In this case, Bitrix24 will provide you with everything essential, similar to Slack but even more powerful, a tool for corporate communication included. You can admire many things, but you should only choose the best. And when it comes to promoting your own business — it is Bitrix24.