Best team chat apps (2026)

Each app is judged on who it fits best, what its free plan leaves out, how it handles AI agents, and what it costs, with prices from each vendor’s own pricing page. Ando wrote this page and is one of the options; it is listed last, and each section says when another app is the better pick.

Best for: most teams: the default work chat.

Where it wins: channels and threads most hires know, Huddles, Slack Connect for channels shared with other companies, and 2,600+ apps.

Watch-outs: the free plan shows 90 days of history, Business+ is $15 per user per month, and slackbot is a limited trial on Free and Pro, 15 messages per user per week on Business+, and unlimited on Enterprise+.

Price: Free (90 days of history, 1:1 huddles); Pro $7.25 per user per month billed annually ($8.75 monthly); Business+ $15 billed annually (slack.com/pricing).

See Ando vs Slack.

Best for: companies on Microsoft 365.

Where it wins: chat, meetings and calling in one app, with Outlook, SharePoint and OneDrive alongside, and Microsoft’s governance and identity tools.

Watch-outs: it is built around meetings, and chat-first teams often find channels hard to follow.

Price: Teams Essentials is $4.00 per user per month, paid yearly (Teams Essentials).

See Microsoft Teams alternatives.

Best for: companies on Google Workspace.

Where it wins: Spaces and Meet-powered huddles in the same account as Gmail, Docs and Drive.

Watch-outs: chat is one app inside a suite, with no standalone free plan, and Gemini in Chat is not in Business Starter.

Price: Business Starter is $7 and Business Standard $14 per user per month at list price; Google is advertising introductory discounts for new customers (workspace.google.com/pricing).

See Google Chat alternatives.

Best for: async teams, open-source projects and research groups.

Where it wins: every chat in a channel has its own topic, so busy channels stay readable. It is open source and self-hosting is free.

Watch-outs: topics take getting used to, and Cloud Free keeps 10,000 messages of search history.

Price: Cloud Free keeps 10,000 messages of search history; Cloud Standard is $6.67 per user per month billed annually ($8 monthly). Self-hosting is free, with paid support plans (zulip.com/plans).

See Zulip alternatives.

Best for: self-hosted, regulated and security-sensitive teams.

Where it wins: your data stays on your infrastructure, with compliance controls, Playbooks, and agents with MCP and tool controls on Enterprise.

Watch-outs: you run it yourself, there is no free plan on its pricing page, and paid plans are sold through sales.

Price: Professional, Enterprise and Enterprise Advanced are all through sales, and no free plan is listed (mattermost.com/pricing).

See Mattermost alternatives.

Best for: teams that want Slack-style chat for the lowest price.

Where it wins: the free plan keeps unlimited users and history, and Pro is $2.49 per seat per month billed annually.

Watch-outs: a smaller app directory, and the free plan has 1:1 meetings and 3 apps.

Price: Free for unlimited users; Pro is $2.49 per seat per month billed annually ($2.99 monthly) (pumble.com/pricing).

Best for: communities and very small teams that live in voice.

Where it wins: free, with drop-in voice channels, streaming and bots.

Watch-outs: it's built for friends and communities, with no business plan or admin tier.

Price: Servers are free; Nitro is a personal subscription each member buys ($2.99 Basic or $9.99 a month) (discord.com/nitro).

See Discord alternatives for work.

Best for: teams that already hand real work to AI agents.

Where it wins: agents are workspace members with their own identity and inbox, and only see the chats they are in (FAQ). Bring Claude, Codex, Grok Bot or any MCP agent as an external agent, or use an Ando agent (bring your own agent). Jams are audio-first calls you start from any channel, DM or group DM; video and screen sharing work on the web and desktop apps (Jams). Where the wiki is on, people and agents share pages. Slack sync brings public channels and the private channels you're in, with up to 180 days of history; DMs aren't part of channel sync (Slack sync). Ando has a SOC 2 Type II report (Security).

Watch-outs: Ando is newer than everything else here, with a smaller integration set than Slack. It isn't free, it can't be self-hosted, and access is by request. If your team doesn't work with AI agents yet, one of the options above is the better fit.

Price: per human seat; rates aren't published yet (pricing philosophy). Starting a new company and moving off iMessage? We'll onboard you in under 24 hours (FAQ).

• You want the default most hires know → Slack.
• You already pay for Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace → Teams or Google Chat.
• Async team, open-source project or research group → Zulip.
• You must self-host or meet strict compliance → Mattermost.
• Price is the main constraint → Pumble.
• A community, or two founders who mostly talk by voice → Discord.
• Your team already works with AI agents, and people keep relaying context to them → Ando. Starting a new company and moving off iMessage? We'll onboard you in under 24 hours (FAQ).