Free team chat apps (2026)

• History: how far back you can read and search. This is where most free plans draw the line.
• People: some plans cap the number of members.
• Storage: a total per workspace, not per person.
• Calls: free plans usually keep calls to two people.
• Apps and admin: integrations, guests and admin controls are usually paid.

Best for: teams of any size that want a free plan with no history limit.

Where it wins: the free plan has unlimited users and unlimited message history, which is the most generous free tier compared here. It looks and works like Slack, so the switch is easy.

Watch-outs: the free plan has 10 GB of storage per workspace, 3 apps and 1:1 meetings only; group meetings and guest access are on paid plans.

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

Best for: teams of 5 or fewer that want free forever.

Where it wins: unlimited searchable history, 20 GB of storage per team, 10 integrations and built-in tasks on the free plan.

Watch-outs: the free plan stops at 5 members, and group calls need the Business plan.

Price: Free for up to 5 members; Business is $3 per user per month billed annually ($4 monthly) (chanty.com/pricing).

Best for: teams that expect to pay later and want the default most hires know.

Where it wins: the free plan is the same Slack your team will use on Pro, with channels, threads, huddles and up to 10 apps.

Watch-outs: messages are searchable for 90 days, free workspaces delete data after 1 year, huddles are 1:1, and Slack Connect is 1:1 only.

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: open-source projects, research groups, non-profits and async teams.

Where it wins: every chat in a channel has its own topic, it is open source, and self-hosting is free. Zulip offers a free Standard plan to open-source projects, academic research and most small non-profits.

Watch-outs: Cloud Free keeps 10,000 messages of search history and 5 GB of storage in total.

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: two or three founders who talk by voice, and communities.

Where it wins: servers are free, with always-on voice channels people drop in and out of.

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 where someone can run a server.

Where it wins: Rocket.Chat Starter is a free self-managed workspace, and Element Community is free, self-hosted and open source (AGPL). You keep whatever history your server stores.

Watch-outs: you run, back up and update the server. Element describes Community as for non-professional deployments and evaluations, and both sell their business plans through sales.

Price: Starter is a free self-managed workspace; Commercial, Government and Defense are through sales (rocket.chat/pricing). Community is free and self-hosted; Enterprise is priced per seat and Sovereign per deployment, without published rates (element.io/pricing).

See Rocket.Chat alternatives.

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). 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).

Watch-outs: Ando isn't free, so it doesn't belong on a free-plan shortlist: Pumble, Chanty or Slack Free cost nothing. It can't be self-hosted, and access is by request.

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).

Most teams outgrow a free plan when they need to find a decision from last quarter, add a group call, or bring in a client as a guest. Before you pick, check the limit you will hit first, and what the paid plan costs for your team: see cheaper Slack alternatives for yearly costs by team size.

Only five of you and price is the whole question? See Slack alternatives for small teams.

• You want unlimited users and history for free → Pumble.
• You are 5 people or fewer → Chanty.
• You will pay for Slack later and 90 days of history is enough for now → Slack Free.
• You are an open-source project, research group or non-profit → Zulip, and check its free Standard plan.
• You talk mostly by voice, or run a community → Discord.
• Someone on the team can run a server → Rocket.Chat or Element.
• Your team already works with AI agents and is ready to pay for a workspace built for them → Ando. Starting a new company and moving off iMessage? We'll onboard you in under 24 hours (FAQ).