If you’ve stepped foot in a virtual office, you’ve probably come across Slack. It’s a tool for managing a team and organizing day-to-day office work.

But Slack does have some limitations when you try to use it for anything other than managing a work team.

In this article, we'll introduce some amazing Slack alternatives. There's something here for everyone, whether you're looking for team management, a community, or a chat app.

Whether you’re starting from scratch or ready to move an existing Slack community somewhere new, let’s go through some of the options.

If you want more support in building your online community, come join OUR Mighty Community for free and meet other new and established community owners! We’d love to meet you. Join for free!

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What is Slack?

Slack is a virtual office chat and messaging service that was first released in 2013. It really came of age during the pandemic with the rise of remote work, and it was acquired by Salesforce in 2021.

Slack is a combination of conversations that can be organized by channels, chat-type functions, private groups, and a live conversation feature (huddles). It can be integrated with a lot of other software and it’s been the darling of the modern office – probably most comparable to Microsoft Teams, although Teams has grown much bigger in terms of market share.

Slack has a free plan, which has made it popular as an online forum discussion tool beyond the workplace.

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Slack’s strengths

There are some great things about Slack, and these are the features that have made some potential community leaders think about it as a possible home:

• There are channels to organize content and conversations. For you as the admin, you can set up “channels” that your members can opt into and contribute to around a particular sub-topic.


• Chat is in real-time. Members can message each other individually, as groups, and via channels.


• It can pull in data and activity from other services. Slack’s “special sauce” is that it’s easy to pull in data feeds and set up automated messages–or “bots”–to interact with members.


• People are using it for work already. Most of all, Slack is familiar to people who want to join your public community because they are already using it for work.

For these reasons, many people with followings or simply a desire to start their own community have chosen to start on Slack.

Where Slack falls short

Unfortunately, while members might pick up Slack pretty quickly, there are countless examples where Slack’s limitations have crushed an otherwise high potential community. Why? Slack has a few notable limitations:

• It’s hard to get a full picture of the community. In Slack, there’s no central Activity Feed, so while it’s a little less noisy than a Facebook group (and doesn’t have the same problem with algorithms and a one-size-fits-all newsfeed), there’s no way to discover new people or content easily on Slack.


• Very light profiles limit points of connection. Slack’s light profiles don’t help members introduce themselves with a personal touch. Photos, interests, quotes, taglines—these show personality. They are what people need to virtually get to know each other and feel like they’re talking to real people, even though the community is virtual.


• Rich media and long-form content are impossible. If content is important to your community, you’re fighting an uphill battle trying to build it on Slack. In practice, this limitation means you must also have a website builder, blog, or some other place for your members to access your content.


• There are no polls, questions, or events to engage a community of strangers. Here’s the reality of a public community on Slack: People don’t know each other and they need icebreakers. To get strangers to build relationships with each other requires a central spot for people to congregate and contribute in ways they understand. This is why polls, questions, and events are essential to a public community.


• You can’t easily find members. In a Slack team, there’s no obvious or natural way to find other members. Member profiles are abbreviated and intended for people who already know each other. This is great for small teams, but a killer for a larger network of folks starting off as strangers.


• Monetization is hard. While theoretically possible with plugins, Slack wasn't built for monetizing content.

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Slack alternatives for communities

1. Mighty Networks

Best Slack alternative for communities.

If you’re looking for an alternative to Slack that lets you build and organize some amazing conversations, you’ve got to check out Mighty Networks.

Mighty Networks blends community, chat, courses, content, and commerce. And Mighty's flexible Spaces let you build out things like live streaming, live events, awesome live or pre-recorded courses, chat, messaging, a forum, and more.

Of course, many of these are features Slack doesn't have: live events, live streaming, and an amazing course platform. This makes Mighty Networks not only a great Slack alternative but a better place to build a robust community.

But there are a few key ways a Mighty Network is different than a Slack channel.

Here are a few of Mighty's features:

• Deliver your community under your own brand, or even upgrade to get your own mobile apps.


• Amazing content options for articles, polls, questions, and video.


• Run a live or pre-recorded course on the LMS.


• Easily build and sell memberships and bundles.


• Put growth on autopilot with Mighty Co-Host™ AI features.

It all comes with an app customers love!

What Mighty Networks does well

• It's G2's top-rated community management platform. It's designed to build communities while Slack is not.

What Mighty doesn't do well...

• Mighty isn't built for managing a team at a workplace – if you’re looking for a corporate alternative to Slack you’d be better to choose Microsoft Teams.

You can try it free for 14 days and see for yourself.

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2. Mighty Pro

Slack alternative with branded app

If you want to mix a community platform with an app under your brand, Mighty Pro is the right choice.

Mighty Pro gives you Mighty's top-ranked community platform built on your brand in the App Store and Google Play Store. We take care of the app building too, you bring your ideas and your brand.

Mighty Pro has built apps for TED, Cambridge University, and Martinus Evans.

Here's what Mighty Pro does well

• Building beautiful branded apps with splash screens, branded notifications, proactive submissions and updates, and VIP support.

Here's what Mighty Pro doesn't do well

• It's not a workplace management tool like Slack. Mighty builds amazing communities instead.

3. Discord

Best free Slack community alternative

Discord is almost a 1:1 comparison for Slack in terms of the features it gives – but it’s branded to a very different demographic. Discord was created for gaming, but in simple terms it does a lot of the same stuff Slack does. You can create channels, chat, invite members, and organize your conversations.

Discord has a sort of forum functionality too, in fact, that’s probably what it does best. It has customizable member roles and a space to have back and forth text conversations.

If you want to host some basic events, it also has the option to add a voice event, whether a small chat or a larger, stage event if you have the Stage mod. With Discord, you can stream video from a webcam or you can share your screen – although note that not all video with sound will work. These make for limited live streaming options, but you can connect Discord to YouTube or Twitch.

If you want to monetize your Discord community, you have to apply for the “Partner Program” to maybe be given the opportunity to sell plans – it’s not a guarantee. If you build your community on Discord and you decide you want to monetize, you’ll need to go somewhere else, or connect it to something like Patreon.

What Discord does well

• Discord really works best for a free community, and it’s perfect for what it was invented for – building free communities of gamers.

What Discord doesn't do well...

• It's not good for monetization or building robust memberships. It's a good free alternative to the free Slack plan, but it’s not the best space to build a robust community.

4. Facebook Groups

Simple, free Slack alternative

Facebook Groups is a familiar option that’s delivered by the social media giant. It’s pretty easy to add a Facebook group using your existing credentials and account, and you can build a page and host discussions.

The downside to Facebook groups, that you’ll hear again and again from creators who’ve built with them, is that you inevitably hit an engagement wall.

It’s easy to get thousands of people into a free Facebook group. BUT they probably won’t be totally engaged. In fact, how many Facebook groups are you in right now that you haven’t looked at in years?

Here are a few more challenges of a Facebook group as an alternative to Slack.

• You’re fighting the algorithm: The Facebook algorithm combined with your members’ notification settings will determine whether they see anything from your group. That means you’re competing with cat videos, political rants, and their BFF’s vacay pictures.


• Some people are avoiding it: With the rise of privacy concerns, some people are avoiding Facebook groups altogether. You can’t build a group if members are afraid to join.


• It’s not made for channeled discussions: Finally, as an alternative to Slack, Facebook Groups isn’t built to do what Slack does. It doesn’t let you create and organize discussions or message members. All you get is a wall, and that’s not much to work with.

What a Facebook Group does well

• People know it. Many people have Facebook accounts (whether they use them or not) and the app works well.


• Can use basic community functions, like posts, comments, and live streams. This can make Facebook groups a good, simple, and free community option and Slack alternative.

What a Facebook Group doesn't work for:

• Monetization: Facebook Groups recently added a membership feature that lets you monetize a group, but you’ll need at least 10,000 members to do it, making it out of reach for many creators.


• Building engagement: Facebook groups don't have the level of engagement for large communities--there are too many distractions and competing groups.


• Events: Again, Facebook does give you a basic event option with live streaming. But it’s hardly a real place to build robust virtual events for your community.

All in all, Facebook’s biggest selling point as a Slack alternative is that it’s known and that it’s free. It might be a place to start if you’re willing to migrate your group to another community platform as it grows – but it’s not the best Slack alternative.

5. reddit

For public communities, reddit can be a good and simple option. It's a well-known forum platform and works for hosting conversations. It has upvoting and downvoting, and people can follow subreddits.

What reddit does well

• Free, public discussion forums

What reddit doesn't do well

• Any type of monetized community or private space. And reddit doesn't really have any features other than discussion forums--no events or customization.

Slack alternatives for the workplace

6. Microsoft Teams

Best Slack alternative for the workplace

Microsoft Teams is another Slack alternative that, like Discord, does a lot of the same stuff. It gives you an all-around platform that includes individual and group messaging like Slack.

• Just like Slack has huddles, Teams gives you options to do voice and video calls easily with people in your organization.


• It can also be integrated with calendar software (like Office) to create one-click meetings and event details, giving you a lot of functionality for everything from small meetings to larger events.

What MS Teams does well

• If you’re looking for a 1:1 alternative to Slack, especially if you’re running a business, Teams is probably it. In fact, Microsoft built it as a direct answer to Slack. It works great for navigating daily virtual office life – AND in-person offices.

What MS Teams doesn't do well...

• Teams isn't good for too much asynchronous content. If you only log on sometimes, you'd need to scroll up for miles to read a bunch of old message threads. It needs daily use.


• For communities, Teams doesn't let you charge for membership or add your own brand.

7. Flock

Flock is a chat app that feels a lot like Slack. With almost the same feature set, you can organize discussions into channels or use the voice & video calling or messaging features.

What Flock is best for

• Organizing discussions into channels and adding calling. Basically, it does everything Slack does.

What Flock doesn't do well...

• Organizing complex conversations, building communities, or adding monetizing or branding.

8. Chanty

Chanty is another workplace management tool that feels a lot like Slack. It can host discussions on channels or 1:1 conversations. It lets you work with teammates on project management, adding Kanban views and to-do lists.

What Chanty is good for

• It's best for organizing workplace discussions with a similar feature set to Slack.

What Chanty is not good for
-Building diverse communities, adding in monetization and/or your own branding.

9. Google Chat

Good free Slack alternative for the workplace

For workplace Slack alternatives, we need to mention Google Chat here too. It has a simple-yet-powerful chat function, and you can create discussion spaces and group chats. But--most importantly--Google Chat integrates well with other Google tools. If your workplace uses Google Drive, Docs, etc., Google Chat is easy to connect.

It doesn't quite have the power of Slack, but it is free.

What Google Chat does well

• Simple workplace management or 1:1 conversations


• Easy integration with other Google tools

What Google Chat doesn't do well...

• It would be tough to run a large workplace or large community on Google Chat.

Slack alternatives for chat & broadcast

10. Geneva

Best chat app Slack alternative

Geneva is a chat app that lets you build some different kinds of content into a chat format. It has audio and video rooms, but also rooms for forums and even articles and posts.

It has good features for hosting live events and has DMs for chatting. Geneva is a solid chat app for connecting small groups of friends.

What Geneva does well

• Virtual events, chat and video rooms, and DM discussions for small groups

What Geneva doesn't do well...

• Geneva doesn't do well as a community grows--it hits a choke point with scale.


• You also can't monetize anything with Geneva, so it's best for free communities.

11. Telegram

Slack alternative for broadcasting

Telegram has rocketed to popularity over the past few years. It’s a combination of SMS and email and gives admins the ability to create huge channels and broadcast to unlimited audiences.

Telegram is great for top-down communication, making it a good Slack alternative for someone who’s looking to relay information instead of engaging with members. It would work great for, say, an influencer who wanted to broadcast out to thousands of fans at once. It also has monetization features, meaning that you can sell subscriptions to your members with the help of a third-party service. The apps are also great.

Because of the limits of multi-directional engagement, Telegram is a good Slack alternative for broadcasting but not for community building.

What Telegram is best for

• Broadcasting and fundraising. Telegram can help you build a following (up to 200,000 people) and get a message out to them. And you can build themed Channels.

What Telegram is not good for...

• It's not for building engaged communities. Only admins can publish content. Users can click links and answer polls, but it’s more of a broadcasting tool than a community one. (Although Telegram users can chat with others in the group via messaging.)

12. WhatsApp

For those living in North America, WhatsApp is around and people know it. But it doesn’t have the giant popularity it has in other parts of the world. In some countries, WhatsApp is the default messaging program.

WhatsApp integrates really well with your phone and social media contacts, letting you bring them together. It gives you features for chatting with individuals or small groups, and you can share text, pictures, and videos. The app also works really well and intuitively, probably part of its appeal as an SMS alternative. In fact, it feels a lot like SMS messaging mixed with Facebook Messenger.

What WhatsApp does well

• WhatsApp is a good Slack alternative for a really small group that needs to message each other (like a friend or family group). It’s best when people already know each other.

Here’s what WhatsApp is not good for...

• Building group conversations: Like Teams, WhatsApp really isn’t made for hosting large group conversations that need a forum. It’s a messaging service.


• Monetization: WhatsApp isn’t really monetizable, meaning that you can’t sell memberships with it. And of course, it has none of the features of a proper community platform like courses and events. It’s a chat app, and that’s what it does best.

13. Viber

Slack alternative with phone calling

Viber has the tools to organize group and 1:1 chats and host video calls. Its dedication to calling goes even further since it also has a landline calling feature built in. It has end-to-end encryption and disappearing messages.

What Viber does well

• Chatting, calling, and messaging between 1:1 connections or small groups of people.

What Viber isn't good for...

• Building larger communities of people or hosting large asynchronous conversations.

14. Steam Chat

Good gaming chat app

Steam Chat comes with Microsoft Steam, which is a common PC gaming platform. For those who are looking for an app to handle voice chat during gameplay, Steam Chat is a good Slack alternative.

Because it was built to host both chats and Steam games, it integrates really well with gameplay. For example, you can invite friends right into a game from the chat (or start a chat from the game). For PC gamers with a Steam game, it's a good choice.

What Steam Chat does well

• Organize into different channels and chat (both text and voice) while you're gaming


• It's easy to connect with friends and invite them to play. And you can customize some of the visual settings.

Here’s what Steam Chat is not good for...
-Steam is really only for those wanting chat during PC gameplay. It wouldn't be good for hosting other kinds of chats or communities.

15. Teamspeak

Teamspeak can host chats for video games, and is the official chat provider for the game Overwatch. It's best as a live chat tool, with military-grade voice encryption that works well.

What Teamspeak does well

• Live chatting and talking for gamers

What Teamspeak doesn't do well...

• There are no real community features, and the monetization options and customization are nil. It's really only the best Slack alternative for gamers to chat.

16. Snapchat

Slack alternative for photo and video sharing

Although it's a very different sort of platform from Slack, Snapchat might work as a Slack alternative for a certain type of user: someone wanting to share creative media (photos and videos).

Snapchat's claim to fame is its disappearing media (they vanish after 10 seconds). But it also has some tools for building a following, sharing stories, and chatting 1:1.

What Snapchat does well

• Photo and video sharing and building a following around media and creation

Here's what Snapchat isn't good for...

• Building or monetizing a community. It's not really made for bringing groups of people together--it's more social media than community platform.

17. Discourse

Discourse is a forum software that works sort of like your own reddit. Its code is on GitHub, so it's possible to customize your own forum with it. However, most users will probably pay Discourse for hosting.

What Discourse does well

• Giving you a discussion forum that works almost like your own reddit.

What Discourse is not good for...

• The design is dated and the features are limited. It's not a great community platform, has no integrated monetization, and isn't great for chatting. The main selling point is that it can be free if you know how to code.

18. Signal

Signal is a video calling and messaging app that comes with end-to-end encryption. It's sort of like Snapchat, with encryption and disappearing messages. It also has voice and video calling as well as stories.

_What Signal does well...

• Chatting, video calling, and disappearing messages

_What Signal isn't good for...

• Signal is not a full discussion app like Slack, and it's missing community features. It's best for chatting with friends.

Want to try Mighty Networks?

If you’re looking for an alternative to Slack, we hope these options have you excited! Whether it’s running your business or broadcasting to your fans, there’s something here for everyone.

And if you’re ready to try building and monetizing an amazing online community, come check out Mighty Networks! It’s an all-in-one community platform that lets you bring people together, sell memberships and bundles, create online courses, build subgroups, live stream, and host amazing virtual events.