Microsoft Teams vs Slack (2025): Pros, cons, and what's best

In the modern workplace, choosing the right collaboration tool can feel like picking your favorite pizza topping – everyone has strong opinions, and it’s surprisingly personal. I’ve worked in teams that swear by Slack’s slick interface, and others that stick with Microsoft Teams because it “just works” with all their Office apps. As we head into 2025, both platforms have evolved dramatically, especially with new AI features on the horizon. So which tool really fits your team’s needs?

In this post, I’ll walk you through a head-to-head comparison of Slack vs. Microsoft Teams – their features, pricing, pros and cons, and real-world use cases. Along the way, I’ll share anecdotes from my own experience and up-to-date facts from trusted sources. Whether you’re an IT manager, a team lead, or just a collaboration-tools-curious decision-maker, this guide will help you decide which app should own your workspace chat.

(Infographic suggestion: Consider an infographic here summarizing user statistics – Slack’s ~65M monthly users vs Teams’ 320M, or market share – to quickly show how both tools compare in scale .)

Overview: Slack and Teams in 2025

Let’s start with the basics. Slack and Teams are both chat-based collaboration platforms that handle messaging, file sharing, and video calls, but they come from very different origins:

• Slack (owned by Salesforce) launched in 2013 and quickly became popular in tech startups. It emphasizes a clean, intuitive chat experience and rich integrations with countless apps. By 2025, Slack has about 65 million monthly active users (42M daily active) , used in 750,000+ companies worldwide (including 77% of Fortune 100 ). It’s known for emojis, “channels” for topic-based chat, and a lively startup culture.
• Microsoft Teams (part of Microsoft 365) emerged from Skype for Business in 2017, aiming at large enterprises and schools. It’s deeply tied into the Microsoft ecosystem (Outlook, SharePoint, Office apps) so it often comes “baked in” to companies using those tools. In early 2024 Teams hit 320 million monthly active users (145M daily active by 2024 ). It’s prevalent in education and large organizations: if your company has an Office 365 license, you probably already have Teams.

In practice, Slack users often praise its “snappy and friendly” interface and massive app marketplace, while Teams fans cite its robust meeting features and seamless integration with Word, Excel, and Outlook. The debate can be heated – some see Teams as a more corporate email-meets-chat tool, others love Slack’s flexibility.

In my experience, the choice often boils down to ecosystem and team culture. A small tech startup might lean Slack for its agility, while an enterprise already invested in Microsoft services might find Teams the path of least resistance. Let’s look at the details.

Key Feature Comparison

Below is a quick summary table of how Slack and Teams stack up on core capabilities. The rest of this post unpacks these points in more detail.

Messaging & Channels

Slack: Channels, DMs, threads; more informal feel

Microsoft Teams: Teams and Channels, Chats (with new unified view rolling out)

Video Calls / Meetings

Slack: Huddles (quick calls), Clips (asynchronous video)

Microsoft Teams: Full video meetings, webinars, breakout rooms; “Green Room” for events

AI & Smart Assistants

Slack AI: Auto-summaries, search with AI, workflow builder AI

Copilot & Teams AI: Meeting recaps, live captions, Copilot Chat, screen-content analysis

Integrations & Ecosystem

Slack: ~6,400+ apps supported , plus Salesforce/Einstein AI integration

Microsoft Teams: ~1,400 apps , plus tight Microsoft 365 integration (Office apps, OneDrive, Outlook)

Security & Compliance

Slack: Standard enterprise controls; Business+ plan with SSO, encryption

Microsoft Teams: Enterprise-grade; Advanced meeting protections (encryption, watermarking) via Teams Premium

Pricing

Slack: Free (90-day message history, 10 apps) up to Pro/Biz+/Enterprise ($8–$15+ per user) ; Slack AI add-on ~$10/user

Microsoft Teams: Free (limited features), Teams Essentials $4/mo, 365 Business Basic $6/mo (includes Teams), Business Standard $12.50, Teams Premium $10 add-on

Messaging & Collaboration

Slack’s strengths lie in simple, fast chat. Its main UI is a list of channels (group chats by topic) and DMs. Messages feel casual and flexible: you can easily drag/drop files, format text, and even start quick polls or reactions with emoji at a click. If you’ve ever used Discord or social chat apps, Slack feels familiar. People often praise Slack for its intuitive design and responsiveness . I’ve had teams where we practically lived in a handful of key channels – one for dev, one for marketing, etc. Slack’s threads let you reply to a specific message without cluttering the main channel flow.

Microsoft Teams traditionally separated “Channels” (team-wide) from “Chats” (direct messages), which can feel more organized but also a bit rigid. However, in early 2025 Teams is unifying these: a new update (rolling out now) moves chats and channels under one unified view (click “Chat”) . This streamlines the experience: you can see all your @mentions and conversations in one place, or opt to view chats and channels separately. Early testers (like one SVP at T-Mobile) say this redesign “simplified the way we work” . Personally, I’ve seen this help larger teams keep track of important announcements without jumping between screens.

Slack Channels vs Teams Channels

• Slack Channels are generally more informal. Anyone (with permission) can create new channels, rename them, or archive them. Many teams use playful naming (like #coffee-break or #random) for social chats. Slack also has Slack Connect, which lets you chat securely with people outside your organization (partners or clients) in a shared channel.
• Teams Channels live under a Team (a collection of channels). Channels can be public (anyone in the Team can join) or private. Teams has strong controls (enterprise orgs often lock who can create Teams). One neat Teams feature: “Shared Channels” (just rolling out) allow connecting two separate organizations directly (similar to Slack Connect), but traditionally guest accounts were used.

It comes down to workflow style. If you love customizing every detail and pulling in any app, Slack’s flexible channels can be fun. If your work lives in Office documents and calendars, Teams’ channels (backed by SharePoint and Planner) keep everything under Microsoft’s hood. One user said Slack feels like “a super-fast chat switchboard,” while Teams feels like “your email grew legs and started talking.”

(Infographic suggestion: A diagram illustrating Slack’s channel-oriented chat vs Teams’ unified chat-and-channels view. This could highlight how @mentions and unread filters appear similarly in both.)

Video Conferencing & Calls

Both Slack and Teams let you move from chat to video quickly – but they have different flavors.

• Slack Huddles: Introduced during the pandemic, Huddles are lightweight audio/video calls you can start instantly in any channel or DM. Think of them as on-demand walkie-talkies for quick syncs. In 2024, Slack supercharged Huddles with AI: now a sidebar can auto-transcribe and summarize the discussion in real time . So if I start a Huddle about a bug fix, Slack AI will later give me the bullet points – pretty handy when someone was on mute at the time. Slack also added Clips – a quirky but useful feature. You can record short video or screen-share messages and post them in chat. It’s like sending a video voicemail. No need to coordinate calendars; your teammates watch on their schedule. Slack reports teams using Clips cut their scheduled meetings by 51% ! I once sent a 5-minute clip explaining a software workaround, and it probably saved us a full half-hour meeting.
• Microsoft Teams Meetings: Teams has been building on Skype’s legacy, so it handles formal meetings and webinars well. By 2025, Teams supports large-scale events – up to 50,000 attendee town halls (up from 20,000) . It also has specialized features like breakout rooms, custom backgrounds, live captions in many languages, and integrations with Forms/polls. A notable new trick: Teams Premium (or Copilot license) can now generate an “Intelligent Recap” of meetings and events . After a big all-hands, organizers get an AI-driven summary with notes, tasks, and even tag highlights by speaker – all from the recording. In my organization, having AI meeting notes on-demand meant fewer folks had to jot everything down live. Teams also introduced a useful “Green Room” for event producers. After an online town hall ends for attendees, presenters can debrief privately in the Green Room without the audience seeing. It’s a small touch, but it shows how far Teams has come for professional events.

If we compare, Slack wins on casual huddle chat and on-the-fly video, while Teams wins on structured meetings and large-scale events. One pro tip: Slack’s screen share works best in Huddles, but it lacks advanced webinar tools. Teams’ video conferencing can feel clunkier (with many tabs open) but is unbeatable for, say, conducting a company-wide meeting or training session.

AI-Powered Tools

AI is now front-and-center in 2025. Both Slack and Teams are racing to inject AI smarts into daily work. Here’s what’s new:

• Slack AI: Slack rolled out a suite of AI features in 2024. The star is conversation summarization: with one click, Slack can generate a “channel recap” or “thread summary” that highlights key points . This is great when you’re catching up on a busy channel after vacation. Importantly, Slack says these AI functions run on Slack’s own secure infra and don’t train on your data , which many IT teams appreciate for privacy. Slack AI also powers better search: it can parse queries in natural language and look through messages, files, even PDFs and Docs in channels . Under the hood, Slack is also building AI agents via Salesforce’s Agentflow/Einstien Copilot (now “Agentforce”): imagine bots you can ask questions (e.g. “@Copilot: what’s the latest on Project Apollo?”) that pull info from Slack & Salesforce. In late 2024 Slack announced a preview of Agentforce coming to Slack , which blurs the line between Slack and CRM data. Plus, the Slack Workflow Builder (used to automate simple tasks) now lets you write workflows in plain English for the AI to interpret .
• Microsoft Teams AI/Copilot: Microsoft’s strategy revolves around 365 Copilot. Teams has been getting Copilot features since 2024. For instance, Copilot can summarize long meeting chat logs, pull tasks from conversation, or even draft follow-up emails based on your Teams chat. The Ignite 2024 announcements revealed even more: soon, Copilot will be able to analyze live screen-shared content (slides, docs, websites) and answer questions about them . For example, you could share a sales deck in a Teams meeting and ask Copilot, “Which slide had the highest sales?” and get an answer drawn from the slide text. These features are in public preview and will land in 2025. Additionally, Teams Premium (an add-on plan) brings AI meeting experiences: background removal, live translations, and those Intelligent Recaps I mentioned . The new Teams chat interface will even integrate Copilot Chat (an AI chat assistant pinned in the app by default) . In other words, Teams’ AI sidekick is a general OpenAI-powered assistant that can work across Word, Excel, and Teams, letting you ask questions like “What were the action items from today’s meeting?” while it scours your Microsoft data.

Bottom line: Both platforms are powerful, but in different ways. Slack’s AI is geared toward summarizing conversations and cutting through noise . Teams’ AI (Copilot) aims to be an all-around knowledge assistant in the Microsoft ecosystem . If you already use Copilot for writing docs or Excel tasks, having it in Teams is a big plus. If you just want quick Slack thread recaps and smarter search, Slack’s AI features hit the mark. In my experience, using these AI tools really changes the game for knowledge work: imagine freeing your team from manual note-taking and lengthy email chains!

Integrations & Extensibility

Modern teams rely on many apps, and collaboration tools shine by connecting them.

• Slack touts a huge ecosystem. As of 2024, Slack supports over 6,400 third-party apps – everything from GitHub to Salesforce to Asana. In fact, Slack claims 2,600 of those apps are directly compatible with Slack’s latest API . You can also add custom Slack apps. I once built a tiny bot that posted our CI/CD build status into Slack, and dozens of companies do similar with bots. Slack’s Workflow Builder and API let non-engineers connect Google Drive, Dropbox, Zoom, and virtually any service. This flexibility is often Slack’s killer advantage: if there’s a tool your team uses, there’s probably a Slack integration for it.
• Teams integrates deeply with Microsoft’s apps. It’s not about quantity of apps (Teams has ~1,400+ integrations ), but quality of integration. Every Teams channel has a SharePoint folder for files, every chat is archived in Exchange, and you can add tabs linking directly to Office docs or Power BI reports. Teams also supports bots and apps (via the Teams App Store), but the big pull is that if you use Outlook/OneDrive/Planner/Whiteboard, those come built-in. For instance, scheduling a Teams meeting automatically adds it to Outlook, and collaborating on a Word doc can happen right in Teams. For many Office-centric organizations, this “one vendor, one login” story is huge.

Another point: Slack now has Salesforce integrations (unsurprising since Slack is part of Salesforce). In late 2024, Slack announced “Salesforce Channels” to push CRM data into Slack channels, making it easy for sales teams to see deals and tasks from their chats . Teams doesn’t have Salesforce built-in, but it can connect via third-party connectors.

Usage comparison: The net result is Slack leads in sheer app count, while Teams excels in Microsoft synergy. If you use Google Workspace and Slack’s millions of bots, Slack wins. If you already live in Office 365, Teams prevents data silos. Both systems now support some AI agents, too: Slack lets you @-mention AI bots in channels, and Teams lets you add AI “agents” into chats for automation .

User Experience & Interface

When evaluating tools, “do your people like it?” is often overlooked but crucial. Here’s how users tend to feel:

• Slack: Generally praised for its ease-of-use. The interface is colorful, with customizable themes and emoji-driven culture. Notifications are granular (you can mute channels or keywords). On G2 reviews, Slack scores especially high on “Desktop App” (9.5/10) and “Mobile App” (9.1) . Many users mention Slack’s intuitive design and playful tone: one reviewer joked it’s like “Discord for work”. It’s made to feel less formal, which some teams love.That said, Slack’s many options and symbols can be overwhelming at first (lots of newbies find that user experience has a learning curve – e.g. sidebar organization, shortcuts).
• Teams: Has improved its UI a lot. The classic Teams app felt cluttered (tabs everywhere). With the new chat-and-channels redesign (2024-25), Microsoft simplified the flow: chats and channels can be seen together, @mentions get their own view, and you can customize sections to group related chats . This gives Teams users a more personalized layout. However, Slack still often wins on responsiveness and simplicity. Some find Teams a bit heavier (the app is bigger and can use more memory), and its notifications can be confusing (multiple notification centers).

One anecdote: In a recent project, I saw a creative agency ditch Teams for Slack because their designers wanted to discuss ideas using GIFs and quick notes. Meanwhile, an accounting firm firmly stuck with Teams since they schedule everything through Outlook and need the formal audit trails.

(Graphic suggestion: A side-by-side screenshot mockup showing Slack’s colorful channel list and Teams’ new unified chat layout could help visual readers appreciate the interface differences.)

Pricing & Plans (2025)

Pricing can sway decisions, especially when scaling to hundreds or thousands of seats. Let’s break down the basics:

• Slack Pricing (USD per user/month, with annual billing discounts) : Add-on: Slack AI (February 2024) costs an extra $10/user/month (on top of Pro or Business plans) . It unlocks all the AI features (channel recaps, thread summaries, etc.) we discussed.
  • Free: $0 – includes up to 90 days of message history, unlimited 1:1 audio calls, and up to 10 third-party integrations . (Note: older accounts had unlimited message history, but new free accounts are limited to 90 days of messages .) Also, no multi-party calls, and Slack branding everywhere.
  • Pro: ~$7.25–$8.75 – Unlimited message history, group video calls (up to 15 people), screen sharing, increased storage (10GB/user), and unlimited apps. No uptime SLA.
  • Business+: ~$15–$18 – Everything in Pro, plus SAML SSO, audit logs, 99.9% uptime SLA , and guest access controls.
  • Enterprise Grid: Custom pricing – for very large orgs with multiple workspaces, plus advanced compliance (HIPAA, FINRA) and dedicated support.
• Microsoft Teams Pricing:
  • Free: $0 – Allows unlimited chat, 60-minute meetings with up to 100 participants, file storage (5 GB total), and Office web versions. Good for small teams or personal use .
  • Teams Essentials: $4 – Designed for small business-only accounts. Includes up to 300 participants in meetings (up to 30 hours each), 10 GB storage/user, recording/transcripts, and standard security encryption .
  • Microsoft 365 Plans: Basically, Teams is bundled in all Microsoft 365 business subscriptions. For example:
    • Business Basic ($6) – includes Teams + web/phone Office apps + 1TB OneDrive per user + custom email.
    • Business Standard ($12.50) – adds desktop Office apps and Bookings.
    • Business Premium ($20) – adds Intune device management.
  • Teams Premium: $10 – Add-on license that builds on Teams meetings with AI features (custom backgrounds, live translation in any language, meeting templates, and Intelligent Recap) . You still need a base license (Essentials or 365) plus this premium add-on for advanced meeting capabilities.

What does this mean in practice? Slack’s free tier is quite limited (90-day chat history, only small calls), so most teams upgrade when they grow. Paid Slack plans range roughly from $8 to $18 per user, plus potentially $10 more for AI.

Teams, on the other hand, is often included if you buy Microsoft 365 anyway. For example, many companies with Microsoft 365 Business Standard ($12.50) consider Teams “free” within that bundle. Even the cheapest standalone Teams Essentials at $4 is competitive for small groups.

Quick cost comparison (per user):

• Small Team (10 people): Slack Pro ($7.25) vs Teams Essentials ($4) vs Teams (Basic M365 plan $6).
• Enterprise (1000 people): Teams might only add the Premium license to existing 365 (so maybe +$10/user only if needed), whereas Slack could cost $7-15 per user, potentially $17-25 with AI.

Of course, price isn’t everything – factor in how the tool fits into your existing licenses and needs. Some real-world advice: If your org already has Microsoft 365 seats for email and Office, adding Teams (even Essentials) is cheap. If not, and you just need a lean chat app, Slack’s pricing can be competitive, especially if you use only the core features.

(Visual suggestion: A comparison table image or chart highlighting Slack vs Teams pricing tiers and key limits could be helpful for a quick glance.)

Pros & Cons

To make this practical, here are some pros and cons of each platform as of 2025. Think of them as “what works well” and “what to watch out for.”

Slack

Pros:

• User-Friendly Interface: Clean, fast, and fun. Most people pick up Slack quickly .
• Vast Integrations: Over 6,400 apps available , plus open APIs. Can connect virtually any tool.
• Innovation Pace: Introduces new features rapidly (Slack AI, Clips, Workflow enhancements) .
• Cross-Platform: Native apps on all major OS (Mac, Windows, mobile, Linux).
• External Collaboration: Slack Connect for easy cross-company channels.
• Asynchronous Tools: Clips and Huddles let you shift meetings into async messages.
• Community & Culture: Strong developer community, lots of templates and tips online.

Cons:

• Cost: Slack can get pricey for large teams (especially with the $10 AI add-on) .
• Learning Curve: Many features (snippets, threads, markup) can overwhelm new users. Long Slack histories can be hard to parse without search.
• Free Tier Limits: The free plan’s 90-day message limit and only 10 integrations might force upgrades quickly .
• Enterprise Features: Some advanced compliance and admin controls require the expensive Business+ or Grid plans.
• Resource Usage: Slack’s desktop app can be memory-hungry when lots of workspaces are connected.

Microsoft Teams

Pros:

• Deep Microsoft Integration: Teams ties into Word, Excel, OneDrive, SharePoint, Outlook seamlessly. For a Microsoft shop, this is huge.
• Robust Meetings/Webinars: Handles large-scale events (50k people, Town Halls) with advanced features (polls, Q&A, recording transcripts).
• Security/Compliance: Teams Premium adds watermarking, encryption, sensitivity labels – vital for regulated industries .
• Cost Efficiency (with 365): If you already pay for 365, Teams is “free” for collaboration.
• All-in-One: Teams is not just chat; it includes shared file storage (via SharePoint) and integrates with Planner, Whiteboard, etc. One tool does a lot.
• Growing Flexibility: New chat+channels redesign makes it more user-friendly .
• Extensibility: Can add custom tabs for Power BI, Forms, and even add bots (including new AI bots) right into chats .

Cons:

• Complexity: For purely chat needs, Teams can feel heavyweight. There are many overlapping concepts (Teams vs Channels vs Chats).
• Learning Curve: Some users report confusion with Teams’ interface (especially older versions). The new update helps, but it can still feel “busier” than Slack.
• Performance: Teams can consume more CPU/RAM than Slack, especially on weaker machines.
• Less “Fun”: The vibe is more corporate. Limited theming and fewer emojis/gifs by default (though you can add custom ones).
• Third-Party Apps: Fewer overall integrations than Slack. Teams has mostly popular apps (Trello, Zoom, etc.), but a smaller library.
• Updates Depend on 365: Big new features often roll out via Microsoft 365 cycles, which can be slower than Slack’s rapid feature releases.

Real-World Use Cases

Let’s ground this in reality. Who is Slack best for? Who is Teams best for? These are generalizations, but I’ve seen these patterns:

• Slack is often chosen by:
  • Startups and Tech Teams – Developers, product teams, and creative agencies that want flexibility. Slack’s integrations with GitHub, Jira, Google Workspace, etc., make it great for nimble workflows.
  • Design/Marketing Teams – Slack’s “fun factor” (memes, GIFs, custom emoji) keeps culture alive, and quick huddles/clips suit brainstorming.
  • Cross-Company Projects – Agencies working with clients love Slack Connect for external collaboration.
  • Remote-First Companies – Slack’s async tools (Clips, workflows) and global community fit fully remote teams.
  • Example: At a small SaaS company I advised, developers loved Slack’s code snippet sharing and Jenkins integration. We used Huddles for impromptu syncs, and the AI thread summaries saved our QA team time reviewing long discussions.
• Teams is often chosen by:
  • Large Enterprises and IT Departments – Especially those already on Azure/Office 365. They get enterprise features (SAML SSO, DLP policies) out of the box.
  • Education – Schools/universities using Office 365 often default to Teams for class chats and virtual classrooms.
  • Healthcare/Finance/etc. – Regulated fields appreciate Teams’ compliance certifications and data residency (with E5 or Premium).
  • Project & Support Teams – Groups that use a lot of Microsoft tools (Planner, Power Apps, Dynamics, etc.). Teams integrates chats with these tools.
  • Example: In a large hospital network I consulted for, Teams was pre-installed for all staff. Nurses and doctors posted patient care notes in Teams channels and consulted via secure Teams calls. The built-in encryption and patient-data policies in Teams were critical compliance enablers for them.

Sometimes organizations use both! One tech company I know has Slack for engineering chat, but requires Teams for any formal meetings and for anyone in management (since they get meeting transcriptions there). It’s not ideal (people cringe at having two chat platforms), but it shows that the tools are somewhat complementary.

Conclusion: Which Should You Choose?

In 2025, Slack vs Teams isn’t a battle of equals. They have different strengths:

• Go Slack if… you prioritize an intuitive chat experience and a vast app ecosystem, especially if your team uses lots of non-Microsoft tools. Slack’s channel-based culture, fun UI, and powerful integrations (like Slack AI and Salesforce bots) will energize a creative or tech-oriented team. It’s a great fit for startups and fully remote companies looking for agility.
• Go Teams if… you’re already in the Microsoft world or need a more structured, secure environment. Teams shines when you want all your collaboration (chat, calls, file storage, calendar) tied to Microsoft 365. The new AI features and event capabilities mean Teams can also serve broad enterprise needs. It’s often the default for large businesses, education, and any org needing strong compliance.

In my own experience, the best approach is to match the tool to your workflow. Don’t force Teams on a team that lives in Slack (or vice versa) – adoption will struggle. Engage stakeholders: try pilot groups, let people test the interfaces. Look at non-feature factors too, like licensing you already have or the culture of communication.

At the end of the day, both Slack and Teams offer robust, continuously improving platforms. The gap is not as wide as it used to be: Teams has caught up on ease-of-use and adds AI power, while Slack has plugged into enterprise CRM and beefed up its own security. Either way, your team is in good hands compared to the chaos of email chains!

Final thought: Regardless of the choice, focus on how the tool supports your team’s needs. Are you aiming for lightning-fast chat? Or for the convenience of an all-in-one suite? Often, great collaboration is about the people using the tool more than the tool itself. Pick the one that feels right to your team, enable it with the best practices (clear channel organization, etiquette, integration use), and you’ll improve productivity — no matter which logo sits on the app.

Happy collaborating, and may your chats always find their way!