Does Microsoft Teams or Slack have a free plan?

Both do. Microsoft Teams and Slack each offer a free tier, so you can try either without paying.

How long is the Microsoft Teams and Slack free trial?

Slack offers a 30-day free trial. Microsoft Teams does not offer one.

Which is easier to use, Microsoft Teams or Slack?

In VERILO's editorial assessment Slack is the easier of the two, scoring 5 out of 5 against 3 for Microsoft Teams. That is a judgement about how quickly a new team gets productive, not a measured benchmark.

Microsoft Teams vs Slack

A side-by-side look at Microsoft Teams and Slack: what each costs to start, whether there is a free plan, how easy they are to pick up, and which features and integrations they cover.

Which should you choose?

Choose Microsoft Teams if

Organisations already paying for Microsoft 365
Teams that want chat, meetings and files under one licence and one administrator
Companies that need guest and external-user collaboration inside the same tool

Visit Microsoft Teams

Choose Slack if

Technology and product teams that live in chat and connect many tools
Companies collaborating with agencies or clients through Slack Connect
Organizations that want a mature admin, security and compliance toolset

Visit Slack

Cheapest to start

Not confirmed

Free plan

Microsoft Teams, Slack

Highest editor rating

Slack · 4.6

Comparison of Microsoft Teams and Slack
Compare	Microsoft Teams Visit site	Slack Visit site
Free plan	Yes	Yes
Free trial	No	Yes
Starting price	From $4/mo	From $8.75/mo
Editor rating	4.1	4.6
Ease of use	Moderate (3/5)	Very easy (5/5)
Category	Communication	Communication
Pricing model	Microsoft Teams Free is available at no cost. Teams Essentials, the standalone small-business plan, is listed at $4.00 per user per month paid yearly, and Microsoft 365 plans that include Teams start around $7.00 per user per month paid yearly for Business Basic. Microsoft sells its Business and Enterprise suites in separate versions with and without Teams. List prices for annual billing; they vary by region and billing term.	Free plan with 90-day message history; Pro is $8.75 per user per month ($7.25 billed annually), Business+ approximately $15 per user per month billed annually, Enterprise Grid pricing is custom.
Plans	Microsoft Teams Free — Free Microsoft Teams Essentials — $4/user/mo Microsoft 365 Business Basic (with Teams) — $7/user/mo Microsoft Teams Enterprise (standalone) — Custom	Free — Free Pro — $8.75/user/mo Business+ — $15/user/mo Enterprise Grid — Custom
Platforms	Web, Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, API	Web, Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, API
Integrations	Microsoft 365, Outlook	Asana, GitHub, Google Meet, Google Workspace, Jira, Outlook, Salesforce, Trello, Zapier, Zoom
Best for	Organisations already paying for Microsoft 365 Teams that want chat, meetings and files under one licence and one administrator Companies that need guest and external-user collaboration inside the same tool	Technology and product teams that live in chat and connect many tools Companies collaborating with agencies or clients through Slack Connect Organizations that want a mature admin, security and compliance toolset
Pros	Deeply integrated with Microsoft 365: a new team also creates a SharePoint site, an Exchange mailbox and a OneNote notebook Chat, meetings, webinars, town halls and VoIP calling in one product Standard, private and shared channels, so external collaboration does not need a separate tool Guests and external users can join meetings without their own licence Third-party app platform and a documented development platform	Channels, threads and search that scale from small teams to large organizations Largest integration ecosystem in team chat, with first-party apps from Google, Microsoft, Atlassian and GitHub Huddles for quick audio and video calls without a separate meeting tool Slack Connect for shared channels with outside companies Workflow Builder for no-code automations
Cons	Most of its value depends on already paying for Microsoft 365 Since April 2024 Microsoft sells suites with and without Teams, so the plan you expect may not include it Telephony requires a separate Teams Phone add-on and a PSTN connection Heavier and slower to learn than a chat-only tool	Free plan hides messages older than 90 days and caps integrations at 10 Per-seat pricing becomes expensive for large teams Notification overload and channel sprawl without deliberate conventions Full AI feature set requires Business+ or higher
AI assistant	No	Yes
API access	Yes	Yes
Audit logs	No	Yes
Channels & threads	Yes	Yes
Desktop app	Yes	No
Guest & client access	Yes	Yes
Meeting recording & transcripts	Yes	No
Mobile app	Yes	No
Real-time collaboration	Yes	No
Roles & permissions	Yes	Yes
Screen sharing	Yes	Yes
SSO / SAML	Yes	Yes
Two-factor authentication	No	Yes
Video calls	Yes	Yes
Webhooks	No	Yes
Webinars	Yes	No
Workflow automation	No	Yes

Common questions

Does Microsoft Teams or Slack have a free plan?: Both do. Microsoft Teams and Slack each offer a free tier, so you can try either without paying.
How long is the Microsoft Teams and Slack free trial?: Slack offers a 30-day free trial. Microsoft Teams does not offer one.
Which is easier to use, Microsoft Teams or Slack?: In VERILO's editorial assessment Slack is the easier of the two, scoring 5 out of 5 against 3 for Microsoft Teams. That is a judgement about how quickly a new team gets productive, not a measured benchmark.

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