During a brainstorming session a few weeks back, a team member jokingly said, ‘Slack is where we talk about doing things; ClickUp is where we actually do them.’ It got a laugh but also made me think about how differently these tools operate.
As someone who’s worked with both, I get how their purposes differ.
Deciding between them, however, is not just about comparing the features. Understanding what your team needs is just as important.
After a thorough evaluation of both tools, I’ve come up with a quick Slack vs. ClickUp guide to help you decide the right fit for your team. 🎯
Slack vs. ClickUp
Summarize this article for me pleaseWhat Is ClickUp?
ClickUp, the everything app for work, is a versatile cloud-based productivity platform that combines task management, project tracking, and team collaboration.
Designed to help teams and individuals organize, track, and manage their tasks in one place, it offers a flexible suite of tools that cater to diverse project requirements. The platform integrates goal setting, time tracking, visualization, and collaboration to help customize workflows.
ClickUp’s comprehensive project management features, such as real-time chat, whiteboards, and robust reporting capabilities, reduce the need for multiple tools for various use cases like software development, marketing, and client management.
From managing daily tasks to large-scale initiatives, it eliminates inefficiencies, reduces silos, and ensures everyone stays aligned.
🔍 Did You Know? 53% of remote workers say working from home makes it harder to feel connected to co-workers. This highlights the critical role of effective online communication tools like ClickUp in bridging the gap between remote team members.
ClickUp features
ClickUp, the everything app for work, goes beyond project management with a range of features tailored to meet the needs of modern teams.
Let’s look at some specific features that make ClickUp the perfect tool to simplify work and maximize efficiency. 👇
Feature #1: Chat
ClickUp Chat redefines how teams communicate and collaborate with each other, merging real-time messaging with task and project management in one powerful platform.
Remember the constant struggle of switching between chat apps and work tools? ClickUp Chat eliminates it altogether. It lets you discuss ideas, manage tasks, and track projects without leaving the conversation.
Each List, Folder, or Space in ClickUp automatically has its own channel, tying communication directly to the work it supports. Any change you make to the channel applies to that Space, Folder, or List.
To ensure security, Chat lets you customize permissions to public or private. Furthermore, with FollowUps, you can assign chat messages as action items, ensuring no task is overlooked.
Looking for a specific topic or file within a long thread? The Location Details feature lets you see everything at a glance—chat topics, descriptions, followers, and any files shared within the chat.
Additionally, you can add a header and description to every chat to define its purpose. Whether it’s for brainstorming, tracking progress, or sharing updates, headers keep important updates front and center, while clear descriptions help team members instantly understand the focus.
ClickUp Brain powers Chat’s features, such as instant task creation from messages, conversation summaries, and quick answers drawn from your workspace. This means you can stay informed and productive, even if you’ve missed previous conversations.
You can jump into audio or video calls directly within the chat to resolve questions or discuss projects face-to-face—no extra apps are required.
Chat integrates every element of your workspace, whether you’re linking tasks, syncing updates, or hosting SyncUp calls for video and audio collaboration.
🔍 Did You Know? 68% of people believe AI will significantly impact the communication sector within the next five years.
Feature #2: Assign Comments
ClickUp Assign Comments turn feedback or requests in discussion threads into actionable tasks. Instead of missing essential details, you can assign specific comments to team members or even yourself. This ensures every piece of feedback is tracked and addressed, boosting accountability within the team.
The best part? It’s easy to use; with just a few clicks, you can assign comments directly from discussions or on ClickUp Docs without digging through lengthy threads or documents.
💡 Pro Tip: Outline a clear communication plan that specifies how and when your team should communicate. Define the main channels to be used and ensure everyone understands the process for staying in the loop.
Feature #3: Clips
ClickUp Clips makes team communication and collaboration effortless, letting you share ideas, feedback, and updates in a clear and engaging way. Skip the lengthy text messages—just record and share videos directly within ClickUp.
It lets you easily share a project plan, walk through a task, or give feedback. It’s a quick, visual way to get your ideas across—perfect for async video communication.
Its integration with ClickUp Brain is an excellent addition to the feature-rich platform. The AI-powered assistant automatically transcribes every recording. The transcriptions are searchable and include timestamps, so you can quickly find specific details without rewatching the entire video.
Plus, you can leave comments at any precise moment in the Clip, keeping discussions focused and actionable. You can embed these recordings into tasks, documents, or comments or create a public link for external stakeholders.
📖 Also Read: 10 Best Screen Share Software & Apps
ClickUp pricing
- Free Forever
- Unlimited: $7/month per user
- Business: $12/month per user
- Enterprise: Contact for pricing
- ClickUp Brain: Add to any paid plan for $7/month per user
💡 Pro Tip: Keep your ClickUp Chat organized by using threads for specific topics or projects.
Summarize this article for me pleaseWhat Is Slack?
Slack is a workplace messaging platform that centralizes team collaboration and internal and external communication.
It operates as a hub where teams can chat via ‘channels,’ dedicated spaces for specific topics or projects, or direct messaging. The remote collaboration tool simplifies workplace discussions and reduces email dependency.
Slack’s secure, organized, and flexible environment also helps teams stay connected, aligned, and efficient.
🧠 Fun Fact: Slack stands for ‘Searchable Log of All Communication and Knowledge.’ It was created in 2009 by Stewart Butterfield.
💡 Pro Tip: A successful communication strategy relies on regular check-ins, clear expectations, and open feedback. Keep your team aligned by setting up structured communication schedules and ensuring that key updates are easily accessible to everyone.
Slack features
Slack is primarily a communication platform that improves workflow efficiency and creates a connected workspace. Let’s look at its features, from core capabilities like channels and direct messaging to advanced integrations. 👇
Feature #1: Communication tools
Slack uses channels to centralize conversations around specific topics, projects, or teams. These dedicated spaces organize discussions, making locating relevant information or decisions easier. Public channels enable organization-wide collaboration, while private channels offer focused spaces for sensitive discussions.
Slack has ‘direct messages’ (DMs) for private, direct discussions for one-on-one or small group conversations. This feature is ideal for quick, informal communication.
Plus, Slack has a ‘huddle’ feature for audio and video meetings, mimicking informal office chats. It supports screen-sharing and live collaboration, giving users a quick way to resolve issues or brainstorm ideas.
🧠 Fun Fact: Slack integrates with over 2,600 applications, including Google Drive, Zoom, Trello, Jira, and many more.
Feature #2: Search functionality and customizable alerts
Slack’s search feature lets you quickly retrieve messages, files, and channel content. The ability to search across all workspace communications ensures you don’t lose any information, even in high-traffic environments.
Additionally, it has customizable notification settings to help users prioritize messages. The Do Not Disturb mode allows for uninterrupted focus by muting notifications during set times.
Slack also has a ‘user groups’ functionality that enables targeted notifications to multiple people within a workspace. This feature is helpful for team leads who need to communicate with specific groups without tagging everyone individually.
🧠 Fun Fact: A useful Slack hack is pressing the ‘up arrow’ to quickly edit your last message, while Option + Click (Mac) or Alt + Click (PC) marks a message as unread.
Feature #3: AI
Slack’s Enterprise Grid Plan includes AI capabilities to summarize threads, channels, and shared files, allowing you to catch up on key information.
It also enhances search functionality, letting you ask questions in natural language and delivering concise answers based on relevant messages or files within the platform. For your days off, Slack AI provides daily recaps that summarize activity in selected channels.
Slack pricing
- Free
- Pro: $8.75/month per user
- Business+Pro: $15/month per user
- Enterprise Grid Plan: Custom pricing
📖 Also Read: How to Use Slack for Project Management
Summarize this article for me pleaseClickUp vs. Slack: Features Compared
While ClickUp and Slack each offer unique features for team collaboration, ClickUp stands out as an all-in-one platform for task management, project tracking, and boosting team productivity.
In contrast, Slack primarily focuses on communication, offering channels, direct messaging, and integrations.
Let’s compare their key features to see which tool best suits your team’s needs. 💁
| Criteria | ClickUp | Slack |
| Primary functionality | Comprehensive task and project management with extensive collaboration features | Real-time communication and collaboration |
| Task management | Advanced features, including Gantt charts, dependencies, and custom workflows | Limited task management; relies on integrations |
| Customization | Highly customizable workflows, dashboards, and fields | Customizable channels and notifications |
| User interface | Intuitive, user-friendly, and feature-rich | User-friendly for quick onboarding |
| Collaboration features | In-task comments, document editing, and collaborative goal tracking | Channels, direct messaging, and file sharing |
| Best for | Teams needing robust project management tools | Teams focused on simple communication |
Feature #1: Customization and flexibility
First up, let’s talk about customization and flexibility. Here’s how ClickUp and Slack stack up when shaping workflows and tailoring the platform to fit your team’s needs.
ClickUp
ClickUp offers extensive customization options, enabling teams to shape workflows, fields, and dashboards to fit their exact processes. From personalized task statuses and custom fields to detailed dashboards, you can create an environment that mirrors your unique workflows.
Slack
Slack allows users to customize aspects like channels, notifications, and integrations, which helps streamline communication. However, its customization capabilities are primarily limited to these communication-focused features. It lacks the deeper project workflow customization that ClickUp provides.
🏆 Winner: ClickUp wins this round with its customizable and robust project management features.
Feature #2: Collaboration
Next, we’re looking at collaboration. How do these tools help your team stay connected and work together?
ClickUp
ClickUp is a project management collaboration tool that integrates document sharing, comment threads, and Chat directly into its framework. Discussions are tied to specific projects to help teams stay aligned. ClickUp’s Chat feature allows you to directly link tasks in conversations, ensuring context isn’t lost between tools—a frequent issue in Slack.
Slack
While Slack is great for real-time conversations and direct messaging, it lacks deeply integrated collaborative features. Tasks, documents, and workflows are not inherently part of Slack’s functionality, making it less ideal for teams that need everything in one place.
🏆 Winner: ClickUp takes the lead with its integrated collaboration features, keeping everything from tasks to discussions in one place.
🧠 Fun Fact: The classic ‘open door’ policy, once popular in office settings for encouraging communication between employees and management, has evolved in the digital age. With tools like ClickUp, leaders can now have an ‘open digital door,’ making them more accessible for quick feedback or advice.
Feature #3: User experience
Whether you need something simple and intuitive or feature-rich and comprehensive, we’ll see which platform makes it easier for your team to jump in.
ClickUp
ClickUp’s feature set offers far greater functionality but has a steep learning curve. Its advanced tools for task management and project workflows may require more time to master, making it better suited for teams seeking a comprehensive all-in-one platform.
Slack
Slack’s simple and intuitive interface makes it easy for teams to get started quickly. Its focus on user-friendly design encourages casual interactions, fostering a sense of community.
🏆 Winner: It’s a tie! If you’re looking for a straightforward tool for casual conversations, you can go with Slack. On the other hand, if you need a feature-rich tool that streamlines all work-related conversations, ClickUp is your pick.
Feature #4: Goal setting and tracking
Let’s compare Slack vs. ClickUp for goal setting and task progress tracking.
ClickUp
ClickUp excels in helping teams stay focused on their objectives with built-in goal-setting and tracking features. Teams can define clear goals, break them into smaller targets, and monitor progress in real time.
This functionality is handy for keeping long-term projects on track and ensuring you meet deadlines.
Slack
Slack doesn’t offer dedicated goal-tracking tools. While it facilitates communication around goals, it lacks the structure ClickUp provides for defining, managing, and measuring success.
🏆 Winner: ClickUp takes this one with its robust goal-setting and tracking tools, keeping your team aligned and on target.
🔍 Did You Know? If your team uses Slack, you’ll be happy to know ClickUp integrates seamlessly with it. The ClickUp and Slack Integration allows you to connect both platforms, keeping your team aligned.
Feature #5: Reminders and notifications
Finally, let’s explore reminders and notifications and how each tool helps your team stay on top of tasks and deadlines.
ClickUp
ClickUp’s reminder features help you stay on top of tasks. You can set them for due dates or custom timeframes, so you’ll always know what’s next and keep your team on track.
Slack
While efficient as a team communication app, Slack primarily focuses on notification settings for messages and mentions. It doesn’t offer task reminder capabilities like ClickUp.
🏆 Winner: ClickUp takes the lead with its powerful reminder system, keeping your team on top of tasks and deadlines.
📖 Also Read: Discover how ClickUp’s AI-powered ‘everything’ chat is redefining team communication by offering a superior, more powerful, and more useful user experience.
Summarize this article for me pleaseSlack vs. ClickUp on Reddit
We took to Reddit to see where people land on Slack vs. ClickUp. While no specific threads compare the two, let’s look at what users say about them.
When asked whether Slack was worth it.
A Reddit user shared excitement about the new ClickUp Chat features:
🔍 Did You Know? 74% of recruiters say proficiency in digital communication tools and video conferencing is essential for job candidates.
Summarize this article for me pleaseWhich Communication Tool Reigns Supreme?
The results are in, and, we have a clear winner. 💪
It’s ClickUp! 🤩
While Slack has been a go-to for communication, it solely focuses on messaging. It excels at keeping teams connected, but it doesn’t match its competition when it comes to managing projects, tracking tasks, and integrating workflows.
ClickUp is an everything app for work, communication, and project management. It’s a comprehensive solution from goal setting to document sharing and workflow automation.
Why not try it out? Sign up to ClickUp for free today!
Everything you need to stay organized and get work done.
