Choosing the right communication tool can be overwhelming, especially when trying to balance cost with the features your team needs.
Finding the right Slack pricing plan can be confusing—you want to enhance collaboration and productivity without overspending.
Whether you’re a business owner, team leader, or professional, you need clarity on what each plan offers to eliminate the frustration of paying for unused features or lacking essential ones.
In this article, we’ll break down Slack’s pricing plan to help you find the perfect plan that fits your organization’s needs and budget. 👇
Breakdown of Slack Pricing Plans
How much does Slack cost? Let’s take a look at all its different plans:
Free Plan
If you’re starting or running a small team, the Free Plan can be a great option for essential communication without any cost. Slack’s free plan covers basic needs, including direct messages and limited integrations.
However, the plan does have some limitations that might not fully support your team’s long-term growth as your needs evolve.
Key features:
- Message and file history: You’ll get access to the last 90 days of message history and file storage. While that might work for now, it could become a headache if you need to dig up older conversations for reference or compliance down the line
- Integrations: The Free Plan lets you connect up to 10 third-party apps, like Google Drive, Office 365, and Trello. While this is helpful for small teams, if your organization relies on a wide range of tools, you may find this limit restrictive
- Communication capabilities: You can conduct only one-on-one audio and video meetings, making it ideal for quick check-ins or individual meetings. But if your team relies on group calls, you’ll hit a roadblock since this plan doesn’t cover those features
Who’s it for:
The Free Plan is ideal for small teams, startups, or organizations looking for a basic workplace communication tool for routine tasks. It’s a cost-free way to get started with Slack, but it has limitations in message history, integrations, and calling capabilities.
📖 Also Read: Slack Etiquette: DOs and DON’Ts of Using Slack at Work
Pro Plan
If you’re managing a small to medium-sized business and need more advanced features to support your growing team, the Pro Plan is a great option.
It enhances your communication with more features, like unlimited direct messages, audio and video meetings, and the ability to create custom monitoring tools for better project management. This plan is a solid step up from the Free Plan, providing everything you need to boost both productivity and team collaboration.
Key features:
- Unlimited message history: The Pro Plan provides unlimited access to all direct messages and team chats, ensuring important conversations are always available for reference or compliance needs
- Unlimited integrations: Connect unlimited third-party apps, transforming Slack into a central hub for all your tools, from project management to file storage
- Better communication: With Slack Huddles, you can host group voice and video calls with up to 50 participants, making it perfect for team meetings, quick check-ins, or training sessions
- Customizable retention policies: Set custom retention rules for messages and files to align with your company’s policies and regulations
- Guest access: Collaborate securely with clients and contractors by granting them expanded access as guests, ensuring they can work within your workspace without compromising your team’s main workspace security
- Custom user groups: Create custom user groups to organize teams, manage permissions, and streamline notifications
- Priority support: The Pro Plan offers priority support to address your problems quickly. Ideal for keeping your team up and running without significant downtime
- Usage trends: Slack analytics dashboard grants visibility into basic analytics features, including channel usage, message volume, and user activity
Other features: Unlimited workflow builders, ability to collab on lists and documents
Who’s it for:
The Pro Plan is perfect for growing businesses that need advanced tools to keep teams connected and efficient. It’s ideal for those who require full direct messages, call history, more Slack integrations, and the ability to host group meetings.
Pricing:
- $7.25 per user per month (when billed annually)
- $8.75 per user per month (when billed monthly)
Business+ Plan
Designed for mid-sized to large businesses, this plan offers better security, compliance features, and administrative controls—perfect for managing more complex organizational needs.
Key features:
- SAML-based single sign-on (SSO): With SSO, your team can log in securely across multiple platforms with just one set of credentials. This added layer of security means only authorized personnel have access to your Slack workspace
- 24/7 support with a 4-hour response time: When something goes wrong, you can’t afford to wait. With the Business+ Plan, you’ll get priority support with a guaranteed four-hour response time to weed out any issues quickly
- 99.99% uptime SLA: Slack guarantees 99.99% uptime, ensuring minimal downtime so your team can collaborate smoothly and keep projects on track
- Enhanced security features: The Business+ Plan includes data exports, Data Loss Prevention (DLP) tool integration, and customizable retention settings to meet strict data protection requirements
- Greater permissions control: Manage large teams easily by controlling who can post in channels or use mentions that notify all members, keeping announcement channels distraction-free
- Guest access: Collaborate easily with external partners like clients or contractors without leaving Slack and giving them controlled access to your workspace while keeping your internal data secure
- Custom user groups: This feature helps you manage permissions and notifications efficiently, ensuring that the right people are always in the loop
Other features: Everything in the Pro plan, plus user provisioning and de-provisioning for guest accounts, identity management, and data exports for all messages.
Who’s it for:
The Business+ Plan gives businesses that have outgrown the Basic and Pro Plans more control over their operations. If your business needs strict compliance and advanced security, the Business+ Plan offers the tools to keep everything in check.
Features like priority support and guest access help resolve issues quickly and allow secure collaboration with external partners, making it ideal for companies handling sensitive information and large-scale operations.
Pricing:
- $12.50 per user per month (when billed annually)
- $15 per user per month (when billed monthly)
📖 Also Read: 25 Slack Hacks to Improve Workplace Communication
Enterprise Grid Plan
Slack’s Enterprise Grid Plan (its most expensive plan) is suitable for large enterprises with complex communication requirements. Unlike other plans, it customizes the pricing based on your organization’s specific needs.
This plan provides a solid suite of features that enhance collaboration and security across interconnected workspaces.
Key features:
- Unlimited workspaces: The Enterprise Grid Plan lets you create and manage multiple Slack workspaces centrally, ideal for large organizations with different departments or teams, while keeping them interconnected
- Advanced security and compliance: Provides data encryption, enterprise key management, DLP integration, and HIPAA compliance, perfect for industries with strict data protection requirements
- eDiscovery and legal holds: Includes advanced eDiscovery features, enabling legal teams to access and retain specific communications for audits and record-keeping
- Dedicated customer support: Offers 24/7 priority support with a four-hour response time, plus access to customer success teams for onboarding, training, and optimizing Slack usage
Other features: Everything in the Business plan, plus support for data loss prevention, audit logs, integration with Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM), domain claiming, custom terms of service, and more.
Who’s it for:
The Enterprise Grid Plan is perfect for large enterprises with thousands of employees who need a secure, scalable, and customizable communication remote collaboration tool.
It’s best for organizations in regulated industries like healthcare, finance, or government, where data security and compliance are important. Plus, you can manage multiple workspaces and get advanced security features.
Offering the most comprehensive feature set, this plan is the premium option for businesses that demand top-tier service from their communication platform.
Pricing:
- Custom pricing
Slack pricing plans: Quick comparison
Plan | Price | Key features | Who’s it for |
Free Plan | Free | 90 days of message and file history Up to 10 Slack integrations One-on-one voice and video calls | Small teams, startups, or organizations with basic communication needs and tight budgets |
Pro Plan | $7.25 per user/month (billed annually) $8.75 per user/month (billed monthly) | Unlimited message history Unlimited app integrations Group calls with up to 50 participants Customizable retention policies 24/7 support | Small to medium-sized businesses that need advanced communication features and multiple app integrations |
Business+ Plan | $12.50 per user/month (billed annually) $15 per user/month (billed monthly) | SAML-based SSO 24/7 support with 4-hour response time 99.99% uptime SLA Enhanced security features | Mid-sized to large businesses that require enhanced security, compliance, and administrative controls |
Enterprise Grid Plan | Custom pricing | Unlimited workspaces Advanced security and compliance (HIPAA, DLP) eDiscovery and legal holds 99.99% uptime SLA Dedicated 24/7 support with a 4-hour response time | Large enterprises with complex communication needs, especially in regulated industries like healthcare, finance, or government |
📄 Note: Slack AI add-on is available for the Pro Plan and above.
How to Choose the Right Slack Plan for Your Team
Choosing the right Slack plan can improve your team’s productivity and communication flow. With each plan offering its own pros and cons, picking the wrong one could leave you dealing with limitations that slow your team down.
Here’s how you can choose the best Slack plan by focusing on the factors that matter most to your organization:
1. By team size
- Small teams: The Free or Pro Plans are ideal for startups or small teams. The Free plan offers basic communication tools, while the Pro plan provides advanced features like unlimited message history and file storage with enhanced integrations for growing teams
- Larger teams: For organizations scaling up with more employees and complex workflows, the Business+ or Enterprise Grid Plans to handle large user bases and offer additional administrative control
2. By security and compliance features
- Standard security needs: The Pro Plan offers essential security features like data encryption (at rest and in transit) and two-factor authentication (2FA), making it suitable for teams handling routine business data
- Advanced security needs: For industries managing sensitive information, the Business+ and Enterprise Grid Plans provide SAML-based SSO, Data Loss Prevention (DLP), and HIPAA compliance for enhanced data protection
3. By communication needs
- Basic communication: The Free Plan covers basic messaging needs with a 90-day message and file history limit. However, it might fall short for teams requiring more powerful collaboration tools
- More comprehensive communication needs: If your team needs group video calls, unlimited app integrations, and workflow automation, the Pro Plan is essential. The Business+ Plan adds advanced tools and premium support
4. By Budget
- Cost-effective solutions: The Free Plan suits budget-conscious teams needing basic features. The Pro Plan, starting at $7.25/user per month (billed annually), offers great value with advanced features
- Higher investment for greater control: For larger teams that require solid security and compliance features, the Business+ Plan at $12.50 per user per month (billed annually) or the Enterprise Grid Plan are better investments
📖 Also Read: The Pros and Cons of Slack at Work
Introducing ClickUp: A Better Slack Alternative
What if we told you there’s a better Slack alternative?
Yes, we’re talking about ClickUp, a popular project management and collaboration tool that is more versatile.
While Slack has been popular for team chats for a while now, if you’re after something that does more than messaging, ClickUp will surprise you.
Let’s see why ClickUp outperforms Slack:
ClickUp Chat
Since we’re looking at a chat platform alternative, let’s start with ClickUp Chat.
Unlike Slack, where chatting is the main event, ClickUp takes it further by tying your conversations directly to your tasks.
With ClickUp Chat, all your tasks and conversations converge in one place, eliminating the need to switch between apps like Slack. Instead of jumping between tools or losing context, ClickUp keeps your team chats, tasks, and files unified and connected within one workspace.
ClickUp also stands out by allowing you to instantly convert important chat messages into actionable tasks.
Unlike Slack, where key comments can get buried in threads, ClickUp provides useful features, like Assigned Comments, to assign tasks to specific team members and ensure accountability at all times. Start a conversation anywhere in your workspace, across tasks, docs, or directly in chat, and say goodbye to the toggle tax!
ClickUp Docs
While Slack excels at communication, ClickUp Docs goes a step further by combining communication with documentation, task management, and workflow organization—all in one platform.
Use features like ClickUp Collaboration Detection, version history, and seamless integration with tasks to create a project outline with your colleagues and assign project tasks directly from your documents. Docs come with rich formatting elements like banners and embedding capabilities, allowing you to customize the appearance of the documents and add images and links to them.
Best part? You can organize pages as nested items and categorize them further into different ClickUp Spaces using folders and tags.
🌈Did you know? Team Liquid, a popular eSports brand, used ClickUp to boost its efficiency by 3x. The major challenges they faced included disconnected teams across multiple tools, miscommunication, and poor documentation.
By consolidating four different tools into ClickUp, they streamlined workflows, enhanced team collaboration, and gained better visibility across their projects.
This switch resulted in 100% adoption of ClickUp across the organization and helped drive an impressive 10x company growth in just four years.
ClickUp Brain
ClickUp Brain offers more than just task summaries—it’s a complete AI assistant built directly into your workspace. With 100+ pre-built prompts, it automates everything from writing content to summarizing long discussions, boosting productivity by streamlining tasks in one place.
This minimizes the need for external apps and enhances productivity by seamlessly integrating AI capabilities with project management, documentation, and task tracking.
Unlike Slack AI, which focuses mainly on communication threads, ClickUp Brain integrates with your entire workflow, making it ideal for teams managing complex projects and multiple tools. Slack AI is limited only to summarizing conversations or helping find quick answers.
✨Additional resource: For teams looking to further enhance communication, using effective communication plan templates and exploring the best communication strategies can help with collaboration even more.
Together, these features make ClickUp the best Slack competitor.
ClickUp Pricing
ClickUp’s free plan is quite generous, offering 100MB of storage, unlimited tasks, and access to most features. Our paid plans start at just $7 per user per month (billed annually) and provide unlimited storage and advanced tools.
In comparison, as detailed in our ClickUp vs Slack guide, Slack’s free plan is more limited, especially with message history and storage restrictions. The starting price for the Slack Pro plan in the US is $8.75 per user (billed monthly). If you’re looking for a paid plan to maximize your budget, ClickUp’s pricing offers more flexibility and value for teams.
💡Pro Tip: Explore these ClickUp free communication plan templates to simplify communication with your team and keep everything organized.
ClickUp Delivers More for Less
ClickUp is the Swiss Army knife of workspaces—it has everything you need in one spot.
You can chat, manage tasks, track time, and even handle documents without leaving the platform. It’s a great way to reduce tool overload and keep everything organized.
On the flip side, Slack is all about keeping things simple. It’s easy to use and perfect if you need straightforward, no-fuss communication. But if your team needs more than that, you might find yourself juggling Slack with other project management tools.
So, if you’re a Slack fan, it might be worth checking out ClickUp. It could be the all-in-one solution you didn’t know you needed—making your work life much more accessible and maybe even more fun.
Sign up for ClickUp for free, and see for yourself why ClickUp could be a better choice.