Slack Alternatives 2026: 5 Options, 4 Free
Slack alternatives: Zulip, Rocket.Chat, Element, Mattermost and 1 more. Prices and licenses checked October 22, 2026.
•3 min read•Team Chat, Meetings & Phone
Verdict:Slack's free plan keeps only 90 days of message history, allows 1:1 huddles and caps you at 10 apps, while Pro costs $7.25 per user a month billed annually ($8.75 monthly). Who should leave? Communities and small teams hitting the history wall, and groups that want chat on their own servers. Zulip is the strongest free pick: Apache-2.0, free to self-host with all features, and organised by topic so a busy channel stays readable, though people used to Slack take time to adapt. Rocket.Chat and Mattermost feel most like Slack but pushing past the basics leads to sales conversations; Mattermost's page shows no free production edition, only an evaluation one. Element, built on Matrix, suits teams that care about federation and encryption more than integrations. If you already pay for Microsoft 365, Teams Essentials at $4 per user a month is cheaper than Slack Pro and bundles meetings. The trade-off is the ecosystem. Slack's app directory, polished huddles and the habits of your coworkers are the real switching cost, and self-hosting adds updates, backups and an on-call burden. We did not test message history imports from Slack on any of these tools, so plan a trial before you commit.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Price | Platforms | Best for | Tested |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zulip | Free (Cloud Free: 10,000 messages of search history, 5 GB storage; self-hosted free with all features); paid from $6.67 per user/month, Cloud Standard, billed annually ($8 billed monthly) | Web, Self-hosted | Teams that want searchable history | Docs only |
| Rocket.Chat | Free (Free self-managed workspace; no user cap stated) | Web, Self-hosted | Self-hosted Slack-style chat | Docs only |
| Element | Free (Element Server Suite Community: free front end and back end) | Web, Self-hosted | Privacy-focused organisations | Docs only |
| Mattermost | See pricing page | Web, Self-hosted | Security-sensitive enterprises | Docs only |
| Microsoft Teams | Free (Teams Free: group meetings up to 60 minutes and 100 participants) | Web, Windows, macOS, iOS, Android | Microsoft 365 companies | Docs only |
| Google Workspace | Paid from $7 per user/month (Business Starter, excludes tax) | Web, iOS, Android | Office suite | Docs only |
Independent comparison. Paid placements are labelled separately; editorial links earn no affiliate commissions. Learn more.
Good fit if
- You want to self-host with full history and no seat fee (Zulip is the pick)
- You want the closest Slack-like channel chat (Rocket.Chat is the pick)
- You care about encryption and federation (Element is the pick)
- Your company already runs Microsoft 365 (Microsoft Teams is the pick)
Not ideal if
- You rely on Slack features or integrations that these tools do not replicate
Slack today: Free (90 days of message history, 1:1 huddles only, up to 10 apps); paid from $7.25 per user/month, Pro, billed annually ($8.75 billed monthly) (Slack pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Why people look for Slack alternatives
Slack's Free plan keeps messages searchable for only 90 days, allows up to 10 apps, and limits huddles to 1:1 and Slack Connect to direct messages. Unlimited history and apps, group huddles and group external messages need Pro at $8.75 per user per month ($7.25 billed annually) or Business+ at $18 ($15 annually). SSO and SCIM do not appear on the Free column of the comparison table.
Zulip
Compared with Slack: Apache-2.0 open source with a free self-hosted edition and a free cloud tier of 10,000 searchable messages. Its topic-based threading differs from Slack's channels; you gain full history on self-host.
Price: Free (Cloud Free: 10,000 messages of search history, 5 GB storage; self-hosted free with all features); paid from $6.67 per user/month, Cloud Standard, billed annually ($8 billed monthly) (Zulip pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web, Self-hosted. Apache-2.0 (open source).
Project activity: 26.1k GitHub stars · latest release 12.3 (Sep 21, 2026) · last commit Oct 27, 2026
Best for: Teams that want searchable history.
Worth knowing: Self-hosted Basic is $3.50 per user/month billed monthly.
Rocket.Chat
Compared with Slack: Open-source core with a free self-managed workspace and no user cap stated. Closer to Slack's channel model, but paid plans are quote-only and its enterprise folder has a separate licence.
Price: Free (Free self-managed workspace; no user cap stated) (Rocket.Chat pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web, Self-hosted. MIT core with a separate license for the ee folder (open source).
Project activity: 46.3k GitHub stars · latest release 8.9.0 (Oct 5, 2026) · last commit Oct 28, 2026
Best for: Self-hosted Slack-style chat.
Worth knowing: Commercial plan pricing is quote-only.
Element
Compared with Slack: Matrix-based chat with a free community server suite and AGPL-3.0 code. Federation and end-to-end encryption are the draw; the workflow apps and integrations are thinner than Slack's.
Price: Free (Element Server Suite Community: free front end and back end) (Element pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web, Self-hosted. AGPL-3.0, GPL-3.0 or a paid commercial license (open source).
Project activity: 13.6k GitHub stars · latest release v1.12.33 (Oct 27, 2026) · last commit Oct 27, 2026
Best for: Privacy-focused organisations.
Worth knowing: Enterprise is priced per seat but the figure is not published.
Mattermost
Compared with Slack: Self-hostable channel chat that mirrors Slack, but the page shows only a limited-use evaluation edition for free and paid plans through sales. Fits regulated teams more than small ones.
Price: See pricing page (Mattermost pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web, Self-hosted. Mixed: LICENSE.txt and LICENSE.enterprise; compiled releases under MIT per the repo README.
Best for: Security-sensitive enterprises.
Microsoft Teams
Compared with Slack: Teams has a free plan, and Teams Essentials is $4 per user a month, below Slack Pro's $7.25. You get meetings and Microsoft integration, but chat feels less focused than Slack.
Price: Free (Teams Free: group meetings up to 60 minutes and 100 participants) (Microsoft Teams pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web, Windows, macOS, iOS, Android. Proprietary.
Best for: Microsoft 365 companies.
Other popular options (paid)
Google Workspace
Compared with Slack: Business Starter is $7 per user per month with 30 GB of pooled storage per user, capped at 300 users. There is no free plan, only a 14-day trial, so it suits teams already paying for mail and documents.
Price: Paid from $7 per user/month (Business Starter, excludes tax) (Google Workspace pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Which one to pick
- You want to self-host with full history and no seat fee: Zulip
- You want the closest Slack-like channel chat: Rocket.Chat
- You care about encryption and federation: Element
- Your company already runs Microsoft 365: Microsoft Teams
Limits of this review
Docs-only for Zulip, Rocket.Chat, Element, Mattermost, Microsoft Teams: we did not install or run them, so feature claims come from vendor pages and we did not test import from Slack. Vendor prices and free limits change; confirm on the linked pricing page before you buy or migrate.
Related guides
More in Team Chat, Meetings & Phone
- Discord alternatives
- Mattermost alternatives
- Discord vs Mattermost 2026: Price, Free Plan & Verdict
- Skype alternatives
Sources
Kevin Fan
Kevin Fan is a SaaS founder. He runs Free Instead Of, which tracks free and open-source alternatives to paid software and checks each price and free-plan limit against the vendor's own pages.
Methodology
Based on official pricing and product pages checked 2026-10-22: Slack, Zulip, Rocket.Chat, Element, Mattermost, Microsoft Teams, Google Workspace. Prices, free limits and licenses are the figures shown on those pages on those dates. No tool on this page was installed or run. No accounts were created.