Slack has been the default for team chat for years, and it is good at chat. The problem we kept running into was everything around it. Slack for messages, Gmail for email, Jira for tasks, Zoom or Meet for calls. Every one of those is another subscription, another login, and another place where a decision can get lost.
We build Roomie, so take our view with that in mind. But we did look at the main alternatives, and this is what we found.
Why teams look for a Slack alternative
These are the reasons we hear most:
- Too many apps. Chat in Slack, email in Gmail, tasks in Jira, meetings somewhere else. People spend the day switching windows.
- The bill grows with the team. Slack Pro is about $7.25 per user per month on annual billing, and that is for chat only.
- Chat is not the whole job. There is no email on your domain and no real task tracking inside Slack, so you buy those separately.
What to look for
Before you switch, check that the new tool covers these:
- Team chat: channels, threads, direct messages.
- Email on your own domain:
[email protected], not@gmail.com. - Task tracking: a way to turn "we should do this" into a task someone owns.
- Calls: voice and video without sending meeting links around.
- Pricing that stays reasonable as the team grows.
The options
Roomie
We built it, so we are biased. Roomie puts chat, email on your domain, tasks with sprint boards, a wiki, video huddles and AI in one workspace. It is one product, not a set of integrations.
The part we use most is that a chat message can become a task in one step, with a link back to the conversation. Message history is unlimited on every plan, including the free one. There is also an MCP server, so Claude or other AI agents can work with your real tasks and messages.
Price: free for up to 3 users, then $2 per user per month for everything.
The catch: Roomie is newer and has a much smaller app directory than Slack. If you depend on a specific Slack app, check with us before you move.
Microsoft Teams
If your company already runs on Microsoft 365, Teams is the natural choice. It combines chat, video calls and the Office apps, and works well with Word, Excel and Outlook.
Price: comes with Microsoft 365 business plans, which start at around $7 per user per month.
The catch: it is heavy for a small team, and the admin side is complicated.
Discord
Discord started with gamers, and some teams now use it. The free tier has unlimited messages and good voice channels.
Price: free, with paid extras.
The catch: there is no business email, no task tracking and no calendar. Fine for a community or a casual team, but most companies outgrow it.
Mattermost
For teams that need to host their own chat, often for compliance. It is open source and feels similar to Slack.
Price: free if you host it yourself, with paid plans for enterprise features.
The catch: it is chat only, so you still need separate tools for email and tasks, and someone technical to run it.
Rocket.Chat
Another open-source option you can host yourself, with a lot of customisation and connections to channels like WhatsApp and email.
Price: free to self-host, with paid plans.
The catch: setup takes technical work, and there is no built-in task tracking or calendar.
What you pay
Prices change, so treat these as rough figures at the time of writing, per user per month:
- Roomie: $2 for chat, email, tasks, wiki, huddles and support
- Slack Pro: about $7.25 for chat
- Microsoft Teams: from about $7, as part of Microsoft 365
- Discord: free for chat and voice
- Mattermost and Rocket.Chat: free to self-host, paid plans available
The bigger difference shows up when you add the other tools. A team of ten on Slack Pro, Google Workspace, Jira and Zoom pays roughly $250 a month across four vendors. The same ten people on Roomie pay $20 a month.
Why some teams pick Roomie
Roomie is not the right fit for everyone. These are the reasons teams tell us they chose it:
- Chat turns into work. Someone says "we should fix the onboarding flow" and it becomes a task without copying anything.
- Email is included. Addresses on your own domain, with the DNS records generated for you.
- The AI knows the context. Ask what the design team worked on this week, and it answers from the tasks, email and chat together.
- You can host it yourself. Self-hosting is $2,000 a year per instance, with no user limit, and your data stays on your servers.
Moving from Slack
If you decide to move, write to us and we will help with exporting your Slack history, onboarding your team and setting up the workspace.
Which one to choose
- Roomie if you want chat, email and tasks in one tool at a price that stays low as you grow.
- Microsoft Teams if you already live in Microsoft 365.
- Discord for communities or informal teams that do not need business features yet.
- Mattermost or Rocket.Chat if you only need self-hosted chat and have technical people to run it.
Slack made team chat normal. But for most teams, chat alone is not the whole job anymore. Our bet with Roomie is that teams want fewer tools, not more integrations. If you are already paying for several tools, it is worth a try.
