Slack vs Zoom
A side-by-side look at 2 Productivity tools for 2026 — the verdict, pricing, ratings, features, and what readers think.
S
slack.com
Best for Teams wanting best-in-class messaging and integrations
Where work happens — team chat and collaboration.
Visit Slack
Z
zoom.us
Best for Teams and businesses needing reliable, easy-to-use video conferencing
Reliable video meetings and webinars.
Visit ZoomPricing compared
Slack
$7.25/user/month
Zoom
$13.33/user/month
Head to head
| Slack | Zoom | |
|---|---|---|
| Rating | ||
| Starting price | $7.25/user/month | $13.33/user/month |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | 30 |
| Founded | 2013 | 2011 |
| HQ | San Francisco, CA | San Jose, CA |
| Team size | 2000-5000 | 5000-10000 |
Pros & cons
Slack
Pros
- Best-in-class messaging UX
- 2,600+ app integrations
- Powerful search across messages
- Strong developer API and workflow automation
- Excellent mobile apps
Cons
- Can get expensive for large teams
- Notifications can be overwhelming
- No built-in project management
- Free plan limits message history to 90 days
Zoom
Pros
- Extremely easy to set up and join meetings
- Most widely adopted video conferencing tool
- HD video and audio quality
- Robust free plan with 40-minute meetings
- Excellent integrations ecosystem
Cons
- Free plan limits meetings to 40 minutes
- Security concerns in early 2020 led to temporary trust issues
- Zoom fatigue is a real phenomenon
- Advanced features require expensive add-ons (Zoom Phone, Webinar)
Features compared
| Slack | Zoom | |
|---|---|---|
| Plans & pricing | ||
| Free tier | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Free trial | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Pricing model | Free; Pro $7.25/user/mo; Business+ $12.50/user/mo; Enterprise Grid custom | Free; Pro $13.33/user/mo; Business $18.33/user/mo; Enterprise custom |
| Money-back guarantee | ✗ No | ✗ No |
| Platforms & access | ||
| Web app | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Mobile apps | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Desktop app | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Self-hosted option | ✗ No | ✗ No |
| Offline mode | ✗ No | ✗ No |
| Integrations & extensibility | ||
| Public API | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Webhooks | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Native integrations | 2,600+ apps including Google Workspace, GitHub, Jira, Zoom, Salesforce | Slack, Google Calendar, Outlook, Salesforce, HubSpot, Dropbox, Microsoft 365 |
| Automation (Zapier/Make) | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Security & compliance | ||
| SSO / SAML | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Two-factor auth | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| SOC 2 | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| GDPR compliant | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Encryption at rest | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Collaboration | ||
| Team workspaces | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Real-time collaboration | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Role-based permissions | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Guest access | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Support | ||
| Email support | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Live chat support | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Phone support | ✗ No | ✓ Yes |
| Knowledge base | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| SLA | 99.99% uptime SLA on paid plans | 99.9% uptime SLA for paid plans |