Everything about Facebook Workplace and Its Two Close Alternatives

As millennials fill the workforce, the ways of communication in corporates are also evolving. One such evolution is Facebook Workplace.

With over 1.94 billion monthly active users, Facebook has already taken the world by storm. Facebook Workplace, introduced in October 2016, was introduced with the idea to connect co-workers through a Facebook-like app that can help them communicate, collaborate and appreciate each other’s work.

Also Read: How To Make Your Facebook Marketing Campaign Stellar

Boasting of a strong client base already, Workplace is revolutionizing the way corporates work.

However, Workplace is not the only app that does so. Here in this post, we will evaluate the closest competitors of Facebook Workplace- Slack and Microsoft teams.

Slack has over 4 million daily users out of which 1.25 million are paid users. It’s a popular work chat app that allows users to create channels, chat rooms, and private messages.

Microsoft Teams is a ‘hub for teamwork’ as they say it. It’s a chat based workspace in office 365 with 33,000 paid teams using the app.

Let’s see what each one of these does to make corporate lives easier and more interesting.

Slack

1. Slack lets you create separate “channels” for each team in a company, and the team members can communicate in one big chat room.

2. Highlights of Slack:

   1. Extremely easy to use.

   2. Channels can be created by anyone around any topic for separate projects.

   3. You can also create public channels that are open to anyone in the company.

   4. You can secure private channels using lock sign.

   5. People in a channel can invite others to join a channel.

3. Slack allows you to share files, photos, links with previews, videos, tweets, etc.

4. It gives a search option to find stuff.

5. Slack has integrated various apps so that when you can drop a link to GDrive, Dropbox, Mail Chimp,, it works like an attachment displaying a part of the file.

6. It allows you to set up notifications for integrated apps.

7. From getting travel deal alerts to booking and Uber, Slack has a lot of other functionalities.

8. The basic version of Slack is Free, and the advanced versions are accessible for $6.67/user/month and $12.50/user/month.

Microsoft Teams

1. Teams from Microsoft, launched earlier this year, is a direct competitor to Slack.

2. It is very similar to Slack, so much so that it is difficult to spot the difference at one glance.

3. MS Teams also allows creating channels.

4. As a differentiator, Teams is integrated with all the MS Office apps including Skype that facilitates audio and video calls.

5. Since Teams is integrated with Office programs like Word and Excel, users can work in a document as a team in a chat room.

6. The artificially intelligent search and document finder is a plus.

7. Integrated with other apps just like Slack.

Workplace

1. Workplace is inspired by Facebook’s internal Facebook-like software that was used by their employees as an alternative to emails and chat apps. Your Workplace account is not your Facebook account.

2. Workplace looks like Facebook and is a modified version for corporate use.

3. The functionality is a lot like Facebook just that everything functions amongst a closed group of people in an organization.

4. You can create closed, open, or secret groups in Workplace.

5. The newsfeed displays open, important, and trending discussions.

6. Similar to Slack and Teams, you can share photos, files, videos, etc.

7. You can follow your co-workers of choice to get their public posts in your newsfeed.

8. Other features of Facebook are also available such as chats, video calls, live video, and creating events.

9. Unlike Facebook, Workplace is paid. Facebook has announced the following pricing:

   1. First 1,000 monthly active users: $3/user

   2. 1,001 – 10,000 monthly active users: $2/user

   3. 10,000+ monthly active users : $1/user

   4. Workplace can be accessed free of cost by nonprofit organizations and schools.

As soon as it was launched, over 1000 big brands enrolled for Facebook Workplace making it an instant hit. There are a lot of other work apps to simplify corporate communication and team collaboration.

Before you decide an app for your organization, weigh the pros and cons, and do not just go for what’s trending. Although trending is a sign of efficiency, it does not guarantee that it would suit your exact needs.