Compare Slack to WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Viber

 

Slack is the collaboration tool of choice for some of the world’s leading innovators. Airbnb, Zendesk, Canva, IBM, Zomato, Razorpay, Lyft and Shopify are just some of the 200,000+ brands that have chosen Slack as the tool that will make them more productive.

 

 

Why is Slack better than personal messaging apps like WhatsApp, Viber and Messenger? 

 

Personal messaging apps like WhatsApp, Viber and Facebook Messenger are designed for just that – messaging. Slack is your platform for success in the new economy. Whether your company is going back to the office, staying remote, or taking a hybrid approach, Slack is where all your employees, partners and customers can come together into one space.

In the new economy, the companies that use Slack are succeeding. Their global teams are aligned in channels instead of silos. They’re able to attract and retain the best talent from anywhere, with more flexible ways of working. And most importantly, they’re seeing efficiency and productivity gains from their technology investments.

Slack is the tool your organisation needs to scale, built to: 

• Centralise knowledge and collaboration 
• Keep your company’s data secure 
• Ensure compliance and enterprise-grade security
• Help you attract and retain more customers 
• Improve employee productivity and reduce unnecessary context switching
• To support work from anywhere 
• Eliminate unnecessary admin through automations and workflows. 

 

 

 

	Slack	WhatsApp	Facebook Messenger	Viber
Enterprise-grade security	✅	❌	❌	❌
International regulation compliance	✅	🤷‍♀️	🤷‍♀️	🤷‍♀️
Ability to deprovision users	✅	❌	❌	❌
Secure external collaboration options	✅	❌	❌	❌
Searchable conversation and file history	✅	😩	😩	😩
Ability to edit and delete messages	✅	😩	❌	😩
Groups with more than 1,024 people	✅	😩 *max 1,024 people	❌ *max 250 people	❌ *max 250 people
Upload files larger than 16MB	✅ *share files up to 1GB	❌ *up to 16MB	😩 *up to 25MB	😩 *up to 200MB
2400+ Integrations	✅	❌	❌	❌

 

 

The true cost of free 

As the saying goes, cheaper can be more expensive. And tools like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Viber might be free in the short term but might end up costing you more in the long run. The news is chock-full of examples of businesses paying fines after their employees used WhatsApp to communicate. For example, JPMorgan Chase was fined USD $2 million by two U.S. banking regulators after its Wall Street division allowed employees to use WhatsApp and other platforms to circumvent federal record-keeping laws. Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America Corp, face up to USD $1 billion in fines for failing to monitor employees using unauthorised messaging apps. 

Worried about spam and scams? A 2022 Lloyds Bank report identified WhatsApp scams to be the fastest form of impersonation fraud, skyrocketing 2000% in 2021. Meanwhile 40% of WhatsApp versions used by enterprises are vulnerable to security risks and might be targeted by cybercriminals. 

On Slack, you don’t need to worry about regulatory compliance, compromised data or loss of intellectual property.  Enterprise-grade security is built into every aspect of how users collaborate and get work done in Slack, without sacrificing usability, so that you can get the most value out of Slack and do your best work. 

 

 

Got questions? We have answers 

 

 

Helpful resources 

• How to use Slack: your quick start guide
• Top five tips for getting started in Slack
• Is Slack better than email?
• Tips for working with people outside your company in Slack Connect