9 Best Team Communication Tools in 2020 (with Pros, Cons & Prices)

When you are a team of two at work, your roles and responsibilities are clear. Team communication is pretty effective too. All you need is to poke your teammate with an elbow:

“What’s up pal?”

Syncing up with a team gets far more complicated as the company grows. Communication gets messy and hard to control – you chat on Facebook, Skype and sometimes on WhatsApp.

Important docs get lost taking away your precious time on finding them. You don’t feel like work gets done anymore.

Sounds familiar?

It’s time for a tool that would organize team communication and bring it to one place.

Our team at Chanty is working hard on our own team communication app. Naturally, we’ve come across a number of competitors and made an in-depth analysis of different apps. As a result, we put together a list of the most reliable tools available today along with their pros and cons so it’s easier for you to make a decision. Now it’s time to take a look at the top team communication tools:

1. Chanty

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It wouldn’t be our blog if we didn’t start the list with an app that we are building. Chanty is a simple team chat featuring clear UI and intuitive UX (that’s what our customers say). This makes it a great fit for all kinds of teams at work, even ‘not so tech savvy’. You can communicate in public, private and one-to-one conversations with your colleagues with text, voice/video calls and voice messages. Any message could be easily turned into a task and assigned to any team member.

Chanty is also featuring a unique concept of ‘Teambook’ that organizes all of your communication. If you feel like your chat at work is becoming a ‘black hole’ you’ll definitely like Chanty where it’s super easy to find anything. Overall, getting work done is faster and easier with Chanty.

Pricing:

Chanty is free for teams of up to 10 team members. Paid plans are applied to the teams of 10 members and more. The pricing plans start at $3 per seat. Searchable message history is unlimited in all Chanty plans.

If you have any questions about Chanty, feel free to leave a comment. Otherwise, feel free to join our close-knit community of Chanty users and give our app a try ⬇️ We are looking forward to your feedback.

2. Brosix IM

Brosix IM is a team communication tool that specializes in private and fully administrable team networks. Brosix strives to provide an all-in-one collaboration package and comes with a range of features such as audio and video chat, p2p file transfer, dedicated chat rooms, and screen sharing. 

Special attention is paid to security and privacy on Brosix private networks, with end-to-end encryption of all communication channels and administrative control over who joins the network. This makes Brosix a good choice if you’re looking for a team communication tool with a high level of security. 

Pricing

• Free ‘Startup’ plan for networks with up to 3 users. This comes with a private team network with control over user accounts, and a limited range of collaboration features. 
• ‘Business’ plans start at $4 per user per month. This comes with everything in the Startup plan plus more features, including screen sharing, video and audio chat. 
• ‘Premium’ plans start at $6 per user per month. This comes with full administrative control and all collaboration features. 

3. Slack

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Slack is a popular app for team communication and collaboration featuring instant messaging, file sharing, audio/video calls, powerful search and the largest number of integrations among competitors.

Pricing:

• Freemium is limited with 10K messages history limit, allows only two participants in a video conference, 10 integrations, 5GB total file storage for a team
• Standard plan is $6.67 per user per month billed annually. $8 per user per month billed monthly, with up to 15 participants in a video conference and 10 GB per member file storage limit
• Plus plan is $12.50 per user per month billed annually. $15 per user per month billed monthly with up to 15 participants in a video conference and 20 GB per member file storage limit
• Slack Enterprise Grid

Slack pros and cons

4. Flock

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Flock is a team communication app from India featuring instant messages, multiple integrations, built-in to-dos and polls. Audio and video calls are available via integration with Appear.in

Pricing:

• Freemium is limited with 10K message history
• Pro Plan is $4.5 per user per month

Flock pros and cons

5. ProofHub

ProofHub, unlike the other tools in the list, is an all-in-one project management and team communication tool. It comes in the picture when using multiple tools to chat, plan, organize and track work progress is all about scattered data, distracted users, extra work and no single place for performance overview. So, as syncing up with teams gets far more complicated as your company grows, you might as well decide to spend money and time on one tool instead of many. That’s where ProofHub shines.

Pricing:

Ultimate Control plan is for only $89/ month (limited time offer).

There is no per user fee.

ProofHub pros and cons

6. Microsoft Teams

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Microsoft Teams, as a part of Office 365 package, is a team communication tool designed for enterprises. With its powerful, yet not very intuitive functionality, MS Teams offers you an instant chat, audio/video calls through Skype for Business and useful integrations with Microsoft Office 365 tools.

Pricing:

• Microsoft Office 365 package for $5 user/month that (includes Microsoft Teams + 5 other apps)
• Full Office 365 package $12.5 user/month (including Microsoft Teams)

Microsoft Teams pros and cons

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7. Skype for Business

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It was 2014 when Lync, the Microsoft chat for business was rebranded into Skype for Business. Today, Skype for consumers with its latest radical redesign is becoming more of a ‘hang out with your pals’ tool for millennials. This motivates companies that used Skype for work communication to switch to its paid product. Although it looks like Skype for Business will be replaced with Microsoft Teams soon, it’s alive and kicking for now.

Pricing:

Skype is now included into the following Microsoft Office 365 packages:

• $69.99/year or $6.99/month (1 user)
• $99.99/year or $9.99/month (5 users)

8. Ryver

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Uniting team communication with task management, Ryver introduces the free team communication tool with unlimited messages and data storage. The integration with Zapier lets you connect Ryver to more than 500 apps. It’s free till your team members start using tasks. The first 14 days you’ll receive premium service for free.

Pricing:

• $19 – 5 team task users
• $49 – 15 team task users
• $99 – unlimited users

9. Fleep

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Fleep lets you communicate with other Fleep users or even send an email to anyone via Fleep. A team in Fleep is equivalent to a private channel in Slack. Audio and video calls are available via Appear.in integration that allows up to 8 people in a call.

Pricing:

• For €5 per user, you receive full control over your accounts, teams and conversations. You have access to all Fleep features for 30 days after signup.

With a rich variety of team communication tools, the question arises:

How to choose a team communication app?

Picking the right tool for your company could become an issue. Although, every team is unique and requirements are individual, you can use the following criteria to guide you in the dark:

1. Make sure it’s a closed team space

The difference between a team communication app and, say, regular Skype, is you don’t get disturbed by friends and relatives like it usually happens in Skype. Occasionally, you can invite a customer or a freelancer to join your team chat, but it’s mostly you and your team communicating around tasks and projects.

2. Powerful chat

Although you may be a great fan of video and audio calls, text communication within a team is inevitable. Therefore, I’m often surprised to see Google Hangouts and FaceTime in the lists of ‘team communication apps’. You should be able to share files, search your message history, edit, delete, forward messages, pin important conversations and so on. Don’t go for text or video only when you can have both.

3. Check out privacy and security

Sensitive information you and your team share should be available to your company only. Pay attention to how your data is protected while it is transferred from one end to another. Some of the tools make it possible for admins to access private conversations. It’s OK for some companies while completely unacceptable for others. We recommend to read privacy policy and ask the app rep all the questions before signing up.

4. Opt for Speed

Sometimes a deluge of complicated app features results in its slow performance. You don’t want to wait forever for that message to arrive. After all, the ‘instant’ chat should match its purpose and deliver messages in a blink of an eye. However, check your internet connection first before blaming your chat for being slow.

5. Test video and audio calls

If your team is remote, video conferences are likely to be part of your day at work. While looking for a team communication tool consider high quality audio and video calls option. This feature could be either built-in or come in a form of integration with video conference service (Skype, Hangouts, Appear.in).

6. Choose cloud based

Unless you need the software to be installed on your company’s computers or server. Cloud storage lets you sync team communication across different devices and access your files and messages from everywhere. Cloud solutions are also easier to start and easier to use.

7. Go for ease of use

Unlike many SaaS tools, you’ll be using team communication app a lot. Mostly because team communication is something that happens every day. As we spend half of our lives at work, why not spend it with pleasure and joy? This is exactly the feel you should aim for when using a team communication app. There’s no place for irritation in your everyday life. It’s almost like choosing a partner for life – if you can’t tolerate his bad habits, think twice.

8. Integrations

Integrations is what usually makes team communication apps different from the software designed for personal communication. They let you turn your team chat into a single notification center. This means receiving software notifications from the apps you use (could be anything from MailChimp to Zendesk to Xero) into one place. Define the apps you are using the most at work and check if the team communication tool has integrations you need

9. Сross-platform

It’s great when you can be on the same page with your team even on the go. This is when mobile apps come in handy making team communication easier and more effective. Maybe it’s FOMO (fear of missing out) I’m suffering from, but I tend to check our team chat in the evenings after work as well as during weekends. Using team communication software should be convenient in every way. Some of us prefer web version of the team chat we use, while others enjoy an app for their macOS/Windows. Make sure the app you choose support all the platforms you’ll be using.

10. Ask about features you need (and check the customer support as well)

Every team has its unique requirements when it comes to the app features. Don’t hesitate to speak to an app representative or customer care manager to find out more about features you need. The more initial research you make prior to committing to a certain app, the more efficient and productive your team communication will become.

Our team has swept the net analyzing each and every competitor of Chanty. Naturally, all team communication tools have their strengths and weaknesses. We’ve carefully considered every feedback to make an app that’s definitely worth your attention. Take a look at Chanty, the 2018 team communication newcomer made with love and passion.

The mic is all yours now. What are the tools you are considering for your team and why? What are the biggest communication challenges in your company? Feel free to share in the comments below.