Abstract, from the company of the same name headquartered in San Francisco, offers a collaboration tool for developers and others, featuring a version controlled master file set and approval workflow.
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Slack
Score 9.0 out of 10
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Slack is a group messaging or team collaboration app that aims to simplify communication for businesses. Features include open discussions, private groups, and direct messaging, as well as deep contextual search and message archiving, and file sharing. Slack integrates with a number of other tools, such as MailChimp, Dropbox, and Google Drive. Slack was acquired by Salesforce in December 2020.
The product is free to use, and also has paid plans with more features and greater controls.
The…
$0
per month per user
Pricing
Abstract
Slack
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Free
$0
Pro
$7.25*
per month per user
Business+
$12.50*
per month per user
Enterprise
Contact Sales
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Abstract
Slack
Free Trial
No
Yes
Free/Freemium Version
No
Yes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No
No
Entry-level Setup Fee
No setup fee
No setup fee
Additional Details
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*Per active user, per month, when paying once a year.
Pro is $8.75 USD per active user when paying month to month. Business+ is $15.00 USD per active user when paying month to month.
I would definitely recommend Slack to everyone who needs a messaging platform for work. The thing that I most appreciate on Slack is the possibility of talking to my coworkers without using my personal number or personal apps. This way, I can separate what is work and what is not. Slack even has the option to mute notifications after work hours. I'm able to keep track of every project and discuss them in an easy and fast way. Another great thing is that you can keep and check the history of channels and groups, this way the discussions are never lost when someone joins the project in the middle of it or someone leaves, the history is always there. The only thing that bothers me in the platform is the system of threads, where you can easily lose the messages cause they look kind of hidden. If you have multiple subjects with someone and the person only responds in threads, it's very common to lose their messages.
While threads exist to keep conversations organized, managing and finding threads within channels can be cumbersome. Enhancements in thread management and search capabilities could be beneficial.
Slack has a limit on the size of files that can be directly uploaded. Increasing this limit or providing smoother integration with external file-sharing services could be beneficial.
Managing guest access can be cumbersome, and simplifying the process for inviting and controlling guest users would be beneficial.
Slack primarily operates within individual workspaces, making it challenging to collaborate across different workspaces. Enhancing features for inter-workspace communication could improve collaboration for organizations with multiple Slack instances.
As useful as Slack has become within our company, I feel fairly confident we will continue to use Slack as a communication tool. They continue to improve their software and add value to its use within our office. Customer service delivers, which is an absolute must. Looking forward to how they improve.
Abstract has a difficult learning curve. If a feature-branch workflow is new to you, then it will take some getting used to. They make a lot of updates to the interface and these feature releases get ahead of their documentation. They rely heavily on an excellent customer support team and are present on various Slack channels to help design professionals with issues.
As long as you use the basic chat features and nothing more, it really is super easy to understand and use. Once you want to take advantage of some of the more advanced features and capabilities, that's when things get complicated. Anyone who has use SMS or a chat program before will be able to figure out the basics though, so rolling this out should be relatively straightforward and not required exhaustive training. Teaching chat etiquette is something else though.
Abstract by nature is complex and has to respond to whatever changes in Sketch. So there are frequent issues. Support can be slow to respond and are not always helpful, but they are quick to find and patch the bugs. Overall, it's not the best support, but it hasn't been detrimental.
I've never had to contact support for Slack which is a great testament to its ease and use. Adding people outside of the organization takes a little getting used to, but ultimately allows for greater collaboration between FTE and contractors. There is no clear alternative to this software, so it's the best we can do for now.
It always helps if you communicate to everyone in the organization how important it is to drop whatever other chat tools they are using and jump quickly to Slack. They will all fall in love with it.
Microsoft Teams got very confusing for me with all of the tabs and different things to learn how to use it. I felt that Slack has a much cleaner look and makes it easy for anyone to learn how to use. I also like how it integrates seamlessly into our Google/mac workspace!
