Taskade vs Slack

	Paid	Free
Design Freedom
The Visual Playground	Not Applicable	Develop customizable templates
Own Your Workspace	Customizability is based on channels and bots	Fully customizable workspace and progress tracking
Consistency Is Simplicity	Not Applicable	Adaptable data visualization
Collaboration
Let’s Talk	Comment syncing, chat support, live video call support	Comment syncing, chat support, live video call support
Going Live	Real-time syncing	Real-time syncing
The Right Tool For The Right Job	A collaboration chatroom for teams	Remote first design tailored for virtual collaboration
Progress Tracking
Get Back On Track	Bot needed for progress tracking	Completion history tracking
The Big Picture	No overall view of projects	Bird’s eye view of workspaces, able to monitor progress on a project level
Mindful Simplicity
Keeping It Clean	Conversations can be segmented into threads	Conversations are segmented based on projects
Passing On Your Legacy	Not Applicable	Simple and intuitive
Launch Speed
Getting Up To Speed	Channel set up is hard to master	Intuitive UI, quick onboarding process
Quick On Your Feet	Performance is inconsistent	Lightweight, Short load times

What Is Slack?

Stewart Butterfield built Slack for a year in 2012 before releasing it to the public in 2013. The team chat app was designed to improve communication within a workspace. Initially, it was only used as an internal communication tool at Butterfield’s previous company. 

Creating Slack turned out to be a smart decision by Butterfield as the communication tool now averages around 10 million daily users and is valued at around $27 billion. Slack’s popularity is due to the fact that it focuses on a common pain point that most organizations have; effective communication.

In early 2015, Slack was hacked which resulted in compromised user data. This caused Slack to add two-factor authentication to enhance its security.

By enabling businesses to communicate more effectively, Slack improves business productivity and thus is used by many companies for their day-to-day operations. A fun fact about Slack? It actually stands for ‘Searchable Log of All Conversation and Knowledge’. Be sure to read our article if you’re interested in knowing more about the full history of Slack.

Let’s have a look at some of Slack’s features.

What Are Some Features of Slack?

Slack is equipped with features that support real-time chat, making it a reliable communication tool to share team messages.

For starters, every Slack workspace consists of channels that function as a topic-focused chat room, and direct messaging for you to communicate with your team members privately. You can set up multiple channels and set their privacy settings accordingly. Anyone can join public channels in your workspace while private channels will require an invite.

Slack also makes it easy for you to add new members to your workspace, which can be done via a unique invite link.

By differentiating between channels and direct messaging, Slack reduces the need for you to rely on email to align your team on specific projects; an update on the project channel should suffice instead of sending out an email.

Users can send direct messages and files via chat and also search for past messages using the search function. However, you should know that Slack’s free version only stores the most recent 10,000 messages for you to search from. If you need access to unlimited message history, you will have to upgrade your plan.

For longer pieces of content such as a project outline, Slack lets you create and edit posts on your desktop. Collaboration for posts is possible by sharing the post with your teammates. Posts are also available on mobile but only as a view-only document.

Integrations and APIs are other features that come in handy when boosting your productivity. Slack integrates with over 150 applications, meaning that it is possible to use Slack as a hub to centralize your notifications from other apps such as Jira, Trello, Google Drive, and more.

For example, you can create a channel to notify engineers on your team whenever there’s a pull request on Github. You can also integrate with Google Calendar to get a ping when a meeting is near. Knowing which integrations are essential to your company can help to boost employee productivity significantly.

Recently in 2022, Slack introduced Huddles which is a quick way for you to communicate with other people within your Slack workspace. Huddles let you share your screen while communicating via voice chat. This is useful in scenarios where you need to quickly align ideas with your team without having to get on a video call.

Speaking of which, Slack also supports video meetings with up to 15 users at once. Although there are other collaboration tools that support video meetings for more users, Slack’s video calls feature can be used in instances that require simple collaboration.

What Is Slack Good For?

Slack is good as a messaging tool, especially since you can organize teams according to channels and group conversations. Slack is akin to Whatsapp or Telegram, but for business purposes. Utilizing Integrations will help make Slack a hub for all of your main business communication so that everyone can stay up to date without endless email threads.

What Are Some Limitations of Slack?

Even though Slack is good as a business communication tool, it does have some limitations as well.

For example, Slack can be overwhelming especially for beginners and newer teams. It takes a while for a newcomer to learn the purpose of each Slack channel, and it could also take a while before a new team figures out exactly how many channels they need to get work done daily. In larger organizations, organizing teams via Slack will take some effort in order to ensure its effectiveness.

Slask does not work well if you’re trying to use it as a project management tool. It should strictly be used only as a hub for project communication. To manage projects effectively, you will need advanced features to keep track of your progress. Fret not for we have a list of the best project management tools so that you can choose the best one to use!

How Much Does Slack Cost?

Slack packages its product at three different price points which are: Free, Pro, and Business+.

Slack Free

• Access to 10,000 recent messages
• 10 integrations
• 1-to-1 video calls

Slack Pro ($6.67/month)

• Full access to your team’s message history
• Unlimited integrations
• Group voice and video calls with up to 15 people
• Collaborate with external guests

Slack Business+ ($12.50/month)

• Advanced security features
• Export messages
• Advanced support and uptime

What Is Taskade?

Taskade is an online productivity and collaboration tool that was founded by John Xie, Dionis Loire, and Stan Chang in 2017. The Y Combinator-backed startup aims to help remote teams and individuals get work done faster and smarter.

Taskade is where remote teams get work done. With Taskade, you can organize projects and tasks, change between multiple project views, automate repetitive workflows, collaborate via built-in video chat with your team, and more, via an all-in-one unified workspace. 

Get a headstart on your projects and find a suitable structure for your notes via Taskade’s versatile collection of templates. Simply choose from a wide variety of templates and add them to your projects to get started instantly!

Taskade is a supercharged productivity app that both individuals and teams can use to collaborate on projects in real-time.

Taskade is the best free Slack alternative. Get started instantly for free today.

Key Features of Taskade

• Project Views. Visualize your projects in several different ways. Cycle between the List, Mind Map, Org Chart, and Board views to work the way you want.
  • List View. This is the default view on Taskade. Create new lists here.
  • Board View. This view lets you work horizontally like a Kanban board. Visualize your workflow and tasks in this full-width view.
  • Mind Map View. This view lets you work in a horizontal tree-structured manner and map out what you have in mind.
  • Action View. Work in table view and stay organized with your task due dates, and more.
  • Org Chart View. Break down larger tasks into smaller ones to help you get things done.

• Zoom In, Zoom Out. Get a bird’s-eye view of the workflow by zooming out on all project views, or zoom in to focus on a specific area.
• Fold/Unfold. Fold (collapse) a parent task/bullet element to hide its subtasks. Indent outline elements with ⌨️ Tab and unfold lists with ⌨️ Shift+Tab.
• Real-time Communication. Chat and video conference with your team while collaborating in real-time on the same page. 
• 500+ Templates. Choose from 500+ templates across 26 categories to improve your productivity and workflows. Customize existing templates or create new ones across your workspaces.
• Multi-Select. Select and format multiple blocks or bulk assign them as tasks to other team members. You can also copy, paste, or indent selected blocks.

• Customize Sub-Tasks. Customize the format of your sub-tasks at individual levels. Choose from headings, numbered lists, shapes, and more.
• Recurring Tasks. Add due dates with start and end times to tasks within your project and set them to repeat daily, weekly, monthly, or even yearly.
• Move Tasks. Move and copy selected tasks to other projects across any workspace. You’ll receive a pop-up notification on completion.
• User Roles & Permissions. Manage collaborators and assign user roles/editing privileges (Owner, Admin, Editor, Checker, Viewer).

• Sort Tasks. Sort sub-tasks/children elements by completed/uncompleted stats or the due date. Task sorting can be accessed from a convenient pop-up menu.
• Search. Search within projects or globally across workspaces and subspaces. Instantly browse and jump between projects anywhere in the Taskade.
• Keyboard Shortcuts. Navigate projects, create content blocks, reorder elements, and complete tasks using a set of handy keyboard shortcuts.

• Team Calendar. Aggregate all tasks and projects in a shared calendar. The Taskade calendar integrates with Google (two-way), Apple, and Outlook. 
• Reorder Tasks. Lists in Taskade aren’t set in stone. Reorder tasks and find them a new home with intuitive drag-and-drop mechanics.
• Project History. See all the changes made by you and other collaborators. Click on the entries to navigate to the edited items within the project.
• Version History. Taskade saves snapshots of your project so that you can restore a previous version of your project with a single click.

• Export and Print. You can export your projects as plain text or markdown files. Attach them to emails, presentations, or for print.

• Cloud File Upload. Share files directly from Google Drive, Dropbox, Instagram, and Box in your projects with our integrations.
• Breakdown Larger Tasks. Organize your thoughts with Taskade’s unlimited hierarchy to break down large projects into tasks.
• Quick Search. Use CMD / CTRL + K to jump between any projects within Taskade web and apps.

For an exhaustive list of Taskade’s features, click here.

Taskade Pros

• Free-forever plan is loaded with features
• Real-time collaboration within the same project 
• Free built-in video call and chat function in each project
• Customizable templates to give you a headstart
• Work and chat in the same window, in the same app
• Frequent updates based on user/your feedback and suggestions
• Tabbed workflow for working with multiple Projects

Taskade Cons

• No custom APIs (yet)

Taskade Pricing

Taskade Free Plan

• Unlimited Tasks & Projects
• Unlimited Members & Guests
• Unlimited Folders & Teams
• Templates, Calendar, Repeat Tasks
• Real-time Collaboration
• Built-in Free Chat and Video Call

Taskade Unlimited Plan – Starts from $5/month

• Everything in Free, plus:
• Version History
• Advanced Permission
• Cloud Upload Integration
• 2-Way Calendar Integration

Click here for more information.

Is Taskade Right for You?

Taskade can be used by individuals and teams working from anywhere. Use Taskade individually or collaborate with your team for weekly agendas, team meetings, note-taking, project management, product roadmaps, and more. 

Make use of customizable board views to visualize your projects into digestible smaller tasks. Multiple board views are available even on Taskade’s free plan, allowing you to get more work done the smarter way. 

Collaborate with your team in real-time with free and unlimited chat and video conferencing available on every project. Automatic syncing ensures that your data is always up to date across devices.

Our customizable templates are available even with our free plan. Find the perfect template to help you get started with your project, and customize it to fit your needs!

Taskade is the simplest way to create task lists, checklists, and workflows. Manage projects and get more work done the simple way with Taskade.

Taskade is the best free Slack alternative. Try Taskade for free today.