This debate never quite dies, does it? Every time I think we’ve settled it, someone asks again. And honestly, the answer has shifted over the past year as both platforms have evolved.

I’ve helped small teams (under 50 people) set up both Slack and Microsoft Teams across a range of Australian businesses. Here’s what I’ve seen work and what hasn’t.

The Quick Answer

If you’re already deep in the Microsoft 365 ecosystem — Outlook, SharePoint, OneDrive, Excel everywhere — Teams is the path of least resistance. The integration is native and it works.

If you’re using Google Workspace, or a mix of cloud tools, or you just care about the communication experience being good above all else, Slack is better.

That’s the one-paragraph version. Here’s the nuance.

Communication Quality

This is where Slack still wins for most teams I’ve worked with. The threaded conversation model is better thought out. Channels feel more organised. The search actually works well — you can find a message from six months ago without wanting to throw your laptop out the window.

Teams has improved, but the conversation experience still feels like it was designed by someone who thought of chat as a secondary feature bolted onto a meetings platform. Threads exist but feel clunky. The notifications model is confusing — message notifications, channel notifications, activity feed notifications, they all behave differently and the settings to control them are scattered across multiple menus.

For teams that rely heavily on asynchronous text communication — remote teams, distributed teams, teams across time zones — Slack’s communication design is materially better.

Meetings and Video Calls

Teams wins here, and it’s not particularly close. Teams meetings are reliable, feature-rich, and deeply integrated with Outlook calendaring. You schedule a meeting, everyone gets a Teams link, it works.

Slack’s huddles feature has improved — they’re fine for quick informal calls. But for structured meetings with agendas, screen sharing, recording, and participant management, Teams is the stronger platform.

If your team does a lot of video meetings, this matters. If most of your collaboration is text-based, it matters less.

File Sharing and Collaboration

Teams’ integration with SharePoint and OneDrive is its strongest feature. Files shared in a Teams channel are automatically stored in a structured SharePoint location. Co-authoring Word and Excel documents in real time is smooth. Version history is built in.

Slack handles file sharing adequately but it’s not a document management system. Files uploaded to Slack channels are stored in Slack, not in a proper file management structure. For teams that need robust document collaboration, Slack requires a separate tool (Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.) to fill the gap.

Pricing for Small Teams

Slack’s free tier was downgraded in 2025 — the 90-day message history limit makes it impractical for any business use. The Pro plan is $10.75 AUD per user per month.

Teams is included with Microsoft 365 Business Basic ($9.00 AUD per user per month), which also gives you Outlook, OneDrive, SharePoint, and the web versions of Office apps. If you’re already paying for Microsoft 365, Teams costs you nothing extra.

From a pure value perspective, Teams delivers more software per dollar. But “more software” isn’t the same as “better software for your specific needs.”

The Integrations Question

Slack has over 2,600 integrations in its app directory. Teams has fewer but covers the major categories. In practice, what matters isn’t the total number — it’s whether the specific tools your team uses have good integrations with your chat platform.

If you’re using Jira, GitHub, Figma, Notion, or Salesforce, Slack’s integrations are generally more polished and functional. If you’re using Microsoft’s own ecosystem plus a few mainstream business tools, Teams covers it.

One thing I’ve noticed with small Australian businesses specifically: many of them use a mix of tools that doesn’t neatly fit either ecosystem. They’re on Google Workspace for email, Xero for accounting, and some industry-specific application for their core work. In that scenario, neither platform has a decisive integration advantage, and the choice comes down to communication quality.

Administration and Setup

Teams is easier to manage if you have a Microsoft 365 admin already. User management, permissions, and security policies are controlled through the same admin centre as everything else.

Slack’s admin panel is simpler and more intuitive for non-technical administrators. If the person managing your tools doesn’t have an IT background, Slack is easier to configure and maintain.

What I Actually Recommend

For a team of 5-20 people who don’t have strong Microsoft 365 dependency, I recommend Slack. The communication experience is better, the learning curve is gentler, and small teams benefit most from the thoughtful channel and threading design.

For a team of 20-50 people, especially those already on Microsoft 365, Teams is usually the pragmatic choice. The integration benefits compound at scale, the meetings functionality becomes more important, and the file management capabilities matter more as document volumes grow.

For any team: pick one and commit. The worst outcome is running both platforms simultaneously, which some businesses somehow end up doing. Messages get lost, people don’t know where to post things, and you spend more time managing communication tools than actually communicating.

The Uncomfortable Truth

Neither platform is perfect. Slack’s pricing is hard to justify for cash-strapped small businesses. Teams’ user experience still frustrates people who’ve used better-designed communication tools. Both platforms have more features than any small team needs, and the bloat is getting worse, not better.

The best communication tool for your team might actually be a combination of a simple group chat and regular face-to-face conversations. Don’t let the technology distract from what actually matters: are people talking to each other effectively? If the answer’s no, switching platforms won’t fix it.