Our picks · 6 tools reviewed

Best Team chat software for 2026

Messaging apps for real-time and threaded conversations inside a company. Below: the names buyers expect to see, the newer tools gaining ground, and how their key features and prices compare. How we pick; nobody pays for a place here.

Feature	Mattermost Category leader	Rocket.Chat Category leader	Slack Category leader	Zulip Category leader	Pumble	Twist
Pricing	Contact sales	Contact sales	Free plan $7.25/user/month billed annually ($8.75 monthly)	Free plan $3.50/user/mo	Free plan $2.49/user/month billed annually ($2.99 monthly)	Free plan $6/user/month (Unlimited)
Best for	Regulated enterprises and government teams that must run chat on their own or air-gapped infrastructure.	Government and defense organizations that need federated, self-hosted chat with data kept on their own infrastructure.	Teams of 10-5,000+ that run on many connected apps and need the largest integration ecosystem, though the free plan keeps only 90 days of history.	Distributed teams and open-source communities that work asynchronously and want every conversation threaded by topic.	Teams of 5-50 that want Slack-style chat with unlimited history at a few dollars per seat, though the free plan caps integrations at three apps.	Remote teams of 5-50 across time zones that prefer threaded async discussion over real-time chat, though it has no built-in calls and the free plan keeps one month of history.
Team size	51–500+ people	51–500+ people	1–500+ people	2–500 people	1–500 people	1–50 people
Channels	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Threaded replies	Not listed	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Direct and group messages	Not listed	Yes	Yes	Not listed	Yes	Yes
Searchable history	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
App integrations	Yes	Not listed	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Huddles and calls	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Not listed
Visit	Visit	Visit	Visit	Visit	Visit	Visit