Microsoft Teams vs Slack vs Google Chat: Which Team Chat Fits Your Small Business?

Why team chat replaced the internal email pile-up

Most small businesses reach a point where internal email stops working. Quick questions get buried, group threads spiral, and nobody knows which version of a message is the latest. Team chat tools solve this by giving you organised channels, instant messaging and file sharing in one place — so the day-to-day chatter stays out of your inbox.

The three names you’ll hear most are Microsoft Teams, Slack and Google Chat. They do broadly the same job, but each fits a different kind of business. The good news is that the right choice is usually decided for you by the software you already pay for.

The three options at a glance

• Microsoft Teams — bundled with most Microsoft 365 business subscriptions. Best if you already use Outlook, Word, Excel and SharePoint.
• Google Chat — part of Google Workspace. Best if your business runs on Gmail, Google Docs and Drive.
• Slack — a standalone chat tool with a strong free tier and a huge range of app connections. Best for fast-moving teams that want chat at the centre of everything.

Microsoft Teams

If you’re paying for Microsoft 365, you almost certainly already have Teams — which makes it the default choice for a lot of UK small businesses. Beyond chat and channels, it handles video calls, screen sharing and file collaboration, and it ties neatly into the rest of the Microsoft world. You can open a shared spreadsheet inside a chat and edit it together without leaving the app.

The trade-off is that Teams can feel heavy. There are a lot of buttons, and staff who just want a quick chat sometimes find it overwhelming at first. It’s also at its best when your files already live in SharePoint and OneDrive; if they don’t, some of the tidiest features go unused. For most businesses already committed to Microsoft 365, though, Teams is the sensible, no-extra-cost option.

Slack

Slack built its reputation on being fast, friendly and genuinely pleasant to use. Channels are easy to set up, search works well, and it connects to a huge number of other tools — booking systems, help desks, project boards and more. Teams that live in chat all day tend to love it.

The catch is cost and history. Slack’s free plan limits how far back you can see your messages, which matters if you ever need an old conversation as a record. Paid plans lift that limit and add admin and security controls, but that’s an extra bill on top of whatever you already pay for email and documents. Slack makes most sense when chat is the beating heart of how your team works and you’re happy to pay for a tool that does that one job brilliantly.

Google Chat

If your business runs on Google Workspace, Google Chat is your equivalent of Teams — it’s already included. It’s clean, simple and works smoothly with Gmail, Google Docs and Drive. Sharing a document and jumping on a Google Meet call are only a click away.

Google Chat is less feature-packed than Slack or Teams, which is a plus if you want something uncluttered and a minus if you need lots of integrations. For a small team that already lives in Google’s tools and wants straightforward messaging without another subscription, it does the job well.

Cost: what you’ll actually pay

The honest answer is that most small businesses shouldn’t pay extra at all. If you’re on Microsoft 365, Teams is included. If you’re on Google Workspace, Google Chat is included. Slack is the one that usually adds a separate cost once you outgrow its free plan.

So the real question isn’t “which is cheapest” — it’s “which comes with the tools I’m already paying for?” Adding a second ecosystem just for chat rarely pays off. If you’d like help working out what your current subscriptions already cover, our pricing page explains how we keep this simple.

Security basics you shouldn’t skip

Whichever tool you choose, the platform itself is only part of the picture. All three encrypt your messages, but the weak points are almost always human:

• Turn on multi-factor authentication for every account. A chat login is a doorway into your business, and a password alone isn’t enough. If you’re unsure how this works, our guide to multi-factor authentication explained walks through it in plain English.
• Control who can join channels. Guests and external contacts are useful, but review them regularly so old contractors don’t keep access.
• Set a clear rule on what gets shared. Chat feels informal, so people paste passwords, card details and confidential files without thinking. A one-line policy prevents most problems.
• Use business accounts, not personal ones. With a proper business plan, an admin can remove access the moment someone leaves.

Getting these basics right is exactly the kind of thing that sits under good cyber security — small settings that quietly prevent big headaches.

Which should you choose?

For most small businesses, the decision is refreshingly simple. Already on Microsoft 365? Use Teams. Already on Google Workspace? Use Google Chat. Both are included, both do the job, and neither adds to your bill. Choose Slack only if chat is central to how your team works and you’re happy to pay for a best-in-class messaging tool on top.

Whatever you pick, the winning move is to commit to one tool, switch everyone across, and turn on the security basics from day one. If you’d like a hand deciding — or setting it up properly with the right controls in place — get in touch and we’ll point you to the option that fits how your business already works.