The best team chat apps compared: Slack, Teams, Google Chat, WhatsApp and Bugalou (2026)

A team chat has become essential for most businesses. But which one do you choose? Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Chat, plain WhatsApp, or a chat built into your helpdesk? The answer mostly depends on how your team works.

In this article we compare five popular options honestly: what they do well, where they fall short and who they suit best. Prices and plans change regularly, so always check current pricing on the provider's website.

What to look for in a team chat

• Channels and direct messages. Can you create channels per team or topic, public and private?
• Integrations. Does the chat work with the tools you already use?
• Calls and video. Do you need meetings in the same tool?
• Mobile and notifications. Does it work well on a phone, and can you fine-tune notifications?
• Languages. Do you work with international colleagues, and how does the tool handle translation?
• Privacy and control. Is business data under your control, or on personal phones?
• Cost per user. An extra tool per person adds up quickly as your team grows.

1. Slack

Slack is the best-known team chat and the default for many teams.

Strengths:

• A huge range of integrations with other software.
• Threads keep busy channels organized.
• Huddles for quick audio and video calls.
• Slack Connect to work with external parties in a shared channel.

Weaknesses:

• On the free plan you only see the last 90 days of message history.
• Paid plans are priced per user, which adds up for a growing team.
• Customer conversations live in another tool, so you keep switching between Slack and your helpdesk.

Best for: tech and office teams that connect many tools and work in chat all day.

2. Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is the logical choice for businesses that already use Microsoft 365.

Strengths:

• Strong in video meetings and calendars.
• Deeply integrated with Outlook, Word, Excel, SharePoint and OneDrive.
• A translate button to translate individual messages.

Weaknesses:

• Can feel heavy and busy for small teams that just want to chat.
• You get the most out of it if you really live in the Microsoft ecosystem.
• Here too, customer conversations are separate from internal discussion.

Best for: businesses that already use Microsoft 365 and meet online a lot.

3. Google Chat

Google Chat is part of Google Workspace, next to Gmail, Calendar and Drive.

Strengths:

• Convenient if your team already works in Gmail and Google Drive.
• Clean and lightweight.
• Quickly share files from Drive.

Weaknesses:

• Fewer integrations and features than Slack.
• Mainly interesting if you already pay for Google Workspace.

Best for: teams that work fully in Google Workspace and want a simple chat.

4. WhatsApp groups

In many smaller businesses the "team chat" is simply a WhatsApp group. Understandable, since everyone already has it.

Strengths:

• Free and everyone already knows how to use it.
• Works everywhere, including for colleagues who aren't at a computer.

Weaknesses:

• Business data, and often customer data, sits on personal phones. When someone leaves, that data leaves with them.
• No central control: you can't centrally add or remove people or retain messages.
• Work and private life mix, and notifications keep coming outside working hours.
• With many groups it quickly becomes chaotic and important messages get buried.

Best for: very small teams for informal contact. For work involving customer data, we advise against it.

5. Bugalou Team chat

The Bugalou team chat is different from the rest: it's part of a customer service platform, right next to your customer conversations from WhatsApp, email, Instagram and other channels.

Strengths:

• Share a customer conversation as a card in the chat; a colleague assigns it to themselves with "I'll take it".
• Tasks and yes/no questions with buttons, so you see who's doing what.
• Automations post alerts in a channel, for example on a new return.
• Automatic translation per reader in Dutch, English and German, so international colleagues each write and read in their own language (on Pro and Enterprise).
• No extra tool and no extra cost: the team chat is included in every paid Bugalou plan.

Weaknesses:

• No calls or video meetings between colleagues.
• No threads and no external guests.
• Translation (currently) only covers Dutch, English and German.
• Mainly worthwhile if your team also handles customer service in Bugalou; as a general company chat, Slack or Teams offer more.

Best for: customer service teams and online stores, especially with colleagues in several countries. Also read why team chat belongs in your helpdesk.

Comparison at a glance

Which team chat should you choose?

• Does your whole company run on Microsoft 365? Choose Teams.
• Does your team work fully in Google Workspace? Google Chat is the simplest choice.
• Want as many integrations as possible and work in chat all day? Slack.
• Does your work mostly revolve around customer conversations, with colleagues in several countries? Then you'll get the most from a team chat next to your helpdesk, like Bugalou's.
• Using WhatsApp groups for work today? Switch to one of the above, if only to get customer data off personal phones.

You can also combine them: many businesses keep Teams for meetings and use the team chat in their helpdesk for day-to-day discussion about customers.

Tip: is your team still using separate WhatsApp groups? Read the downsides of WhatsApp groups for work and better alternatives, including what to watch out for under GDPR.

Frequently asked questions

What's the best free team chat? Slack, Microsoft Teams and Google Chat have free or low-cost entry options with limitations, such as limited message history. Check the current terms with the provider.

Is WhatsApp suitable as a team chat for work? For informal contact, yes, but for work involving customer data it's not ideal: the data sits on personal phones and there's no central control.

Which team chat translates messages automatically? Microsoft Teams has a translate button per message. Bugalou automatically translates every message into each colleague's reading language, in Dutch, English and German.

This article was last updated in October 2026.