The main problem I saw was the 10,000 message limit for free users. That may not seem like a big deal but it can be. For example, one group that uses it is Launch School, a great software development school with a huge focus on mastery. I got into some really great discussions with a particular user (and a group of users) but after about two weeks all those discussions were completely wiped out due to the 10,000 message limit.
This might seem like more of an issue for larger groups but even small groups run into this issue. I also do sub-contracting for a company that uses Slack, and there is a only single digit number of users. We’ve run into the limit and now we’re losing institutional knowledge every time a new post is made.
This last example is partly my fault as I’m the one that encouraged use of and even setup Slack for that company in the first place. I read articles at that time, about 4 years ago when Slack was pretty new, that open source projects should stay away from Slack due to this limit as they saw this issue right away when they tried to use it.
I figured that a small company with a handful of users would be fine with 10,000 messages. I was wrong. 10,000 messages isn’t even enough for one user. It’s a number that sounds big, but it’s not, not if it is used every day.
For the Slack groups that are more of a virtual tech community, the ephemeral nature of this Slack could be considered a feature rather than a bug. Like a virtual water cooler it may just be place to hang out rather than something that needs to be preserved.
So this is why tech groups can get away with using Slack for free. It is just a place to hang out, chat, network and maybe learn something. However, if you are building something like an open source project or are a business it doesn’t make sense to throw away institutional knowledge with every new message past 10,000.
Ok, so what should businesses or open source projects use instead? Discord is a pretty good drop-in replacement. I have seen some forward-thinking tech groups use it but most of them seem to shy away because Discord is for gamers. I don’t know why it is for gamers. It seems to work fine for non-gamers. I have never used it for gaming or gaming discussion and I probably never will.
I’m not the first person to figure this out. It seems open source projects have as well, so much so that some major ones such as Redux and GraphQL are using it. Discord even supports and endorses this usage as they have a whole page dedicated to listing out other projects and how open source projects are using Discord here.
It works just as well as Slack but it is so much better because every message over 10,000 on Discord doesn’t delete your 10,000 oldest message. Yes, I am aware that Slack doesn’t actually delete the messages and you can get access to all of the messages in your history if you start paying for it. But all the groups that I see using Slack for free are never going to pay for it and so those messages are effectively deleted from the user’s point of view.
Lastly, I should note that Discord does share one common glaring issue with Slack. It is closed-source so there is always the possibility of the whole thing going down and taking all of your data with it. I think users concerned with this sort of thing wouldn’t have been using Slack in the first place though. However, there are some nice-looking open source alternatives to Discord that I haven’t used but I’ve seen good things about.
The usual downside of open source chat programs is that they are generally self-hosted which means it is a server you need maintain creating more work for you. Slack users are usually looking for something requiring a bit less maintenance.
Here are good three options I found which are hosted AND open-source:
Rocket.chat seems good because it open source but also looks to have a nice hosted option that is a lot cheaper that Slack. It also has a lot of stars on Github and looks like it have been very actively developed over the last three years. It’s also developed on top of the Meteor platform which I’m a fan of.
Riot.im is the other open source chat program that looks interesting as it made using Matrix which is “an open network for secure, decentralized communication.” So it not just open source but using an open, decentralized protocol, cool. Also, they say it is free with not limits on features, group size or usage for public and private rooms. But they also say that paid plans are coming soon so I don’t know if the free without limits will last forever. A good project to keep an eye on.
Spectrum.chat is the last one, it is web only so it is bit more like a forum that looks like Slack but it has free unlimited open channels. Private channels are also only $10/month. The per channel pricing (for private channels) makes a lot more sense for tech communities than Slack’s per user.
Finally, one good option for free businesses and open source projects that really want to stick with Slack:
SlackArchive.io is an interesting solution to the original 10,000 message limit problem. It appears to have stopped working recently as it was run by one guy and didn’t have a sustainable business model:
The good news is that has been open sourced now as the creator of SlackArchive.io promised. Bad news means that you will probably need to host it yourself. However, if you really want to stick with Slack this may be a good solution.