Here is a simple comparison of Slack vs. Ryver to see which one is better in terms of features like cross-platform use, team communication, files upload, calls, and more. No doubt, “Slack” is one of the best team communication applications, but the new competitor “Ryver” also offers some powerful features which makes it quite intriguing in comparison to Slack. But, the major question which remains between these two applications is that which one is better and why, as both of them are great apps for team communication.
So, to ease up things for you, I will draw a comparison between the features of both Slack and Ryver to find out which one is better in this post. By going through the comparison between them, you can choose which one is better depending on the features which are important and useful to you.
The Comparison between Slack and Ryver based on Features (in free plan):
Do note that the comparison will be limited to free plans of both these services.
Cross-Platform:
- Slack: It is a cross-platform application and is available for Windows, Mac OSX, Linux, iPhone, Android, Windows Phone, and also offers a web application.
- Ryver: Ryver is also a cross-platform application and can be used on Windows, Mac OSX, Desktop Browsers, iPhone, Android, and Windows Phone. It has a Chrome extension as well.
Verdict:
Both the services are available for all the platforms, so no apparent advantage here of using one service over another.
Integrations in free plan:
- Slack: Slack offers a vast range of native integrations for applications like Twitter, Asana, MailChimp, Giphy, Skype, Foursquare, and more. But, the catch is that you can only integrate up to 10 applications in the free version of Slack.
- Ryver: Ryver doesn’t put a limit on app integrations in the free plan and you can integrate as many apps as you want. However, it offers native integrations for much fewer apps as compared to Slack. It offers some native integrations like Trello, Zapier, MailChimp, Basecamp, Evernote, etc. But, if you would like to integrate more applications then you can use the “Zapier” app to connect tons of apps with Ryver.
Verdict:
One of the reasons for popularity of Slack is the availability of integrations with other apps, and Ryver has also provided that feature. Additionally, Ryver does not puts any limit to number of integrations you can have, though it lacks in number of native integrations that are available yet. So, you will need to see which services you want to integrate, and then decide which of these services you want to go ahead with.
Number of users in free plan:
- Slack: You can invite and add up to 3-1000 users in your Slack teams or channels for conversations in the free plan.
- Ryver: But, Ryver lets you add unlimited users for team communication in the free version.
Verdict:
Both Slack as well as Ryver offer virtually unlimited number of users in the free plan. So, no clear winner here.
Guest Access:
- Slack: Slack don’t have any native option to invite guests to any conversation. That means if you want to invite and add someone from outside your organisation, then you’ve to create a separate team for that.
- Ryver: Unlike Slack, Ryver comes with a unique feature using which you’ll be able to invite guests to any conversation without actually adding them permanently to the team.
Verdict:
If you have to chat a lot with external users, then Ryver wins on this front. Otherwise, Slack also does provide a way out, though not as easy as compared to Ryver.
Search History in free plan:
- Slack: It offers searchable message history of up to 10,000 recent team messages in the free version.
- Ryver: Whereas, Ryver offers unlimited searchable message history.
Verdict:
For any team communication app, ability to search through previous messages is a big requirement. The fact that Slack limits it to just 10,000 recent messages is a big disadvantage for any serious use of Slack. And Ryver wins on this front big time as it provides unlimited message search.
Files Storage Limit in the free plan:
- Slack: In the free plan, you’ll get 5 GB of total file storage for the team.
- Ryver: Unlimited file storage for the teams in the free plan.
Verdict:
Obviously, Ryver wins on this front as well, as it provides unlimited file storage in free plan. This means you don’t have to separately use a cloud storage service like Google Drive to store team docs.
Audio Calls:
- Slack: Slack allows you to start an audio call with any of your team members from the “Direct Messages” list.
- Ryver: Currently, Ryver doesn’t have the option to make an audio call to team members. However, we have heard back from Ryver team that Audio / Video integration will come shortly via third party.
Verdict:
Slack wins big time here. If you need to do audio calls with your team members, then you can’t use Ryver as of now. However, once Ryver also has this option, then we will need to see how its integrated and ease of use.
Bots Integration:
- Slack: Apart from letting you integrate apps, Slack also lets you add chat bots to your channels with whom you can literally have conversations to get things done.
- Ryver: Currently, chat bots are not available for Ryver as Slack does.
Verdict:
I really like integrating bots in Slack, as they prove to be very useful. This basically makes it easy to do lot of things from one single place.
Group Chat:
- Slack: You can create private channels for group chat in Slack or use the public channels to communicate with all invited users.
- Ryver: Ryver also allows you to have group conversations by creating private teams.
Verdict:
Both of these services are pretty good for group chats; ultimately, that’s the whole point of these services :)
One to One Chat:
Apart from letting you have group conversations, both Slack and Ryver also allows you to have a one on one chat with any team members from “Direct Messages” section.
Forum:
- Ryver: Ryver comes with a separate section named, “Forum” where you’ll be able to discuss something with all your team members no matter in which team they belong to.
- Slack: Slack doesn’t have any direct “Forum” section, but the public channels work similar to the forums in Ryver.
Verdict:
Even though both of these services have some sort of implementation of Forum, but I particularly like Ryver’s implementation better.
Posts:
- Slack: If you would like to start a long discussion on any specific topic, then you can use the “Post” feature of Slack to create a post and then get feedback from team members on posts as comments.
- Ryver: In the same manner as Slack, Ryver also comes with a section where you will be able to create posts and start a discussion as comments with your team.
Verdict:
Again, both Ryver as well as Slack perform equally well on this front.
Reminders:
Both Slack and Ryver have a very useful option called “Reminders” using which you’ll be able to set a reminder for any post or message thread.
So, Slack vs. Ryver, which one is better?
The purpose of this post was to provide a comparison between Slack and Ryver (free plans only). I hope the above given feature by feature comparison will help you deciding which service is best for you.
If I have to summarize, then I would say that if you are looking for a completely free plan without a limit on anything (number of team members, file storage, integrations, search history, etc.), then Ryver is the preferred choice. But if you are looking for some more polished service which has features like Audio Chat, bots, and more native integrations, then go with Slack.
So, which one did you decide to go with? Let me know in comments below.
