Slack is a business communication tool developed in 2013 by the American company Slack Technologies. It is a great platform for rapid communication between employees, enabling them to connect peer-to-peer or as a group. Slack has a rich host of extra apps on its marketplace. There is no denying that rapid communication is important for any organization, but it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution. Since Slack is created to support rapid communication only, it doesn’t provide static pages or collaboration tools, and its message lifespan is incredibly short.
That means that Slack is not an intranet or an Enterprise Social Network (ESN). Rather than being an alternative, Slack and Happeo are two different products that complete each other – Slack is for chat, Happeo is for everything else. Continue reading to learn more about the differences between the two and how integrating both tools creates digital synergy. Want to see and compare other Slack alternatives? Visit our intranet platforms comparison.
Feature overview
| Digital workplace | Happeo | Slack |
|---|---|---|
| Search | ✓ | ✓ |
| Third-party app launcher | ✓ | ✗ |
| Integrated Drive Editing | ✓ | ✓ |
| Integrated Docs editing | ✓ | ✗ |
| Integrated Sheets editing | ✓ | ✗ |
| Integrated Slides editing | ✓ | ✗ |
| Collaboration platform | Happeo | Slack |
|---|---|---|
| Employee directory | ✓ |
Limited |
| Slack integration | ✓ | ✗ |
| User-creatable channels | ✓ | ✓ |
| Integrated Hangouts conferencing | ✓ | ✗ |
| Integrated Calendar editing | ✓ | ✓ |
| Jabber, Webex integration | ✓ | ✗ |
| Social intranet | Happeo | Slack |
|---|---|---|
| Page builder | ✓ | ✓ |
| Social channels | ✓ | ✓ |
| Analytics | ✓ | ✓ |
| Personalized news feed | ✓ | ✗ |
| Announcements | ✓ | ✓ |
| Widgets | ✓ | ✗ |
| Branded file templates | ✓ | ✗ |
| Influencer analysis | ✓ |
Limited |
| Overall features | Happeo | Slack |
|---|---|---|
| Mobile intranet app | ✓ | ✓ |
| Push notifications | ✓ | ✓ |
| Single Sign On | ✓ | ✓ |
| ISO compliant security | ✓ | ✓ |
| GDPR compliant | ✓ | ✓ |
| Top-down communications | ✓ | ✗ |
| Bottom-up communications | ✓ | ✓ |
| Custom branding | ✓ |
Logo only |
| Multilingual | ✓ | ✓ |
| Deep Google Workspace integration | ✓ | ✗ |
| User-first design | ✓ | ✓ |
| Fast time to deploy | ✓ | ✓ |
| Google Workspace integration | ✓ | ✗ |
| Office 365 integration | ✓ | ✓ |
See how Happeo stacks up against other alternatives
Happeo vs Jostle
Jostle is a Canadian company that provides an intranet solution to companies that need software to align their internal communications.
Happeo vs Jive
Jive is a software company that provides solutions for internal communications in businesses. Jive is one of the old-school leaders in the industry.
Happeo vs Simplrr
Simpplr is a US-based software company founded in 2014. Simplrr helps with connecting and engaging employees accross departments.
Get the Intranet Comparison Guide
Directly compare our alternative here by downloading the free Intranet Comparison Guide.
Slack isn't the place you work – it's where you talk about it
You can link to files in Drive or make work-related calls, but Slack is not the place where collaboration happens. Slack is excellent for quick, synchronous communication around projects. If your teams are situated across multiple time zones, or if the working hours vary drastically among team members, Happeo is the tool of choice in terms of pure communication around projects. When it comes to actual collaboration, the ability to work on a company’s most-used file types (Sheets, Docs, Slides etc.) natively within the platform, makes Happeo the stronger platform. The longer lifespan of messages in Happeo’s Channels means it caters better towards asynchronous communication.
Slack doesn't provide static information
Slack has no page builder and limited announcement capabilities. Instead, it’s the place where rapid communication happens. While you can link to post threads, finding important information is difficult. Happeo is the main choice here, as it automates static information like HR policies, in-depth quarterly business result analyses or onboarding information to your employees.
Slack gives people a face and a voice
As Slack has no organization chart, the people directory is slightly limited, but it can host as much personal detail as you allow. Since users can freely create channels, it’s definitely the place for synchronous, rapid peer-to-peer communication. Check out the employee directory and organizational chart of Happeo and find out why organizations value Happeo as a good Slack alternative.
File sharing in Slack is a temporary solution
For quick file sharing, Slack is fine. However, since files are stored in the platform itself when you upload something, there is a high risk of duplicate versions. The best Slack alternative talking about file sharing? Happeo - our solution doesn’t store anything in the platform itself, but rather handles everything through Drive. This minimizes the risk of duplicate versions.
Slack could provide more robust analytics
Both platforms have sophisticated analytics, but Happeo’s is richer. In Slack, you can tell the amount of messages sent and files uploaded, as well as which Channels are the most popular. Happeo goes deeper than this and shows you which posts are the most engaging, which topics are most frequently communicated around, and who the main influencers are on a per-channel or global basis. It also provides you with a custom Google Analytics tracking ID.
Together Slack and Happeo create a synergy
Posts created in a Happeo Channel can be directly posted into a connected Slack Channel through our integration. Post something in Happeo and a Slackbot will notify you, making rapid communication a lot more asynchronous. Plus, our Direct-Message (DM) integration allows you to DM your colleagues in Slack from their Happeo profiles. Happeo’s Static + Dynamic communication features, coupled with Slack’s rapid-only communication features, create an all-encompassing digital communication suite.