Slack And Zoom
Zoom vs Slack – Which is Best for Your Business in 2021?
Which is the better choice? Let’s put Slack vs Zoom to the test.
We’ve compiled this comparison of Slack vs Zoom to make your choice of which platform to use (or which platform to use when) easier.
Let’s get straight into what each platform does.
Some people are quicker than others to figure out how to leverage the features of the new technologies in platforms such as Microsoft Teams, Google Workspace, Slack, Basecamp and Zoom—which can. The COVID-19 outbreak brought waves of new users to Zoom Video Communications Inc. And Slack Technologies Inc., but this week we find out how many are actually paying for the services, and how.
What is Zoom?
Zoom Video Communications launched in 2011. The service offered the world a more convenient way to chat over video.
As people reject time-consuming downloads and installations, Zoom provides something new. With a couple of clicks, you can be online and collaborating in seconds.
Today, Zoom combines cloud video collaboration, simple meetings, group messaging, and file sharing.
The platform is easy-to-use and convenient, with everything from screen sharing to HD audio. Plus, Zoom is available on all devices too, from your Mac to your Samsung Galaxy.
And fragmenting the messaging app market even further, Zoom has now launched Zoom Chat.
What is Slack?
Slack is a messaging and collaboration tool for teams and businesses. Launched in 2013, it’s one of the original team collaboration services.
While Zoom was still pursuing video domination, Slack was already introducing us to a new way of work. Today’s teams primarily use Slack for flexible and convenient messaging.
Slack sets itself apart from the crowd by being one of the most flexible software solutions. There are hundreds of Slack integrations available. You can even integrate Slack with Zoom!
Zoom features
Zoom is an ideal alternative to glitchy and complex video software. The service offers plenty of features for high-quality meetings. You can set up video conferences with virtual backgrounds, host webinars, and create breakout rooms.
Zoom’s audio transcript feature turns audio into text for easier discoverability. Zoom also offers Zoom Chat for messaging, and Zoom Phone for telephony. With plenty of flexible integrations, you can also combine your favorite tools with Zoom.
The major features of Zoom include:
- Zoom Phone for full VoIP access
- Zoom Meetings for web-based conferencing
- Video webinars and town-hall meetings
- Business messaging with Zoom Chat
- Integrations with many leading tools (like Slack)
- Conference rooms (with no downloads)
- Support for up to 1,000 participants and 10,000 viewers
Slack features
So, what happens when you compare Zoom vs Slack?
Designed as an in-house communications tool, Slack is as close to a collaboration staple as it gets.
If Zoom is a video tool at its core, then Slack’s heart is in messaging.
If you’re looking for a place to consistently communicate with the rest of your team, Slack can give you that. It offers everything from group messaging with message threading to one-on-one conversations.
Core Slack features above and beyond messaging include:
- Custom notifications and do not disturb
- Secure encryption end-to-end
- Integrations with hundreds of leading tools
- Guest access and shared channels (for external chat)
- Audio and video conferencing
- Screen and file sharing
- One-on-one or group conversations
This team collaboration tool brings all the moving parts of your business together in one place.
What’s more, Slack integrates with dozens of other tools too, from Box, to Google Drive.
With Slack you can:
- Share files and documents
- Speak in a group via messaging, or one-on-one
- Enjoy dozens of integrations, or make your own with the API
- Access encryptions for securely transferred data
- Use two-way audio and video calling
- Use comprehensive search for your conversations
- Create full user profiles
Zoom vs Slack benefits
Zoom benefits
There were 200 million users active on Zoom in April 2020.
People love Zoom because it’s easy to set up and use. One click is all it takes to start or join any meeting. Zoom also offers plenty of participant and collaboration controls. You don’t need any help from an IT team.
Other Zoom benefits include:
- Waiting rooms for your videos: Waiting rooms make it easy to control your meetings. Hosts and co-hosts can add and remove participants and adjust their level of control.
- Phone systems: Zoom Phone ensures you can connect your collaboration apps to your PBX. Small businesses can run their entire communication stack through Zoom.
- Marketplace: Zoom integrates with dozens of third-party apps, including Slack and PayPal. Open APIs also make it easier to create your own integrations.
- Zoom hardware: Build your own Zoom Rooms with high-level hardware. Hardware as a service keeps costs low too. You just pay for the meeting tools you need.
- Flexibility: Join Zoom from a Mac, PC, Linux, iOS, or Android device. Using Zoom is the same from any device thanks to a commitment to consistency.
- Affordable straightforward pricing: You can get started for free. Scaling Zoom is easy too, with predictable and custom pricing packages.
- Growing security strategy: Zoom is currently investing in better security for everyone. Zoom encrypts all audio, video, and screen sharing data as standard.
- Breakout rooms: Create up to 50 breakout rooms and split users into different environments for conversations. Breakout rooms make it easy to control team conversations.
Slack benefits
For quick chat and constant conversations between colleagues, Slack is excellent. It also has tons of integrations for extra functionality. You can set your team up with Slack in minutes. Benefits of Slack include:
- Shared Channels: Shared channels make it easy to work with external contacts. You can connect your Slack channels with the channels of contractors and other teams.
- Integrations: Slack has hundreds of integrations. You can link your chat app to workflow tools, CRM systems and other must-have features.
- Communication options: Slack offers calls via voice and video. You can also share screens to add context to your conversations.
- Simplicity: Slack is easy to use. The interface is intuitive and simple. Plus, you can search for messages and conversations in seconds.
- Flexibility: You can use Slack on your Mac, PC, Android, or iOS device. Slack offers a convenient experience no matter where you log on.
- Developer tools: Building custom tools is simple with Slack. You can build a bot to automate tasks and use the Slack API.
- Affordable: Slack comes with a free version for small companies. If you need a premium option, prices are low enough to suit any team.
How to make breakout rooms in Zoom
Zoom breakout rooms allow users to split meetings into up to 50 sessions. Meeting hosts can split participants into these sessions manually or automatically.
To enable breakout rooms as a feature for Zoom, sign into the web portal as an admin. Click on Account Management then Account Settings. Toggle the Breakout Room setting to On.
Click the checkbox to allow meeting hosts to pre-assign participants to rooms.
Only meeting hosts can assign participants to breakout rooms. Co-hosts can leave and join any breakout room after joining a room assigned by the host.
- To create a breakout room:
- Start a scheduled or instant meeting and click Breakout Rooms
- Select the number of rooms you want to create
- Choose to automatically or manually assign participants to room. The automatic option allows Zoom to split participants evenly into each room. You can also let participants select their preferred room.
- Click Create Breakout Rooms
After creating a breakout room, click Options to view your settings. Options include allowing participants to return to the main session at any time.
You can also add a countdown timer for after you close a breakout room. Admins can set breakout rooms to close automatically after so many minutes.
To broadcast a message to all your breakout rooms, click Breakout Rooms. Next, Broadcast Message to All, type your message and click Broadcast.
Slack vs Zoom pricing
Zoom pricing
Zoom pricing comes in four different variants. The one that’s likely to be best for you will depend on the size of your company and your unique needs.
- Basic: The Basic plan, with support for up to 100 participants is free. However, while you get unlimited 1-to-1 meetings, you only have a 40 minute limit on group meetings.
- Pro: $14.99 per month per host. This supports up to 100 participants with a meeting duration limit of 24 hours.
- Business: $19.99 per month per host (10 host minimum). This offers all the features of Pro, with support for up to 300 participants.
- Enterprise: $19.99 per month per host (50 host minimum). This supports up to 500 participants and comes with all the features of Business.
Supplementing the four subscription plans, Zoom also has unique conference room options. The Zoom video webinar package comes with extra functionality available for any plan.
Zoom’s flexible pricing makes it ideal for any business. For the occasional video conference, or regular boardroom discussions, Zoom is ideal.
Slack pricing
Slack also offers users a range of pricing packages to choose from.
- Free: The first option for Slack is the free version. This is popular and has no time constraints on meetings. It’s perfect for a small company with limited needs.
- Standard: $6.67 per person, per month. This plan adds unlimited message archive functionality. You also get unlimited access to apps, group calls, and guest accounts.
- Plus: $12.50 per month per user: This plan adds 99.99% uptime guarantees to your Standard package. There’s also user provisioning, SAML-based single sign-on, and corporate exports for messages.
- Enterprise Grid: Quote based pricing. This plan adds unlimited workspaces to the mix. There’s also support for data loss prevention, e-discovery, and more. You also get your own designated customer success team.
Just like Zoom, Slack ensures that there’s something for everyone in their pricing strategy. Options exist for one-person startups and large companies alike.
Slack vs Zoom security
Slack security
Let’s look at Slack’s promise for enterprise-grade data protection. Identity and device management features like single sign-on are available. You can also claim your domain with Slack and use enterprise mobility management. Slack encrypts all data at rest and in transit. The company also protects information with Slack Enterprise Key Management.
Slack’s security strategy includes information governance plans. Users can access global retention policies and custom terms of service.
Zoom security
When it comes to Zoom security, it has a number of ways your logins can be done. You can create your own username and password within Zoom, or you utilise Single Sign On (SSO) and use your own identity for logging in. This will then bring enterprise security to your Zoom logins.
It supports Google, Facebook, and your own SSO based on SAML or OAuth authentication methods. These include Okta as well as other enterprise identity management platforms like Centrify, Microsoft Active Directory, Gluu, Okta, OneLogin, PingOne, Shibboleth, and many others.
Zoom utilises a conference ID for every meeting. Previously all meetings were set to have this ID and without a PIN code, meaning anyone could join a meeting with just guessing a 9-12 digit meeting ID.
Is Slack or Zoom more secure?
Slack offers enterprise-grade data protection. Single sign-on domain claiming are available with Slack. Users can access enterprise mobility management. Slack also encrypts all data in transit and at rest. You can also protect information with Enterprise Key Management.
Check Slack’s information governance plans and retention policies for insights into privacy.
Zoom also has a much stronger security architecture today. Zoom will not hold any identifiable information on users. The company also encrypts all audio, video, and screen data.
Zoom waiting rooms now prevent unwanted people from attending meetings. You can disable private chat or control recording and screen sharing permissions. Hosts and co-hosts can lock meetings and remove users.
Who wins Slack vs Zoom?
Both Slack and Zoom have plenty to offer. They provide ideal solutions for bringing teams together. Whether you’re looking for video conferencing, messaging, or both, each solution has its pros and cons.
Zoom is a competitively priced video-conferencing software for companies with a video-first culture. Connecting with people inside or outside of your team is simple with Zoom. You can even build custom Zoom Rooms for in-office conferencing then take your conversations “offline” with Zoom Chat.
Slack is a versatile collaboration tool that’s fantastic for a wide range of businesses. If you’re looking for a messaging software that puts chat first, this is the collaboration tool for you.
Slack puts text-based messaging at the heart of the team communication strategy while offering calling and meeting options. If you can’t find the native functionality in Slack, there’s usually an integration for that.
In all likelihood, your company probably already has instances of both Zoom and Slack. So, your issue is how you choose between which one as your primary collaboration platform.
Here’s how you can have both and get around Slack vs Zoom
Can’t decide?
We don’t blame you. Both tools are excellent for improving company culture and communication.
Slack And Zoom Jobs
To make the choice even tougher, some of your employees are probably already using one tool or the other (or both).
So, what if you don’t want to choose?
Well, you have two options there.
1 – Integrate Zoom and Slack for calling and meetings
The first is to simply integrate the Zoom app for Slack into your Slack workspaces. With the Zoom integration for Slack, you can launch a Zoom meeting in seconds. Just type /Zoom into your content bar.
You’ll also get information on the details of the meeting and who’s in the call.
Slack admins can even change the default setting for your audio service to Zoom. Every time someone clicks on the Zoom phone in Slack, they’ll launch their conversation in Zoom.
Slack has an app for Zoom available in its integrations marketplace.
Compare Slack And Zoom
When you install the Zoom app, you can start meetings and calls through Zoom, from your Slack channels. Zoom users can start video conversations, share screens, and direct messages from any Slack channel, dm, or private group.
Users can access the Zoom app on Slack with the /Zoom command. Features include the ability to:
- Start a meeting
- Join a meeting
- Access a meeting recording link
- Launch a Zoom phone call
- Start a meeting with a topic
The only problem?
This allows you to connect the people in your team through calls. The integration doesn’t go any further than that.
You can’t send a message to someone in Zoom from inside of your Slack workspace, or share files.
At least, you can’t do that with the Slack <>Zoom integration.
2 – Combine Slack and Zoom with Mio
With Mio, you can sync multiple platforms in your workspace, including Slack and Zoom.
We’re not just talking about clicking on the phone in your Slack chat and launching a Zoom call. Mio allows employees using Zoom Chat to message someone on Slack, and vice versa. There’s no need to switch between apps.
Mio does its work in the background so team members can continue to use the tools that they love. Whether it’s Zoom or Slack, there’s no need to switch between apps to chat with your colleagues.
Messages sent from Slack to Zoom users appear within the Zoom chat inbox, and vice versa.
You can even send a file from Zoom Chat to someone in Slack, without having to create your own Slack account.
Why force your business onto one app that only half your teams use when you can let them choose their preferred app and chat cross-platform?
If you’re interested in Zoom and Slack interoperability, join our waitlist.
Read Next: How to Connect Zoom Chat and Slack
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Due to the current Coronavirus pandemic and the large-scale shift to teleworking, we’ve recently posted on how to prepare yourself and your staff for ‘work from home’ (WFH) and warned of common mistakes that can lead to compromise of endpoints and company networks. In this post, we take a look at some popular teleworking software and highlight some of the privacy and security concerns to be aware of.
Securing Slack and MS Teams Against Malicious Actors
There are likely more than 60 million daily users of workplace chat apps like Slack and Microsoft Teams, and both platforms have seen increased growth as the Coronavirus pandemic has forced most businesses to move to remote work wherever possible. Such apps are vital in today’s digital, distributed workplace, but CISOs and security teams need to be aware of the security implications of using such software.
It is relatively trivial for an attacker on a compromised machine to exfiltrate all of a user’s entire Slack workspaces, chat messages, files and history. Worse, attackers can gain current access to the workspace by stealing the stored session cookies on the user’s machine. As researchers noted earlier this month, all an attacker has to do on a Mac is copy off the entire directory at ~/Library/Application Support/Slack (or alternatively, ~/Library/Containers/com.tinyspeck.slackmacgap/Data/Library/Application Support/Slack if using the sandboxed, App Store version). On Windows, the same data can be found at %AppData%RoamingSlack.
Having acquired the data, the attacker can then start up a virtual machine instance, install the Slack app, and copy the stolen data to the same location on the VM from where it came (the user name need not be the same). Launching Slack will then log the attacker into the user’s workspaces and give them full, live access. Although this activity will be recorded in the workspace Access Logs on the server-side, it will not be obvious to the user unless the attacker actively tries to impersonate the user in the workspace.
Because the Slack data on the user’s machine is exposed to any unsandboxed process running as the logged in user, it’s possible for a malicious app to exfiltrate this data without the victim’s awareness.
While Slack’s developers have acknowledged the issue, their official response is that this is not an urgent issue for them at this time, so security teams are going to need to take their own steps to ensure that the organization’s workspace is secure. These include, in the first instance, ensuring all company devices have a good EDR solution to prevent malware from infecting the system to start with. Secondly, educate users and IT admins about the need to regularly sign out of other devices. This may or may not require a password depending on your workspace settings.
Thirdly, as with all password protected accounts, remind users to change passwords on a regular basis and to set up 2FA for Slack. With workspace platforms like Slack, changing passwords can be easily overlooked. Workspace owners and users can review access logs to check whether any unknown devices have been logged into the account.
The Microsoft Teams’ app, Slack’s major competitor, has also faced security issues in the last 9 or 10 months. Last June, the Teams’ Windows Desktop app was found to be vulnerable to a bug in a dependency, the Squirrel framework, that could allow arbitrary code execution, malicious downloads and privilege escalation. In September of last year, researchers discovered the Teams app was vulnerable to Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) and a Client Side Template Injection. These vulnerabilities have been addressed in recent Teams.app updates, so it is vital that IT admins ensure users are updating these applications in a timely manner.
Regardless of what platform you use, make sure for critical meetings you have a backup plan in place. MS Teams had a 3hr outage back in February when Microsoft incredibly forgot to renew a critical security certificate. Our online digital world may be more susceptible to disruption now more than ever before as people practice social distancing and bandwidth comes under increasing pressure. Regular communication channels from email to telephone may need to be pressed into service in the event of service unavailability. Those, particularly email, have their own security challenges, of course, including phishing and SIM swapping.
Security & Privacy While Using Video Conferencing Software
Zoom and Skype are great ways to hold meetings from small teams to tens of thousands. But these apps also have security and privacy implications.
First, ensure your own physical space is suitable for a meeting. Social media has this last week or two been chock with mildly embarrassing images of people engaged in work from home who didn’t consider their surroundings. From the spouse walking around in his underwear to one employee who inadvertently revealed more than colleagues wanted to see after taking her smartphone to the bathroom while on a conference call, it’s always worth remembering your environment.
A few quick tips for personal comfort: look behind you and check what can be seen by the camera. Make sure family and others who share your living space are aware of when you’re on a work call. Whether it’s barking dogs or a family spat, unwanted background noise can be both disturbing and embarrassing for other meeting participants. In addition, take care when screen sharing. Ensure there are no applications, images or videos visible that might be in the Not Safe For Work (NSFW) category or that might expose personal or confidential business data. Check which tabs are visible in the top bar of your browser and whether you’re accidentally about to reveal sites you’ve recently been visiting.
Second, be aware of the privacy policies and features of the software you’re using. Zoom has some interesting features, like attention tracking and some “should know” policies on data collection and sharing.
Slack And Zoom Stock
As for security, there are a number of issues to be aware of with video conferencing software, and particularly if you’re coming to something like Zoom as a newbie. It’s worth checking out Zoom’s useful guide here for basic tips on how to prevent things like “Zoom pirates” and “Zoom bombing”, where unwanted participants join a call through open or guessed meeting Ids and take over the meeting by sharing images from their screen. As the host, you can manage participants and make sure you don’t lose control of the meeting by properly configuring your account settings.Turning on 2FA and requiring authorized email addresses are basic precautions for any in-house meeting.
Aside from locking the meeting down to authorized participants, other options are available that can allow you to restrict screen sharing without permission, remove unwanted or disruptive participants from a Zoom meeting, and mute participants or turn off their video. Other teleconferencing software should have similar settings, so check the documentation if necessary and make sure you know how to control unexpected events.
It’s also important to keep the meeting secure from those outside the call. Account managers should ensure that end-to-end encryption is enabled to prevent snooping of traffic, particularly if remote workers are connecting to meetings from outside of the company’s secure VPN network.
Remember that video meetings can be recorded by any participant, and that raises issues of confidentiality and leakage. Recordings are stored locally on the user’s device. With Zoom, for example, they can be found in ~/Documents/Zoom on a Mac, and Users/UsersDocumentsZoom on Windows. If that device is compromised, those recordings are vulnerable to being leaked and leveraged. Extorting and exposing victims is a technique that’s increasingly popular with some attackers, like ransomware developers Maze and DoppelPaymer, for instance.
Earlier this year, researchers found that Zoom had a vulnerability which made it possible to figure out which random numbers were valid Zoom calls. The researchers were then able to use those numbers to eavesdrop on calls. This vulnerability was discovered shortly after Zoom and a number of other video conferencing apps were found to contain a software vulnerability that could lead to remote command execution (RCE) on any macOS device, even if the Zoom app had been uninstalled. In this case, Apple took quick action and updated their own internal security software to remove the vulnerability. Both vulnerabilities are patched in the latest versions of Zoom.
As with workplace chat apps, so with teleconferencing software: ensure that your users are patching as soon as updates are available, and that endpoints are protected by a security platform that can protect against malware, malicious devices and network compromise.
Conclusion
It’s a truism that all software contains bugs. Most are trivial and never noticed by users, some are zero days we never learn of until after they’ve been either patched or exploited in the wild, while others are critical and patched in a timely fashion. There’s another class of issues that fall in between the cracks: developers are informed, but the issue remains unpatched, perhaps because the vendor does not agree as to the severity of the security risk, or doesn’t think it’s their bug to fix, or cannot find a technical solution. On top of that, some security and privacy issues arise not from flaws in programs, but in the way we use those programs, such as not being aware of our environment when teleconferencing. The best way to protect ourselves from such a wide range of issues is to share knowledge, follow best practices and implement security technology where we can to mitigate issues on our behalf.
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Slack And Zoom Partnership
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