Team Chat and Meetings for Small Teams: Per-User Costs Compared
Slack, Zoom, Zulip and Google Workspace priced at 10 and 25 people, with what the free plans leave out and when an open-source chat server makes sense.
Quick answer
For 10 users on annual billing on 27 October 2026, Zulip Cloud Standard cost $66.70 a month, Slack Pro $72.50 and Zoom Pro $141.60. Google Workspace Starter listed at $7 per user, covering email, meetings and documents. Slack's free plan keeps 90 days of searchable history, and Zulip can be self-hosted free.
For a small business, "communication software" usually means two purchases, chat and video meetings, or one suite that bundles both with email. Below are four options priced at 10 and 25 users, from vendor pages read on 27 October 2026.
Cost at 10 and 25 users
Monthly, annual billing.
| Product | 10 users | 25 users | What it mainly covers | SSO from |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zulip Cloud Standard | $66.70 | $166.75 | Chat | Not stated |
| Google Workspace Starter | $70 (list) | $175 | Email, Meet, docs | Not readable |
| Slack Pro | $72.50 | $181.25 | Chat | Business+ |
| Zoom Pro | $141.60 | $354 | Meetings | Business |
Profiles: Slack, Zoom Workplace, Zulip.
Slack
Free keeps messages "saved and searchable for 90 days" and allows 10 apps. Slack's FAQ says free workspaces delete data after a year, while paid plans keep it for life by default. Pro costs $7.25 per user per month annually ($8.75 monthly), and Business+ costs $15 ($18), with SAML single sign-on on the Business+ card. On our read date a three-month promotion halved the monthly prices. We use the regular figures. Slack states it does not use customer data to train LLMs.
Zoom Workplace
Zoom is priced for meetings. Basic is limited to 40-minute meetings. Pro costs $14.16 per user per month annually ($16.99 monthly), with 30-hour meetings, 100 participants and 10 GB of cloud storage per user. Business costs $18.33 ($21.99) and adds 300 participants and SAML 2.0 SSO. The Large Meeting add-on takes any plan to 1,000 participants.
Google Workspace
Workspace is a suite rather than a chat app: email, documents and Meet in one subscription. Starter lists at $7 per user per month, Standard at $14 and Plus at $22, with up to 16% off on a one-year commitment. Meet participants run from 100 on Starter to 500 on Plus. Starter, Standard and Plus can be bought for up to 300 users. Introductory prices for new customers were announced for later dates, and we use the list prices. If your team needs email anyway, the meeting cost is effectively bundled.
Is an open-source chat server worth running?
Zulip is Apache-2.0 licensed. Cloud Free keeps 10,000 messages of search history and 5 GB of files. Cloud Standard costs $6.67 per user per month annually ($8 monthly), and Plus $10 ($12) with a 10-user minimum. Self-hosted, the complete product is free, but mobile push notifications for most organisations are limited to 10 users unless you pay for self-hosted Basic at $3.50 per user per month.
For a team of 25 that already runs servers, self-hosted Zulip with Basic costs $87.50 a month, about half of Slack Pro. For a team without anyone to run it, the hosted Standard plan is the simpler route. See server prices.
Picks
- Chat, lowest hosted cost: Zulip Cloud Standard.
- Chat with unlimited integrations and messaging with outside organisations: Slack Pro.
- Meetings are the main need: Zoom Pro, or Business for SSO.
- You need email and documents too: Google Workspace.
Microsoft Teams will be added when its prices can be read at source. For AI assistants that plug into these tools, see our AI seat comparison. Engineering teams can compare code hosting in our developer platforms guide, and growing teams can see hiring software costs.
Key points
- Slack Free keeps messages searchable for 90 days and deletes data after a year; paid plans keep it for life by default.
- At 10 users annually: Zulip Standard $66.70, Slack Pro $72.50, Zoom Pro $141.60 a month.
- Zoom's Basic tier limits meetings to 40 minutes; Pro allows 30-hour meetings for 100 participants.
- SAML single sign-on starts at Slack Business+ ($15) and Zoom Business ($18.33).
- Zulip is Apache-2.0 open source; free self-hosted mobile notifications are limited to 10 users for most organisations.
Questions
Is Slack's free plan enough for a small team?
It depends on how much you rely on old messages. Slack's free plan keeps messages searchable for 90 days and allows up to 10 apps, and Slack says free workspaces delete data after a year. Teams that record decisions in chat usually move to Pro, at $7.25 per user per month annually.
What is the cheapest paid team chat for 10 people?
On our read date, Zulip Cloud Standard cost $6.67 per user per month on annual billing, which is $66.70 for 10 users. Slack Pro cost $72.50. Zulip's self-hosted edition is free, though mobile push notifications beyond 10 users need a paid self-hosted plan for most organisations.
Do I need Zoom if I already have chat?
Only if meetings are a big part of your work. Zoom's Basic tier limits meetings to 40 minutes. Pro costs $14.16 per user per month annually and allows 30-hour meetings with 100 participants. Google Workspace also includes Meet, with 100 participants on its Starter plan.
Does Slack use our messages to train AI models?
Slack's pricing FAQ states that Slack does not share customer data with large language model providers and does not use customer data to train LLMs. Google's Workspace pricing page says company data is not used to train models for its Gemini chat feature on Starter.
Why is Microsoft Teams not in this comparison?
Microsoft's Teams pricing pages timed out or were refused in our tools on 27 October 2026, so we could not read its prices at source. We only publish figures read from a vendor's own page, so Teams will be added once its prices can be confirmed.
Who wrote this
Stackfeature Research Desk
The Research Desk is a shared byline, not a person. Work published under it is compiled from vendor pricing pages, documentation and licence files, each linked and dated in the piece. Nothing under this byline claims hands-on testing unless the piece says so and links the evidence.
Citing a figure from this page? Carry its date with it. Prices here were read on the date shown above, and corrections are logged.
Related comparisons
AI Assistants for Business: Seat Prices and Who Trains on Your Data
What an AI assistant costs per seat for a small team, and what each vendor says in writing about using your company's data to train models.
AI tools for work · · 3 min read
The Best CRM for a Small Team, Priced at 5, 10 and 25 Seats
Free CRM tiers stop at two or three users. Here is what five CRMs cost once a team passes that point, read from each vendor's own price page.
CRM · · 4 min read
Password Managers for Teams of 5 to 25: Per-User Costs and SSO
One plan is a flat pack for ten people, one has a ten-user minimum, and two can run on your own server. Four ways to share credentials, priced at 5, 10 and 25 users.
Password managers · · 3 min read