Collaboration tools are an important part of any organization that works remotely.
They make work easier by streamlining communication, enabling file sharing, and performing many other tasks that used to be impossible to perform if you’re running a remote team. Some collaboration tools even have advanced project management options like time tracking and budget planning.
In this article, we will be focusing on two platforms – Slack vs. Viva Engage (Yammer). Both of them are known as team communication tools, which is what makes them competitors.
Before we start comparing these products and their features, let’s first get to know them a little better.
What Is Slack?
Founded in 2013, when a software company called Tiny Speck decided to roll out its internal communication platform and make it public, Slack is one of the most popular names in the collaboration tool industry. The company made its way to the top with an innovative, user-friendly approach that has helped it reach an impressive 32.3 million daily active users.
It has since gone through several changes and now sports a simple, modern look, with signature chat design, or “channels”.
What Is Microsoft Viva Engage?
Microsoft Viva Engage is the rebranded and evolved Yammer. Much like Slack, Yammer was also started as an internal company communications tool by the genealogy website Geni.com in 2008. In a high-profile acquisition worth $1.2 billion, Microsoft purchased the tool in 2012, and it was included in the Office 365 Suite. It was used by a lot of Fortune 500 companies, including Virgin Trains and British Airways, and it came with both desktop and mobile apps.
In March 2023, Yammer changed its name to Viva Engage. It kept its features and capabilities of a corporate communication and social media network, and Microsoft 365 customers smoothly transitioned to the renamed tool. Viva Engage is available on web, desktop, iOS, and Android.
How We Compared Slack and Viva Engage
To decide on which tool might be better for your business needs, we highlighted six criteria that we believe are the most important.
Pricing – which plans are available and how much you get for what you paid is crucial. Some pricing models might favor smaller companies with teams of limited size, but there’s no doubt that cost is one of the most important factors when choosing new software.
Interface – knowing where everything is and how to get to it is crucial. Good user experience and an intuitive interface will make your life easier, especially if you’re planning to use an app several hours every day.
Integrations – since both of these tools are used for communication purposes, integrating them with other tools for project management or time tracking could be very useful. It’s safe to say that the more integrations a tool has, the more natural it will be for you to use it.
Chat experience – this maybe goes without saying, but the very experience of how you receive notifications, how you reply to messages, how you search chat history – all of this is important for good team communication. It’s when we get to these details that a tool can lose ground to competition and even frustrate its users.
File sharing – sending and receiving files, archiving them, and finding them in chat history is an essential part of remote team collaboration. You’ll want to make sure that your collaboration tool makes this process as easy as possible.
Security – finally, all of this is worth nothing if your company information gets compromised. Making sure your data is safe should be more important than any kind of user experience or integrations with third-party apps.
So, now that we know what we’re looking at, let’s get to comparing!
Slack vs. Viva Engage (Yammer): Pricing
One great advantage that Slack has over Microsoft Viva Engage: it can be completely free. Slack works on a “freemium” model, meaning you can use it for free, with limited access to features. However, to fully experience Slack, you’ll likely need to upgrade to one of the paid plans.
The Slack plans are as follows: Pro ($7.25 per user, per month), Business+ ($12.50 per user, per month), and Enterprise Grid, for which you need to contact the sales team to get the price. Keep in mind that these prices apply only when you pay annually – for monthly payments, prices are slightly higher.
Source: Brightscout
Viva Engage neither has a free option nor is it available for purchase outside Microsoft 365 and Office 365 plans. This means that if you want it, you need to invest in one of these plans:
- Microsoft 365 E3 ($36 per user, per month)
- Microsoft 365 E5 ($57 per user, per month)
- Microsoft 365 F3 ($8 per user, per month)
- Microsoft 365 F1 ($2.25 per user, per month)
- Office 365 E1 ($10 per user, per month)
- Office 365 E3 ($23 per user, per month)
- Office 365 E5 ($38 per user, per month)
Slack vs. Microsoft Viva Engage (Yammer): Interface
In Slack, you can select channels on the left. It has the typical design of a chat app that’s clean and easy to navigate. Your messages take up most of the screen. If you’d like, you can also access chat information where you can see more details about the channel/person, pinned items, and shared files.
Source: Microsoft.com
Slack themes allow you to customize your experience and keep things fresh by changing up the design. If you’re lucky, some of the themes will have your company’s colors, so you can avoid the generic Slack colors and go for something closer to your brand.
Source: Slack.com
Viva Engage’s interface resembles Facebook. It has the stories at the top, the feed below them, and communities on the right. It’s quite intuitive and simple, making it easy to use. You have a personal profile page; you can connect with colleagues by following them and create or join groups. The tool is advertised as an employee experience platform encouraging human connection in today’s remote and hybrid work environment, which is probably why it looks like a social media site/app.
Slack and Viva Engage: Integrations
Upon researching what kinds of integrations Slack offers, this might be an unnecessary question to ask. A single visit to Slack’s website is enough to see that the company has put a strong emphasis on enabling as many integrations as possible – as of today, you can integrate with more than 2.200 different apps if you’re using Slack.
You can even integrate with project management apps like Asana, which means you use Asana to plan projects, set deadlines, and distribute tasks while managing all of this on Slack. Here’s what this integration can look like:
Source: Slack.com
But, don’t be so fast to count Viva Engage out. While there might not be any Viva Engage integrations like the one above, this tool is still a part of one of the most comprehensive business suites in Microsoft 365. When you take a look at what Microsoft has to offer, you could be inclined to believe that a company doesn’t need anything more than these apps.
For example, Viva Engage users can integrate with other products of the Microsoft ecosystem, such as Dynamics CRM, SharePoint, Salesforce, Teams, Connect, Flow, and Embed. Its integrations might not be as numerous, but they’re essential and immersed in the same ecosystem, which is always an advantage.
Viva Engage vs. Slack: Chat Experience
Viva Engage and Slack are conceived slightly differently. Slack is known as a team chat app. If you take a look at any Slack review online, or on their website, you’ll likely see that it’s defined as a “collaboration platform”, “messaging tool”, etc. The whole interface is called a “workspace”, which puts collaboration at the heart of the tool.
On the other hand, Microsoft Viva Engage is more of an internal social network for your company. You can follow your coworkers, write a post, and create your community.
This translates to the chatting experience: whereas Slack relies more on snappy, real-time conversations, Viva Engage seems slower and less urgent.
Another interesting Slack feature is Slack Bots that provide useful information, perform actions, and sometimes even offer funny comments or suggestions.
Source: Slack.com
Viva Enage and Slack: File Sharing
Any situation where you’re required to work remotely requires you to have a reliable way of sharing files. While there are options like file transfer platforms that can help you do this, it’s always convenient when your collaboration tool allows you to share files. That way, everything is quicker and the user doesn’t have to leave the app.
When it comes to file sharing, Viva Engage has a slight advantage with a 5GB file upload limit for Enterprise compared to Slack’s 1GB. However, Slack does offer file storage options with up to 10GB, depending on the plan you choose.
Another advantage of Slack vs. Viva Engage (Yammer) is the integration with Google Drive that allows you to store all your files there and easily import them to Slack. You can also assign edit permissions, get updates in Slack on all changes, and leverage other advantages of integrations.
Slack or Viva Engage: Security
When it comes to data safety, Viva Engage offers enterprise-level service with strict Microsoft policies and infrastructure to support it. All data is encrypted, both in transit and at rest, with AES-256 bit key encryption. That’s pretty much a standard in the U.S. when it comes to securing sensitive information, so you shouldn’t have any issues with Viva Engage’s encryption.
Slack also holds various certifications that are considered an industry standard in data safety. Their GDPR information is also available on the website, with standard GDPR rules. Slack allows for device and identity management, which means you can limit which devices and which people have the right to access your company data.
All things considered, we’d call this a draw in the security department, although both environments could be even safer and give the administrator even more control.
A Team Collaboration Alternative: Brosix
Although Slack and Viva Engage are popular choices and have a solid share of features, they could use some work in safety and chat experience fields. If we take into account the possibly hefty price tags (especially for Microsoft Viva Engage), some companies might start considering alternatives to these two tools.
You may also.
Brosix is one such tool – a real-time communication platform that promises a seamless chat experience for remote teams. Brosix’s key features are robust IM features, easy file sharing, and industry-leading security levels that make sure all your data is safely stored.
Clean chat experience
Brosix offers a clean and simple interface that cuts down on distractions and helps you focus on what matters. Slack is sometimes criticized for doing just the opposite – confusing UI solutions, not being able to respond to isolated messages, etc.
Another advantage is the file size limit: while Viva Engage and Slack both limit the size of your file uploads, Brosix has no limit. It’s these kinds of details that enable Brosix to offer you a streamlined collaboration experience with a focus on the important features.
Advanced features
There is the remote desktop feature to rival Slack’s screen sharing functionality, as well as an instant screenshot that can be useful for customer support teams.
Pricing
Finally, Brosix comes at a significantly lower price than both of these tools: you have the free Startup plan, the Business plan ($4 per user, per month), and Premium ($6 per user, per month).
Even the freemium option comes with text chat, virtual whiteboard, co-browsing, and some limited enterprise options.
Summary: Slack vs. Viva Engage (Yammer)
Both Slack and Viva Engage are useful tools that offer a wide set of features used by teams from all over the world. If real-time chat is what you’re looking for, go for Slack. If you want to harness the power of an employee engagement tool, choose Microsoft Viva Engage.
If you find a more affordable tool with strong team communication features interesting, feel free to give Brosix a try. It’s easy to set up, and the Startup plan is completely free.
FAQ
What is the difference between Slack and Viva Engage (Yammer)?
Slack and Viva Engage (Yammer) are both workplace communication and collaboration tools, but they have different features and target different audiences. Slack is known for its messaging and channel-based communication, whereas Viva Engage focuses more on creating communities and fostering collaboration within organizations.
Can I use Viva Engage within Microsoft Teams?
Yes. Viva Engage (formerly Yammer) can be used within Microsoft Teams. It is seamlessly integrated into the Microsoft Teams interface, allowing users to access all the features of Viva Engage without the need to switch between platforms.
What is Viva Sales?
Viva Sales is a component of the Microsoft Viva platform that helps sales teams collaborate, automate tasks, and gain insights to improve their productivity. It provides tools and analytics to track sales goals, unify sales processes, and enable better communication and collaboration within the sales team.
Can Viva Engage be customized?
Yes. Viva Engage is customizable. It allows you to personalize the platform by deploying headers, community colors, and email logos.
What is the benefit of using Viva Engage for employee experience?
Viva Engage provides a digital workplace where employees can collaborate, communicate, access, and share information. It creates a sense of belonging and fosters a culture of growth that helps people reach their full potential, resulting in better work and improved employee experience.
Can Viva Engage help improve employee engagement?
Yes. Viva Engage can improve employee engagement. By using a unified platform for communication, employees can feel part of a community and become more engaged.
