Microsoft Teams can now compete directly with Slack with a free tier that startups not in Microsoft’s ecosystem can use for any user. This means you don’t need an Office 365 login to use Teams.
With the free access tier, Microsoft Teams is now positioned as an actual competitor to Slack, which essentially introduced a new paradigm for workplace communication and collaboration software when it launched in August 2013.
As a Microsoft product Teams is more tightly integrated with Office and OneDrive than competing platforms. Teams is also the only communication tool that natively supports the ability to call out to landline and mobile phones in the United States, though this feature is not available in the free tier. (The feature is available through third-party integrations in Slack.)
Sign up now at: Free Microsoft Teams.