Due the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak and the necessary practices of social distancing and working from home, all SaaS-based communication and collaboration platforms like Microsoft Teams and Clariti have been seeing a dramatic increase in their userbase. While most of these tools look similar from the outset, they differ widely in terms of their functionalities.
Microsoft Teams’ spectacular growth
Teams have seen spectacular growth in the last few months due to the work-from-home trend that was propelled by worldwide lockdown. Though there are many free Teams alternatives in the market, Microsoft market share grew mainly because it was offered at no added cost to the already existing Microsoft 365 or Azure users.
MS Teams’ communications app’s daily active user base has jumped by 26% to 145 million from 115 million in October 2020. Along with Teams, a host of other tools like Clariti have also seen steep spike in their user base. The main reason behind the sudden rise of Teams is it is being offered at no added cost to Microsoft 365 users. For small businesses, that are already burdened with a lot of other paid apps, MS Teams became a natural choice.
So, the big question is: “Has MS Teams really helped small businesses to improve their productivity?” One year into the pandemic, there have been many reports that employees are drowning in a sea of instant message pings, notifications and video calls. According to a study by Research from the University of California and Humboldt University in Berlin, employees lose up to 23 minutes on a task every time they are interrupted.
Though these tools were touted as lifesavers for small businesses during the forced lockdown, unfortunately using them left the employees with very little time to perform the actual job they were paid to do. Many employees felt constantly distracted and even burned out. As a result of this, many companies are moving away from group messaging and video culture.
This strategy paid for Microsoft Teams as it was able to increase its market share and overtake its potential rival Slack in no time. Though Microsoft is not earning any revenue (they may actually be losing money in selling Teams), they are able to sustain due to their deep pockets. Many industry experts feel Teams is riding on ‘bundled offer’ and not on the product’s core strength.
New rules for modern workplace collaboration
When the pandemic forced companies all over the world to allow their employees to work from home, remote work had a big moment. Companies were under sudden pressure to give employees access to all the tools they’d need to work from home. Soon it became evident that employees were productive and focused when not in the office and companies too understood the fact that remote work really works.
While the work-life balance improved for employees all over the world, US employers saved over $30 billion per day by allowing employees to work from home. It was a win-win situation for both employees and employers. Given the new set of rules for modern workplace collaboration, all cloud-based communication and collaboration platforms have been seeing a dramatic increase in their user base.
The pandemic acted as a perfect accelerant for companies to adopt remote working tools like Teams, and Clariti for team collaboration tasks. However, once teams were onboarded and used these apps for a couple of months, they found the constant notifications from these apps distracting and impeded productivity.
Issues with the modern collaboration platforms
A whole lot of alternatives to MS Teams like Clariti, Flock, Fleep, Missive app etc try to bring all communications like group chat, audio and video calling in one place, the main difference is the related communications are not connected. Which means your conversations will remain disconnected though you will be technically using a single app.
If you want to search for a presentation or a message from your colleague, you will have to search multiple channels to get the information. According to an American Management Association survey, 83% of executives think their companies have information silos and it has an adverse impact on their business.
For example, if you receive an email in most of the business communication apps and chat about it with your colleagues using group chat after a few months if you want to refer to some information from that chat, you will have to use your memory to recall pertinent information and search across multiple information silos to find the information. This is extremely inefficient and stressful.
So, the big questions are: Can your MS Teams alternative tools help you to see the big picture buried in communication silos? Are your Free Teams alternative apps equipped to organize all your communication neatly based on topics or context?
Why it's essential to consider alternatives to Microsoft Teams
If you’re a business looking for a free alternative to Teams, there are many apps out there. The challenging part is finding the right software that’ll work for you and your teams. After all, collaboration and productivity are essential to your business moving forward.
Not every app or product will be suitable for everyone. It may also come down to you not liking it or that the features offered don’t blend with your business needs.
There are even more reasons, including cost amongst others. While some may offer free versions, these may prove limiting. As a small business, paying for a high-dollar app may not necessarily be in your budget.
While it’s hard to argue that Microsoft is a powerhouse in the IT industry, there are other options, especially if you’re not savvy using Microsoft tools or products. Every business is different, and some tools don’t always fit the needs. Fortunately for you, Clariti is an excellent alternative to MS Teams.
Reasons why companies are looking for alternatives to Microsoft Teams
- Instant messaging tools like MS Teams promised to reduce emails by replacing them with chat for team communications. While it succeeded in reducing the number of emails, Teams users found themselves bombarded with needless chat notifications and stuck in endless group chats.
- Companies may find it very difficult to afford team collaboration software like MS Teams because it is expensive to own. – this is not true as Teams is free now.
- Microsoft Teams supports a lot of integrations. But companies will have to pay extra for all the integrations.
- If everybody in the team is not tech-savvy, companies will need dedicated resources to help with all the integrations.
- Also, companies will have to train their employees to make use of all the features of the software.
- Since team members mostly use higher-level channels and not specific topics for discussions, context gets lost, and information gets buried.
- In order to avoid the stress that group chat creates, many team members resort to direct chat, which creates information silos and knowledge opacity.
Top 12 Microsoft Teams alternatives
If you’re a business looking for an alternative to Teams, there are many apps out there. The challenging part is finding the right software that’ll work for you and your teams. After all, collaboration and productivity are essential to your business moving forward.
While most of these tools listed below look similar at the outset, they differ widely in terms of their functionalities. Read on to find out if any of these alternatives to Teams can solve your day-to-day business communication and team collaboration issues.
1. Clariti
Clariti is one of the best MS Teams alternatives that offers superior content-rich communication experiences compared. Clariti’s subject chats offer intuitive, powerful conversations and communication that avoid silos. Rather than the channels focused approach of MS Teams, Clariti uses a contextual system in which each topic is addressed by its own thread of conversation – making it easier to follow along and improving user productivity.
With no need to search through long threads of messages, any user can easily jump into a subject chat and keep up with both the context and all the key discussions at hand. This also ensures better team collaboration and avoids confusion between all parties as every message or discussion gets communicated in real-time.
Why Clariti is a worthy Teams’ alternative?
Clariti is ideal for companies that are looking for alternatives to Teams. This free Teams’ alternative allows you to drive business productivity by staying organized using content-rich subject chats. Clariti features include email, chat, calls, cloud storage, and to-do under one roof with an attractive user interface. It is the perfect tool to choose when you want to promote team messaging and replace the delays caused by emails.
Clariti goes the extra mile to provide links between new communications and existing emails or messages. Doing so helps preserve context and takes away the need to search for information because it is automatically organized in content-rich subject chats. We have listed at least 5 great reasons that make Clariti a great alternative to Teams.
1. Connects related communication
Clariti not only brings all the information in one place, but it also connects all the related information in content-rich subject chats. Content-rich subject chats eliminate the need to search for information and make it very easy to see the big picture. So unlike Teams, Clariti makes it easy and natural to organize all the information. It helps you to avoid silos and see the big picture.
2. Integrated features
Clariti was built with small businesses in mind. Clariti is ideal for small businesses that would like to boost team collaboration. The free app allows you to drive business productivity by staying organized using content-rich subject chats.
The app is Microsoft Teams’ alternative, thanks to the integration of all features including email, chat, audio calls, to-do lists, calendar, built-in document folder, feeds, viewers, search, security and safety protocols, and cloud storage under one roof. It is the perfect tool to choose when you want to promote team messaging and replace the delays caused by emails.
3. Retains context
Clariti combines all collaboration tools including email, chat, calls, documents on cloud storage, and to-do in one app and links all related information in content-rich subject chats. For every context, a new subject chat is created, and all the relevant information is linked and stored automatically. Content-rich subject chats not only make communication faster, but they also eliminate the need to search for any information and the stress that comes with it.
4. Ties emails and chats
Instead of replacing emails with chats like most other instant messaging tools, Clariti has combined email with chat for team communications. While Clariti doesn’t discourage people from using emails, it has made it unnecessary when communicating with other Clariti users. When you receive an email in Clariti, you can start chatting from the same email with other Clariti participants.
This reduces email forwards and time wasted in copy pasting contents in chats. Besides Clariti maintains the connection between the original email and subsequent chat thereby making it easy to reference the context of the discussion at any time. So, in Clariti, both email and chat can co-exist without conflict or redundancy.
5. Free software
Small businesses may find it extremely convenient to own and use Clariti. Clariti is free and easy to use, and it doesn’t require any training. However, you need to pay for certain premium features.
You can use Teams if you want to just chat, share files, make audio, video calls or schedule meetings. But you cannot expect the number of emails to reduce or save time from searching for information, as all your conversations will still remain disconnected, and you will still miss the big picture.
On the other hand, Clariti is a unified communication system that focuses on productivity. It helps you organize all your communication like email, chat, cloud storage, social feeds in one place so that you can quickly find any information you want in just a few seconds, concentrate on your core job by reducing unnecessary emails, multi-task like a pro and never miss the big picture.
Where does Clariti score?
Clariti is one of the best Teams alternatives that offers superior content-rich communication experiences compared with other tools. Unlike Teams, Clariti does not have channels, allowing for an open dialogue between team members. Additionally, it is easier to remain aware of the context surrounding discussions as there is no need for searching through countless channels or endless streams of chatter.
Subject chat helps avoid confusion and improves productivity by avoiding needless cross-conversations. By emphasizing conversational content over boilerplate responses, Clariti provides users with more structured conversations that avoid being bogged down by extraneous information. In addition to its elimination of multiple channels, Clariti’s content-rich subject chat provides a great value proposition without much effort needed to adopt it.
So how does subject chat work in Clariti?
Clariti facilitates content-rich subject chats that avoid silos, allowing users to collaborate on specific topics without swapping between channels. By tying the conversation to their context, this helps avoid unnecessary searching for related discussion threads across multiple locations, thereby improving productivity and driving toward the desired outcome more quickly. Discussions are hosted in unified threads so conversations can be tracked over time, with new participants quickly understanding the full scope of a topic. Moreover, important takeaways are easy search, time savings and more productivity.
2. Chanty
Chanty is a cloud-based Teams alternative that combines communication, project management, and automation to help teams work together more effectively. Chanty helps teams improve productivity and business communication. Unlimited message history, task management, file sharing and powerful notifications organize and save your day. Chanty helps you to collaborate and communicate effectively in one place.
Chanty helps you to chat with your team members; communicate using group & 1 on 1 audio/video calls and share your screen; Share instant messages, files or any other content you like; Create, assign, set deadlines and discuss tasks directly in Chanty; Integrate messaging with a variety of apps such as Google Drive, Dropbox, Trello, GitHub, Zapier, Jira, Asana and many others;
Track team workflow by using Kanban Board; Watch YouTube videos, GIFs and social media content; Have quick access to all your chats, tasks and files through Teambook. Chanty has both web and mobile versions.
3. Google Workspace
Google Workspace (formerly known as G Suite) is a collection of cloud-based productivity and collaboration tools developed by Google. It includes applications such as Gmail, Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Slides, Google Meet, and Google Calendar.
Google Workspace is designed to help businesses and organizations improve their productivity and collaboration, by providing a unified platform for communication, file sharing, and project management. It also offers enterprise-level security and control features, such as two-factor authentication and data loss prevention, to ensure the privacy and security of user data.
4. Flock
Flock is one of the popular alternatives to MS Teams for modern teams and businesses. Flock packs more features including chat and channels and an attractive user interface. It is relatively more affordable when compared with bigger counterparts. It supports some of the features including shared notes, reminders, to-dos, polls etc.
You can also make audio and video calls and share your screen with your remote team. Flock is available in all formats like web, desktop and mobile. One of the most distinguishable features of Flock is it supports the app in 4 different languages.
5. Fleep
Fleep, one of the best Teams alternatives, treats every item as a conversation including email. When you send an email to non-Fleep users, they receive it as an email. But when you send an email to other Fleep users, the message becomes a part of their chat conversation. Fleep is primarily an instant messaging application that tries to replace emails.
In Fleep, all conversations are grouped based on participants’ names rather than topic or context. After a few days of using Fleep, if you want to go back and refer to some text or file, it would be very difficult. Fleep has native apps, and it is equipped with audio/video calling.
It also supports a wide variety of integrations. Fleep treats all emails as conversations. This is not natural as each email message represents a discrete communication. When all communications are mixed in what appears like a free-flowing chat, it is very easy to lose context. Moreover, it is difficult to easily share information with other Fleep users as the emails get merged into chats.
6. Zoom
Video conferencing tool Zoom is one of the best Alternatives to MS Teams that offers videoconferencing (face-to-face meetings). Whereas it lacks a well-established chat feature, the video quality is quite appealing, and you would find it worth your time.
Features that you will find most convenient at Zoom are scheduling meetings and informing the attendees in advance. If you run many meetings but do not have an assistant, you can connect Zoom to your calendar. Schedule crucial meetings in advance and have the attendees start early preparations.
7. Cisco Webex Meetings
Video conferencing tool Cisco is one of the leading alternatives to Teams that offers Webex conferencing features for all organizations. The video and audio web conferencing software are readily available in different plans. That gives users the flexibility to choose plans that best work for them.
Besides organizational-level usage, Webex is also available for major events such as product launchings and educational sessions. You can create a subject chat where you brainstorm and collaborate at and group level.
8. Skype
video conferencing tool Skype is one of the premier alternatives to Teams that allows up to 100 people in a video and audio conference. It allows you to record calls and set up live captions and subtitles. The tool is one of the simplest to use when planning online meetings because you can access your meetings via the browser or through the Skype app.
An intuitive feature of this tool is the ability to reach people who are not on Skype. You can use Skype Credit to call mobile numbers at low rates. Consider getting a Skype subscription to reduce your expenses further.
9. Wire
Wire is an increasingly popular alternative to Microsoft Teams. It provides the same basic services—a platform for communication and collaboration—but does so with a host of features that give it an edge over its counterpart. Wire lets users send texts, audio messages, video messages, pictures, files and documents directly from within the app.
It also offers end-to-end encrypted communication which enables even greater security when sharing information; moreover, Wire allows users to switch devices quickly and seamlessly during chats, so they don’t miss a beat! For these reasons, Wire is quickly becoming the number one choice among businesses seeking high quality digital collaboration platforms.
10. Riot.im
Riot.im has been gaining popularity recently as an alternative to Teams for communication and collaboration within a business or organization. It is touted as a less expensive and more customizable option, but it is important for each individual organization to compare their options before investing in either platform.
While Riot.im may lack some of the features of its larger competitor, it can be tailored to meet individual needs with add-ons or API support and the ability to integrate with other existing systems easily. In addition, it has an intuitive user interface that allows users to onboard quickly and start using it right away – something that should be taken into consideration when weighing up your options.
11. Zulip
Zulip is a strong contender in the enterprise chat apps market, with many considering it to be the best alternative to Teams. In comparison to its competitors, Zulip stands out for its streamlined approach to communication; message threads are grouped together in one window, saving users time by quickly scanning its contents or searching for keywords.
On top of that, Zulip is an open-source project, making its platform more flexible as developers can integrate it into existing business workflows. Ultimately, users decide whether or not Zulip is a suitable replacement for MS Teams; however, it stands out for its ability to reduce clutter and simplify communication within teams.
12. ChatWork
ChatWork, a cloud-based communication platform for global teams, offers one-on-one & group messaging, file-sharing, video calling and task management through a single application with an appealing user interface. ChatWork targets less tech-savvy business professionals in the US market, who are looking for a simpler user interface and features.
We hope this article will help you consider alternatives to Teams, which may be a better fit for your needs.
Conclusion:
If you are looking to just exchange messages about a project or have a video or voice call, then you can go for any of the above-mentioned tools. You can use Microsoft Teams if you want to just chat, share files, make audio, video calls or schedule meetings. But you cannot expect the number of emails to reduce or save time from searching for information, as all your conversations will still remain disconnected, and you will still miss the big picture.
But if you want to combine different pieces of communication to see the big picture, then you need Clariti. Clariti can do much more than all these tools put together. Clariti is more of a unified communication platform that focuses more on productivity. It helps you organize all your communication like email, chat, cloud storage, social feeds in one place so that you can quickly find any information you want in just a few seconds, concentrate on your core job by reducing unnecessary emails, multi-task like a pro and never miss the big picture.
You can even chat with your external stakeholders like suppliers and partners using OrbitChat; use machine learning algorithms to automatically arrange all related conversations in Thread; use “Instant Share” so share any email, chat, social feeds with multiple participants with a single click; add or remove participants in a group chat as needed; integrate social feeds (Twitter); view engineering CAD files from the browser and the list are endless. Sign up and feel the difference!
Frequently Asked Question
Is there an alternative to MS Teams?
Clariti is the best alternative for MSTeams. The common problem with Teams is you can get stuck in long and never-ending group chats that demand your attention 24/7. It puts pressure on you to be online & available all the time.
Clariti on the other hand supports all communication forms including chat, email, shared documents, calls, social feeds and to-dos and uses topic threads to organize related communication in content-rich subject chats. With Clariti, not only can teams chat but they can also work with all communication forms naturally unlike Temas. Clariti is free and you can sign up with your email id.
What is the best alternative to using a team?
Clariti is the best alternative for Microsoft Teams. The common problem with Microsoft Teams is you can get stuck in long and never-ending group chats that demand your attention 24/7. It puts pressure on you to be online & available all the time.
Unlike Teams, in Clariti there are no chat channels. There is no need to constantly track all the chats in the channels. Any Clariti user can start a group chat and add members as needed.
Existing members can be removed, and new members added based on the conversation flow. This way users are alerted to join a chat only when necessary.
Which app is better than MS Teams?
Clariti is better than Teams because small businesses may find it very difficult to afford enterprise team collaboration platform because they are expensive to own. Besides, the small businesses will have to pay extra for all the integrations. If everybody in the team is not tech savvy, they will need dedicated resources to help with all the integrations. Also, their employees will have to go through training to make use of all the features.
Clariti combines all collaboration tools including email, chat, calls, documents on cloud storage, and to-do in one app and links all related information in conversations. Clariti is free and easy to use, and it doesn’t require any training. Small businesses may find it extremely convenient to own and use Clariti.
What is replacing Microsoft Teams?
Clariti is replacing Microsoft Teams as the most affordable team collaboration platform because it is very inexpensive to own. Besides, the small businesses do not have to pay extra for any integrations.
Clariti is free and easy to use, and it doesn’t require any training. Small businesses may find it extremely convenient to own and use Clariti. Clariti combines all collaboration tools including email, chat, calls, documents on cloud storage, and to-do in one app and links all related information in conversations.
What is the best alternative to Microsoft Teams?
Clariti is the best alternative for Microsoft Teams. The common issue with Microsoft Teams is you might get stuck in long and never-ending group chats that demand your attention 24/7. It puts pressure on you to be online & available all the time. Also, since team members mostly use channels and not specific topics, context gets lost, and information gets buried.
Clariti on the other hand supports all communication forms including chat, email, shared documents, calls, social feeds and to-dos and stores all information in related conversations Clariti is free and you can sign up with your email id.
What can I use instead of Microsoft Teams?
You can use Clariti instead of Microsoft Teams. Business tools like Microsoft Teams are chat focused. A common grouse against Microsoft Teams is you can get stuck in long and never-ending group chats that demand your attention 24/7. It puts pressure on you to be online & available all the time.
When you use Clariti, you can start a group chat with multiple Clariti users on a specific topic. However, unlike channels Clariti group chats are not rigid. Group members can be added and removed on the fly. So, you are not overloaded with too much unnecessary information.
Is Clariti better than Microsoft Teams?
Yes, Clariti is better than Microsoft Teams as you don’t get stuck in long and never-ending group chats that demand your attention 24/7. Tools like Microsoft Teams put pressure on you to be online & available all the time. Also, since team members mostly use channels and not specific topics, context gets lost, and information gets buried.
With Clariti, not only can teams chat but they can also work with all communication forms naturally unlike Microsoft Teams. Not only does Clariti bring all the information in one place, but it also connects all the related information in conversations.
Is there a free alternative to Microsoft Teams?
Yes. Clariti is the best free alternative to Microsoft Teams that helps businesses to improve productivity by staying organized using subject-based conversations. Clariti is the best free alternative to Microsoft Teams, thanks to the integration of email, chat, calls, cloud storage, and to-do features under one roof. It is the perfect tool to choose when you want to promote team messaging and replace the delays caused by emails.
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