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Dock team chat

Shares rank 9 of 11 team chat apps by recommenders

Team chat app with flat per-team pricing, unlimited history and search, and data ownership; critics say it lacks Slack's core features and trust in its free-tier promises.

Team chat app with flat per-team pricing, unlimited history and search, and data ownership; critics say it lacks Slack's core features and trust in its free-tier promises.

33 people gave an opinion

recommend it
14
criticize it
19
approval share
42%
Each figure is one person. RecommendsCriticizes

Recommended in 2 of 13 months

  1. November 2025: not recommended
  2. December 2025: recommended
  3. January 2026: recommended
  4. February 2026: not recommended
  5. March 2026: not recommended
  6. April 2026: not recommended
  7. May 2026: not recommended
  8. June 2026: not recommended
  9. July 2026: not recommended
  10. August 2026: not recommended
  11. September 2026: not recommended
  12. October 2026: not recommended
  13. November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)

Why it doesn’t carry the badge

  • 14 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
  • 0.7 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
  • Recommended in 2 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.

The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works

What people say about it

The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.

Why people recommend it

Each mark is one comment

  • Flat team price, unlimited history

    “It is a flat fee for the whole team. $15/month covers your entire group (up to 20 people).”

    Comment from 18 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Dock – Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss”

    “we default to unlimited history (since the 90-day hard limit is a pain for most)”

    Comment from 18 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Dock – Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss”

    “Free forever for teams up to 5. Unlimited search, unlimited history.”

    Comment from 18 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Dock – Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss”
  • Unlimited search, full data ownership

    “give those teams a professional-grade experience (unlimited search, speed, reliability) without the enterprise tax or complexity”

    Comment from 19 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Dock – Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss”

    “Free forever for teams up to 5. Unlimited search, unlimited history.”

    Comment from 18 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Dock – Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss”

    “gives you full ownership of your data, instant search (even offline)”

    Comment from 19 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Dock – Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss”
  • Simple, focused, no enterprise complexity

    “give those teams a professional-grade experience (unlimited search, speed, reliability) without the enterprise tax or complexity”

    Comment from 19 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Dock – Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss”

    “we are building a focused, high-performance tool for teams that just want the core communication experience to work perfectly”

    Comment from 19 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Dock – Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss”

    “we prioritize a seamless "it just works" experience with standard high-security industry practices”

    Comment from 18 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Dock – Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss”

What people warn about

Each mark is one comment

  • Missing core features versus Slack

    “The chat part, channels, tagging and upload of asset isn't enough”

    Comment from 19 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Dock – Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss”

    “if you're going to position yourself as a Slack competitor you have to actually do what Slack does”

    Comment from 19 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Dock – Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss”

    “This new product doesn't have those things because they haven't had time to build them yet.”

    Comment from 19 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Dock – Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss”
  • Unclear positioning and confusing homepage

    “The value prop sounds solid, but on the homepage I really missed seeing the product.”

    Comment from 19 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Dock – Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss”

    “Odd that your site would show macOS looking window for a product with an identical name to a major feature”

    Comment from 19 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Dock – Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss”

    “it's at odds with the "chat that just works" messaging that suggests an advantage in reliability or UI”

    Comment from 18 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Dock – Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss”
  • Doubts about long-term free-tier promises

    “Just another SaaS whose promises we are forced to trust, but have no way of ensuring they keep them.”

    Comment from 18 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Dock – Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss”

    “Buyers may question long-term sustainability or fear undisclosed "shadow" caps.”

    Comment from 18 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Dock – Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss”

    “I don't trust anything that says "Free Forever" or "Unlimited"”

    Comment from 19 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Dock – Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss”
  • US hosting and no self-hosting

    “the location of your servers is irrelevant if you're a U.S.-based company”

    Comment from 19 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Dock – Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss”

    “I don’t want to have my data in the US for at least 3 years.”

    Comment from 19 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Dock – Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss”

    “if i can't self host then you've already locked my data in.”

    Comment from 19 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Dock – Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss”

Other team chat apps people recommend

The four most recommended other team chat apps, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.

Dock team chat compared with 4 alternatives
ProductRecommendCriticizeApprovalMonthsOwnedBadge
Slack24838739%1210 yrs10 owners—
Microsoft Teams22870125%131.5 yrs11 owners—
Zulip1435871%115 yrs10 ownersApproved
Chatto551381%5—Approved
Dock team chatThis page141942%2——
See all 11 team chat apps, ranked

What people said

40 of the 46 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.

“such a terrible waste of memory/screen space”

CriticizesComment from 22 Sep 2026 in “I said no and Apple said yes”

“By having so few features, it's competing with a whole lot of free stuff.”

CriticizesComment from 20 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Dock – Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss”

“This clearly isn’t a Show HN - it’s a waitlist signup.”

CriticizesComment from 19 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Dock – Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss”

“The value prop sounds solid, but on the homepage I really missed seeing the product.”

MixedComment from 19 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Dock – Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss”

“To me that type of sleight-of-hand inspires distrust, which is fatal to any prospect of me evaluating the product.”

CriticizesComment from 19 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Dock – Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss”

“the location of your servers is irrelevant if you're a U.S.-based company”

CriticizesComment from 19 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Dock – Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss”

“it just exchanges one US based company for several others”

CriticizesComment from 19 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Dock – Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss”

“You guys are awesome! I hope you will succeed.”

RecommendsComment from 19 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Dock – Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss”

“if i can't self host then you've already locked my data in.”

CriticizesComment from 19 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Dock – Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss”

“We are a Western European company, so GDPR and data sovereignty are at the heart of our architecture”

RecommendsComment from 19 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Dock – Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss”

“we're betting that for many teams, the "social" aspect has actually become too noisy”

RecommendsComment from 19 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Dock – Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss”

“gives you full ownership of your data, instant search (even offline)”

RecommendsComment from 19 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Dock – Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss”

“give those teams a professional-grade experience (unlimited search, speed, reliability) without the enterprise tax or complexity”

RecommendsComment from 19 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Dock – Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss”

“I don’t want to have my data in the US for at least 3 years.”

CriticizesComment from 19 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Dock – Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss”

“I don't hate it, but it's also nothing amazing.”

MixedComment from 19 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Dock – Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss”

“IMO this package you’re advertising is kind of a contradiction and/or a no-man’s land.”

CriticizesComment from 19 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Dock – Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss”

“I see nothing mentioned about integrating webhooks or some kind of similar feature”

CriticizesComment from 19 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Dock – Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss”

“This new product doesn't have those things because they haven't had time to build them yet.”

CriticizesComment from 19 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Dock – Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss”

“Odd that your site would show macOS looking window for a product with an identical name to a major feature”

CriticizesComment from 19 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Dock – Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss”

“not doubting it's useful but it feels very vibecoded”

MixedComment from 19 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Dock – Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss”

“The chat part, channels, tagging and upload of asset isn't enough”

MixedComment from 19 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Dock – Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss”

“reads to me like more the claims of a low cost MVP that hasn't solved those issues yet”

CriticizesComment from 19 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Dock – Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss”

“seeing the repeated phrases and words made me navigate back about 30% through”

MixedComment from 19 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Dock – Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss”

“The decisions feature, and the focus on good async”

RecommendsComment from 19 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Dock – Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss”

“I don't trust anything that says "Free Forever" or "Unlimited"”

CriticizesComment from 19 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Dock – Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss”

“if you're going to position yourself as a Slack competitor you have to actually do what Slack does”

CriticizesComment from 19 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Dock – Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss”

“replicating the api is a great idea!”

RecommendsComment from 19 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Dock – Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss”

“we are building a focused, high-performance tool for teams that just want the core communication experience to work perfectly”

RecommendsComment from 19 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Dock – Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss”

“we can afford to treat the free tier as a sustainable on-ramp rather than a loss leader”

RecommendsComment from 18 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Dock – Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss”

“Just another SaaS whose promises we are forced to trust, but have no way of ensuring they keep them.”

CriticizesComment from 18 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Dock – Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss”

“we prioritize a seamless "it just works" experience with standard high-security industry practices”

RecommendsComment from 18 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Dock – Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss”

“it's at odds with the "chat that just works" messaging that suggests an advantage in reliability or UI”

CriticizesComment from 18 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Dock – Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss”

“90 day memory loss is a feature, not a bug.”

RecommendsComment from 18 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Dock – Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss”

“your team-based pricing model is a much better selling point”

MixedComment from 18 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Dock – Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss”

“It is a flat fee for the whole team. $15/month covers your entire group (up to 20 people).”

RecommendsComment from 18 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Dock – Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss”

“Buyers may question long-term sustainability or fear undisclosed "shadow" caps.”

CriticizesComment from 18 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Dock – Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss”

“we default to unlimited history (since the 90-day hard limit is a pain for most)”

RecommendsComment from 18 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Dock – Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss”

“if you can nail that management of external users, I think that is important”

MixedComment from 18 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Dock – Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss”

“Free forever for teams up to 5. Unlimited search, unlimited history.”

RecommendsComment from 18 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Dock – Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss”

“I wrote a spec to solve this”

RecommendsComment from 29 Dec 2025 in “Show HN: Dock AI Registry for AI agents to discover which MCP serves a business”

Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.