# Slack 248 Hacker News commenters recommended Slack and 387 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 12 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 10 years (10 owners). **Verdict:** Recommended for easy integrations, searchable history and a frictionless feel that teams rarely fight, though many complain about heavy memory use and distracting, always-on chat culture. ## Why people recommend it - Easy, reliable app integrations (4 comments): "Getting an agent working via an existing Slack setup is fairly effortless and the control over output format is useful" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47451508)) "Making App integrations for Slack to basically anything is pretty close to a joyful experience" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45937463)) "Other integrations with Linear and Slack are also very handy to getting into this workflow." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47622752)) - Generally just works (3 comments): "It just works most of the time, well, besides slightly buggy text editor and almost non-working calls." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47022216)) "Sure Slack had its own issues, but I don't remember ever feeling like I was actively fighting it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47874252)) "Slack still wins on so many levels that I don't see anyone willing to move any time soon." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46677365)) - Configurable notifications and input (3 comments): "Slack doesn’t have spam coming from outside my company, and any “apps” that “helpfully” bother me can be silenced easily." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46460888)) "it's configurable in slack so now I have it configured the Enter inserts a line break and Cmd+Enter submits the message" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47750154)) "I turned off the "X is typing..." indicator in Slack and it made my day to day life at work surprisingly better." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49749903)) - Searchable, asynchronous message history (3 comments): "I have better "ambient awareness" remotely because with slack I am in every hallway simultaneously" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46084217)) "it was not only easy but asynchronous to search or even just go back through a day's unread posts" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48353444)) "The ability to search past conversations has saved me hours of productivity and well worth it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47370799)) ## What people warn about - Heavy RAM use, getting slower (6 comments): "Not being able to keep Slack and Outlook open at the same time seems like a pretty significant productivity hindrance to me." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47250763)) "my only complaint is Slack's RAM usage (which honestly has no negative effect on my machine" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48805511)) "I'm sitting here on a Mac with Teams, Outlook and Slack open and there's 18 gig of RAM gone" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47248131)) - Encourages distraction and noisy channels (5 comments): "Because Slack is so frictionless, there was no barrier asking anything, including questions that were answered the day prior in the main channel" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47309871)) "I still think Slack encourages a "continuous partial attention" way of engaging with chat that I don't like." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46958053)) "Having every inconsequential discussion on public channels is what really lower the signal to noise ratio of messages on Slack nowadays." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49007908)) - Clunky UI and formatting quirks (3 comments): "Slack is great in almost all aspects, but they dropped the ball on pasting formatted content." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47319011)) "Slack does this annoying thing where I click a chat, which gains focus, but I actually have to click again to switch to the chat I want." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46228894)) "Slack has the same problem (hamburger menu in the top left captures clicks, plus a giant search bar in the center) and it's bothersome." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48372360)) - Weak calls, expensive pricing (3 comments): "It just works most of the time, well, besides slightly buggy text editor and almost non-working calls." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47022216)) "Yes, it is insanely expensive. But if time is money, the alternatives would've been far costlier." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50137828)) "Everything about this product sucks: bad video calls, no meeting recording, limited screen sharing, janky authentication, and predatory pricing." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48651778)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Microsoft Teams](https://hackerapproved.com/p/microsoft-teams.md): 228 recommend - [Zulip](https://hackerapproved.com/p/zulip.md): 143 recommend - [Chatto](https://hackerapproved.com/p/chatto.md): 55 recommend - [Mattermost](https://hackerapproved.com/p/mattermost.md): 40 recommend - [Fluxer](https://hackerapproved.com/p/fluxer.md): 22 recommend ## Where to get it - [Visit the official site](https://slack.com/) ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Slack", https://hackerapproved.com/p/slack/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).