Compare 8 free communication & messaging tools, free tiers, and developer deals. We could not confirm today's terms for 5 of them, and on all 5 the page we cite did not answer. Each row says why. Nothing on record contradicts our terms for Slack, Discord, Microsoft Teams.
What this name holds: Chat and meeting apps a person signs into — Slack, Teams, Signal — not the APIs behind them.
5 other names here answer “how do people working together talk and track work”, and each holds a different list: Communication (17), Messaging (28), Productivity & Notes (16), Project Management (49), Team Collaboration (34).
We track 8 communication & messaging services with a free tier we hold as current. This category has been relatively stable — only 2 pricing changes recorded across all vendors.
| Vendor | Tier | Description | Read / catalogue date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Slack | Free | The free plan includes 90 days of message history, up to 10 apps, 1:1 meetings with screen sharing, 1:1 external messages, basic AI features, SAML-based single sign-on, and SCIM user management. | 2026-09-24 / 2026-09-07 |
| Discord | Free | Unlimited servers, channels, messages. Voice/video calls (up to 25 in DM groups). Screen sharing (720p/30fps). Go Live streaming (720p/30fps). 25 MB file upload limit. No HD streaming or animated avatars on free. | 2026-09-21 |
| Zoom | Free (Basic) | Unlimited 1-on-1 meetings. Group meetings limited to 40 minutes, up to 100 participants. Screen sharing. Virtual backgrounds. Breakout rooms. Local recording. No cloud recording or AI companion on free.The page we cite for this offer states no amount, tier or rate we can read when we last looked, on 2026-09-02, so we cannot confirm these terms today. | 2026-09-02 / 2026-08-23 |
| Google Meet | Free | 1-hour group meetings (up to 100 participants). Unlimited 1-on-1 calls (24-hour limit). Screen sharing. Real-time captions. Background effects. No recording or breakout rooms on free.The page we cite for Google Meet names a plan but states no amount, so these limits come from our own record rather than from that page. | 2026-09-22 / 2026-08-21 |
| Microsoft Teams | Free | Unlimited chat messages and search. Group meetings up to 60 minutes, up to 100 participants. 5 GB per user file storage. Screen sharing. No meeting recording or webinars on free. | 2026-09-22 / 2026-09-04 |
| Signal | Free | Fully free and open-source. End-to-end encrypted messaging, voice, and video calls. Group chats up to 1,000 members. Disappearing messages. Sealed sender. No ads, no tracking. Desktop app.The page we cite for this offer states no amount, tier or rate we can read when we last looked, on 2026-09-02, so we cannot confirm these terms today. | 2026-09-02 / 2026-08-22 |
| Telegram | Free | Fully free core features. Unlimited messages. Groups up to 200,000 members. Channels with unlimited subscribers. 2 GB file upload limit. Cloud-based message sync. Voice/video calls. Bot platform. Public @usernames. Desktop, web, and mobile clients.The page we cite for this offer states no amount, tier or rate we can read when we last looked, on 2026-09-02, so we cannot confirm these terms today. | 2026-09-02 / 2026-08-22 |
| Free | Fully free for personal use. End-to-end encrypted messaging, voice, and video calls. Group chats up to 1,024 members. File sharing up to 2 GB. Multi-device support (up to 4 linked devices). Community groups.The page we cite for this offer states no amount, tier or rate we can read when we last looked, on 2026-09-02, so we cannot confirm these terms today. | 2026-09-02 / 2026-08-21 |