14 chat tools for small business

There are several ways to boost your communication at the workplace and enable real-time collaboration with file-sharing capabilities, audio/video project management and so on. Chat tools are such a way to do so. They not only enhance the workplace environment but also minimise costly miscommunications and mistakes. They also profoundly reduce the need for meetings; improve task management and builds employee engagement on a higher basis.

Let us highlight some top chat tools for business here:

Choosing the best chat tool considering your business platform and budget is essential.

Chatwork

It is a social business networking tool used while the user is working with several different clients and teams across the globe. It also allows us to connect with the team in public and provide chat groups and offer to work with them through task management software.

CA Flowdock

It is a chat and inbox platform that lets teams collaborate and communicate in an easily accessible central location and also provides one-on-one private chat with each team member or through threaded discussions. The Team Inbox feature stores and arranges emails and messages for project management.

Slack     

A comprehensive, robust chat tool, Slack is used in small business ventures that come with individual and team audio calls and video conferencing. It makes easier collaboration where users can organize multiple projects, teams and other items using hashtags, dropping them into selective platforms by dragging and so on. All files are synced, archived and searchable for future references.

Microsoft teams

It is a software as a service offering tied directly to the giant Office 365 subscription and creates a chat-based workplace focused on real-time collaboration, including chats, meetings notes, Office, Planner, extensions and apps. The threaded persistent chats here can be both open and private and teams also integrate with Microsoft’s Skype video service.

Chanty

It provides a fleet of valuable business communication features and combines them with an easy-to-understand interface. It also has a high-quality messaging system for easy organization of the workplace along with a video conferencing feature with the entire team.

Amazon Chime

Chime’s basic feature includes one-to-one voice calling, screen sharing and access to its chat feature with 30 days of history for messages. It also auto-calls its participants when a meeting starts, eliminating the need to enter meeting IDs and passwords. It lets everyone see who’s on the call where anyone can easily be muted too there is much background noise from his side.

Meta workplace

It is also called Facebook workplace and is very popular these days. It is a business communication platform that uses a company’s intranet to provide chat, video and group collaboration tools. It works easily on both computer and android devices. It also integrates existing business tools like Drive, etc.

Twist

It is a chat tool from Todoist that differs from other chat apps by making all chats and communicating on the app threads. It has distinct group rooms and users can both start a new tread and comment on the existing one. It has a free tier to give access to a month’s worth of messages and comments.

Discord

It is a free voice chat app that allows workers to communicate via voice. It has always-on voice channels so that users can quickly talk with their team. It features standard chat windows for basic communication in small or large business platforms. There are no chat rooms, forums or threads in this tool.

Flock

It is a channel-based chat application where separate conversations can be made for the ease of organization and uncluttered project planning. It is a good solution for businesses seeking to maintain transparency with workers while communicating more efficiently. It is free for teams with 20 members.

Webex by Cisco

It is a full-fledged chat solution for small businesses by Cisco that provides a chat tool, meeting software, a whiteboard collaboration tool and an organized calendar app. The chat app can use images dynamically and the whiteboard assists in creative collaboration. The app usage pricing depends on the need of the business.

Mattermost

With both a free and professional tier, this chat tool is best suited for a technology company since it allows fully customisable solutions for the company’s needs and can even run on several servers. The basic chat functionality and communication featured help to toggle elements to meet the business needs.

Ryver

River integrates basic chat functionality with task management and also offers unlimited channels for chat searching so that users can quickly look back at past messages. It is generally two apps in one since its functions both as a Slack and Trello alternative. Here, ideas are never lost or deleted from chat channels and have a monthly subscription for 12 users.

Zoho Cliq

It provides much of the same power as other chat apps yet with a varied interface. Here, chat is not limited to one line but allows users to open and view several windows and rooms simultaneously. Thus, the inflow of more streamlined communication is allowed across multiple teams. It has a free version but with limited features.