Slack alternative · Team chat for service businesses
Team chat in the same app as the work.
Channels, direct messages, threads and voice rooms, right next to your customers, quotes, jobs and invoices. Your Slack channels and messages come over with an import.
From Slack to Team chat in an afternoon.
Watch the channels come over, a thread get answered, a voice room get recorded and its notes land in Meetings.
- 1Your Slack channels come over
- 2Channels, sorted into categories
- 3A quick talk in a voice room, recorded
- 4The notes land in Meetings
What changes on Monday.
- 01
Before
With AloriThe quote, the job and the invoice live in the same app as the chat
- 02
Before
With AloriUnlimited users on every plan, techs included
- 03
Before
With AloriRecord a voice room and get a transcript and AI notes in Meetings
What’s in your app.
Alori starts from ready-made modules, then shapes them to the way you work. Add or remove one any time by asking.
Meetings
Recorded voice rooms with transcript and AI notes
AI bot
Posts new deals and paid invoices in a channel
Automations
Webhooks bring other apps' messages into channels
Jobs
The work everyone is talking about, one click away
Everything you used in Slack, for a team in the field.
Public and private channels, direct and group messages, threads, reactions and pins. Save a message for later with a reminder, or schedule one for tomorrow at 8.
- Set a status like "On a job site" and pause notifications for an hour.
- Invite a client or a subcontractor to one channel: they see nothing else.
- Search every channel, or ask Alori what Julie said about the Gagnon job.
Voice rooms that write their own notes.
Drop in to talk, camera on or off, and share your screen. Click the red dot and the talk becomes a meeting, with its recording, transcript and AI notes.
- Rooms sit in categories, next to your channels.
- Recording stops on its own 5 minutes after everyone leaves.
- Everyone who was in the room finds it in My meetings.
Change it by asking.
Your app isn’t frozen on day one. Write what you need, the way you’d text it. Alori makes the change and shows you before anything goes live.
- Make a private channel for the Patel job with Marc and Luis
- Post in #office tomorrow at 8 that the shop is closed
- Put the job site channels in a Job sites category
- What did Julie say about the Gagnon job?
The full guide
Everything above, in detail: how it works, what it replaces and what it does not.
Slack alternatives: team chat in the same app as the work
Short answer: If you are looking at Slack alternatives, ask where your team's conversations end up. Slack is the best known team chat, with channels, threads, huddles and thousands of app integrations. Alori is the all-in-one app for service businesses: its Team chat has channels, direct messages, threads and voice rooms, in the same app as your customers, quotes, jobs and invoices. Your Slack channels and messages come over with an import.
Who Slack fits well
Slack is a strong fit when:
- Your team lives in chat all day and relies on many apps posting into channels.
- You work in shared channels with many other companies through Slack Connect.
- Your CRM, scheduling and billing already live in other tools, and Slack is the place they all report to.
For larger teams whose day runs through chat and dozens of integrations, Slack is built for the work.
Why service owners look for alternatives
A service business chats about jobs, and the job is somewhere else:
- The chat doesn't know the customer. "Did the Gagnon quote go out?" means leaving Slack to check the quote tool.
- One more seat per person. Paid Slack plans are priced per user, so techs in the field often stay on the free plan or outside.
- One more app to open. The office switches between chat, the CRM and the schedule all day.
- Notes from a quick call get lost. A huddle ends and nobody wrote down what was decided.
Side by side
| Slack | Alori | |
|---|---|---|
| Main idea | Team chat with a huge app directory | An all-in-one app for a service business |
| Channels, DMs and threads | Yes | Yes, with group messages and categories |
| Reactions, pins, reminders, scheduled messages | Yes | Yes |
| Voice and video | Huddles | Voice rooms with camera and screen sharing |
| Notes from a call | Through add-ons | Record a voice room: it becomes a meeting with transcript and AI notes |
| People from outside | Slack Connect | Guests invited to the channels you pick |
| Apps posting into channels | Thousands of integrations | Incoming webhooks that take Slack's message format |
| Customers, quotes, jobs, invoices | Through integrations | In the same app |
| Users | Per-user plans | Unlimited users on every plan |
What Alori replaces, and what it does not
For a service business, Alori's Team chat replaces Slack for everyday team talk:
- Channels and direct messages. Public and private channels, messages to one teammate or a group, replies in threads, emoji reactions and pinned messages. Group channels into categories everyone sees.
- Later and scheduled messages. Save a message with a reminder, or schedule one to go out tomorrow at 8. Set a status like "On a job site" and pause notifications for an hour.
- Voice rooms. Drop in to talk, camera on or off, and share your screen. Click the red dot to record: the talk lands in Meetings with its recording, transcript and AI notes.
- Guests from outside. Invite a client or a subcontractor by email to one channel. They see only that channel, never your CRM, and take no seat.
- Messages from other apps. A channel gets its own webhook link. Apps that already post to Slack webhooks work as they are.
- Search and Ask Alori. Search every channel, or ask "what did Julie say about the Gagnon job?".
- The work behind the chat: customers, quotes, schedule, jobs and invoices, plus a bot that posts new deals or paid invoices in a channel through automations.
What it does not replace: Slack's large app directory, Slack Connect with many outside companies at once, and its workflow builder. Direct messages from Slack don't come over in the import, and files come over as their names. If your team depends on dozens of Slack apps, keep Slack, and connect it to Alori so your bot posts and answers there.
How to switch
- Describe your business. Alori builds your app, Team chat included.
- Connect Slack. In Import data, pick Team chat, then Slack, and click Import my channels. Public channels and the private ones Alori's bot was invited to come over with their topics and people, matched by email.
- Bring the messages. Start Slack's export, then choose the .zip file in Alori. Each message comes with its author, date and thread. Importing again never copies a message twice.
- Invite your team. Everyone signs in and finds the same channels they had in Slack.
Start on the free plan, no card needed. See pricing.
Questions
Another question? Ask it when you start.
Yes for service businesses that want team chat in the same app as customers, jobs and invoices. For large teams that rely on many Slack integrations and Slack Connect, Slack fits better.
Yes. Channels, topics and members come over first, then messages and threads from Slack's export file. Direct messages stay in Slack.
Yes. Connect Slack in Connectors: your bot posts in your channels and answers when someone @mentions it.
Service businesses such as plumbing, HVAC and cleaning companies.
Related pages
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- Discord alternativeChannels, categories and voice rooms for a team
- Fathom alternativeMeetings app that records and summarizes
- Fireflies alternativeMeeting notes that land on the right customer