Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!
Flock vs Microsoft Teams: What are the differences?
Introduction
Flock and Microsoft Teams are popular communication and collaboration platforms used by many organizations. Below are key differences between Flock and Microsoft Teams.
1. Integration Capabilities:
Flock offers a seamless integration with third-party apps, allowing users to streamline workflows and access various tools within the platform. On the other hand, Microsoft Teams provides deep integration with the Microsoft Office suite, making it convenient for users who heavily rely on Office applications.
2. Pricing Structure:
Flock offers a more budget-friendly pricing structure with its straightforward pricing plans. In contrast, Microsoft Teams is included in Microsoft 365 subscriptions, which may be beneficial for organizations that already use other Microsoft products but can be costly for those looking solely for a collaboration tool.
3. Customization Options:
Flock provides more customization options in terms of themes, notifications, and channels, allowing users to personalize their workspace according to their preferences. However, Microsoft Teams has more robust customization capabilities for enterprise users, such as creating custom apps and integrations tailored to specific business needs.
4. File Storage and Sharing:
Microsoft Teams offers seamless integration with Microsoft OneDrive for Business, enabling users to store and share files effortlessly within the platform. On the other hand, Flock provides unlimited file storage for all plans, making it suitable for teams that require extensive file sharing and collaboration.
5. User Interface and User Experience:
Flock boasts a user-friendly interface with a focus on simplicity and ease of use, making it ideal for small to medium-sized teams. In contrast, Microsoft Teams may have a steeper learning curve due to its feature-rich interface designed to cater to the diverse needs of large enterprises.
6. Communication Features:
Flock offers a wide range of communication features such as video conferencing, screen sharing, and polls, making it a comprehensive communication platform for teams. On the other hand, Microsoft Teams excels in its chat and collaboration capabilities, particularly suited for organizations that heavily rely on chat-based communication for their daily workflows.
In Summary, Flock and Microsoft Teams differ in integration capabilities, pricing structure, customization options, file storage and sharing, user interface and user experience, and communication features.
As it is the communication tool chosen for the course, our team will be using Slack to monitor the course announcements from our instructor as well as to communicate with the instructor and industry partners. The tool for communicating within the team will be Microsoft Teams. Microsoft Teams enables the team to share documents and edit them synchronously(Google Drive is not an option due to one team member's location). Since it also provides a group chat feature, we chose to use it as our communication tool to avoid using too many softwares.
Communication We have chosen two tools for our team communication.
- Slack
We choose Slack since all of us are familiar with this communication tool. We have a private channel for our team Sphinx for text messages. We added Github apps inside our private channel for repo update notifications. Furthermore, we could contact the subject matter experts within the workspace DCSIL directly for the issues we meet.
- Microsoft Teams
We use Microsoft Teams for virtual meetings for its fast connection speed. In addition, the call feature in Slack is a paid feature, and we could have virtual meetings and share screens for free in Microsoft Teams.
we were using slack
and at the same time we had a subscription with office 365. after a while we hit the slack free limitation quota. and it got annoying. the search ability was useless in free tier. and more annoying whenever you search, it opens a webpage and doesn't do it in the app.
on mobile there were many cases that I didn't get notification of important discussions. rooms was the way to separate a talk. but it become tedious. each time for a new subject that you wanted to discuss, you needed to add all the team members into a new room. and after a while the room goes silent. you will end up with a tons of not-in-use rooms that you don't want to clean up them for history purposes. also the slack UI for sub discussion is very stupid. if someone forget to check the checkbox to post the subdiscussion in the main discussion thread, other team members even won't notice such discussion is in progress.
we was paying for office 365 and thought why not give the teams a shot. we won't be in worth situation than we are. we moved to teams and we loved it instantly, we had a separate tab aggregated all the files upload. we could reply on other talk. no need of creating a new room. this way room belongs to a team and not a certain topic. our sub discussion was visible to the whole team. enjoyed integration with azure and unlimited history. the best part was integration with outlook. it was a full suit solution. our stats become busy on outlook meeting events. we get weekly analyse. we didn't need to host our wiki seperated. we've created wiki per team. the communication was much more fun.
Pros of Flock
Pros of Microsoft Teams
- Work well with the rest of Office 365 work flow29
- Mobile friendly24
- Free19
- Great integrations12
- Well-thought Design12
- Channels10
- Easy setup9
- Unlimited users6
- Strong search and data archiving5
- Easy to integrate with5
- Web interface4
- Multi domain switching support4
- Same interface on multiple platforms3
- Great voice quality2
Sign up to add or upvote prosMake informed product decisions
Cons of Flock
Cons of Microsoft Teams
- Confusing UI17
- Bad performance on init and after quite a use12
- Bad Usermanagement10
- No desktop client (only fat and slow electron app)6
- Can't see all members in a video meeting6
- Unable to Mute users5
- No Markdown Support5
- You don't really own your messages4
- MIssing public channels4
- Forced WYSIWYG4
- Stubborn, unused friendly3
- Challenging Onboarding3
- No linux support3
- Audio support problems1