vsSlackMidway vs Slack for member communities.
Slack is excellent at what it was built for: workplace conversation between colleagues who share an office calendar. Paid communities aren't shaped that way. Members aren't all online during business hours, they're not on payroll, and your community isn't a team.
How Midway and Slack compare. Slack is built for teams. Midway is built for members on your site.
Slack was designed around one assumption: everyone in the workspace is part of the same organisation, online during the same hours and paid to be there. Paid communities are shaped differently.
| Slack | |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | MidwayMember-to-member chat in membership sites | SlackInternal team communication |
| Auth | MidwayNative Memberstack, uses existing logins | SlackMembers create or accept a Slack invite |
| Lives | MidwayInside your site | SlackOn slack.com, off-site |
| Free message history | MidwayUnlimited | SlackLast 90 days visible; deleted after 1 year |
| Voice notes | MidwayRecorded in the browser, on the Studio plan | SlackRecorded clips up to 5 minutes; huddles are 1:1 only on Free |
| Per-member cost | MidwayFlat monthly price per plan | SlackPer active user, per month |
| Brand fit | MidwayThemed to your site | SlackSlack purple, Slack everything |
Prices checked October 2026
Slack Pro is $7.25 per user per month on annual billing ($8.75 on monthly billing), from slack.com/pricing.
Which one is right for you? When Slack fits, and when Midway does.
When Slack is the right call. Internal teams, bots and tech-adjacent crowds.
- Internal team chat for your business operations.
- Tech-adjacent communities where members already live in Slack all day.
- Heavy use of bots, integrations, webhooks.
- You don't mind members chatting off your site, and you're fine with 90 days of visible history (deleted after a year) or paying per active member.
When Midway is the right call. Paid communities that live on your site.
- You're running a paid community on a site that runs Memberstack.
- Members are course students, coaching clients, alumni, hobbyists, not tech colleagues.
- You want chat on your site, on your brand, with the Memberstack login they already have.
- You want voice notes, replies, reactions. The chat shapes people use outside of work.
- You don't want a per-active-member bill or a 90-day history cliff.
What community-scale chat costs. Slack bills per active user. Midway is one flat monthly price per plan.
Slack Pro is $7.25 per active user per month on annual billing. That model makes sense when active users are billable employees. It doesn't make sense when active users are your community members.
| Active members | Slack Pro / month | Midway / month |
|---|---|---|
| 50 | $362.50 | $0 (Free) |
| 500 | $3,625 | $19.99 (Starter plan) |
| 2,000 | $14,500 | $49.99 (Studio plan) |
The 90-day cliff. On September 1, 2022, Slack's free plan went from showing your latest 10,000 messages to showing only the last 90 days. Since August 26, 2024, anything older than a year is deleted for good.
Midway doesn't cap message history. On Free, Starter or Studio, your messages stay until you delete them. Attachments delete after 90 days to keep storage predictable, and the messages stay.
Slack figures use Pro at $7.25 per user per month on annual billing ($8.75 on monthly billing) from slack.com/pricing, checked October 2026. Promotional pricing may be offered from time to time. The comparison uses the standard rate. Slack's free plan exists for small communities. Once you grow past it, per-seat pricing scales against you.
Prices checked October 2026
Midway prices from the Midway pricing page.
What running member chat on Slack involves. And what changes when the chat moves onto your site.
Figures use Slack Pro on annual billing and Midway's monthly price, checked October 2026.
- 1
Step 1. You invite members to a Slack workspace. Each one creates a Slack account or accepts an invite.
- 2
Step 2. Members chat on slack.com, off your site, in Slack's colours instead of yours.
- 3
Step 3. On the free plan, members see only the last 90 days of messages, and anything older than a year is deleted.
- 4
Step 4. On Slack Pro you pay $7.25 per active user per month on annual billing. For 500 active members, that's $3,625 a month.
- 5
Step 5. With Midway, members chat inside your site with the Memberstack login they already have. 500 members fit on the Starter plan at $19.99 a month.
What people ask before switching from Slack.
Plan limits, privacy and setup steps are on the pricing page and in the setup guide.
Read the setup guideFor paying community use cases, yes. For internal team operations, no. Slack is excellent at that and Midway isn't built for it.
Add member chat to your site today. Free for your first 50 monthly active members.
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