Marta runs an 11-person agency. On Monday at 16:40 the team agreed a new campaign deadline on Slack, but on Tuesday the designer opened the task with the old date. Slack or Task Manager - which tool better ensures that a conversation ends with a change in the work, rather than just another message?
Slack or Task Manager: where does the decision stay?
Slack organises mainly the conversation, while Task Manager organises tasks and lets you talk within their threads. If a decision changes the deadline or scope of work, in Task Manager you can relate it straight away to a specific task. The difference is about where you start: from the conversation or from the task.
On the same matter that the campaign deadline depends on, on Monday Marta hears: "Homepage mock-ups by Thursday, 12:00". On Slack this might be just one message in the project channel. In Task Manager she creates the task "Homepage mock-ups", sets the due date and holds the conversation under its card. When someone later changes the deadline, the thread also records the previous one. The designer sees not just the arrangement, but also the current due date.
Not every conversation needs a task. In Task Manager you can create a chat within a Workspace, a dedicated space grouping the tasks and chats of a project or team. A chat has a name and its own list of participants, but no status or priority. So Marta keeps the ongoing discussion in the "Client arrangements" chat, and the work with the deadline - in the task. You can read more about this distinction in the guide where to record team arrangements.
Chat at tasks handles everyday text-based work
Chat in Task Manager handles messages, reactions, mentions, attachments and shared to-do lists. The same way of holding a conversation works both in chat and in a task's thread, so you don't need to teach your team two different places to write in.
On Tuesday Marta sends three short messages one after another. If she does so within 5 minutes and nobody interrupts her, the program merges them into a single entry; a message with an attachment stays separate. When the designer opens the thread later, a "New" line marks the start of unread messages. Marta can tag the designer with @, quote an earlier reply, or leave a "Looking into it" reaction.
On Thursday the team sets out four steps for accepting the mock-up. Marta adds a to-do list to a message, and Magda ticks off two completed points. All participants see the same state, a "2 of 4 done" bar, and a mark showing who ticked off each item. If the list is meant to describe the task itself, it can also be placed in its description - there it becomes clickable right in the task card, with the same progress bar.
You can attach a file to a conversation via the paperclip, by dragging it in, or by pasting it from the clipboard; the limit is 100 MB per file. The "Files" button in the thread header collects attachments from older messages too. If Marta starts writing a reply and moves on to something else, the draft stays with that thread. Marta returns to the draft, attaches the corrected mock-up and enters the current deadline in the task.
Slack keeps the edge in live conversations and integrations
Task Manager has no voice or video calls and doesn't offer a catalogue of integrations with external apps. Slack has huddles with audio and video, Slack Connect for working with people outside the company, and an app catalogue; if a team's working day relies on these, dropping Slack would mean a real loss.
Chat in Task Manager won't replace live meetings or connections to your clients' tools. It's a place for conversation within a Workspace or at a task. If you need automated actions inside the app, the Pro variant has Automations based on "WHEN - IF - DO" rules. Integration with n8n is also available only in Pro; it's disabled by default and marked as experimental. This doesn't create an integration catalogue similar to Slack's.
Conversation history shouldn't end halfway through a project
Task Manager doesn't hide older messages - the thread history stays in the database on the company's server. On Slack's free plan, you can browse and search messages and files from the last 90 days; older content is hidden until you move to a paid plan (Slack, Usage limits for free workspaces, accessed: 19 October 2026).
Task Manager's history stays in the database on the company's server until an administrator deletes old content; clearing technical logs alone doesn't delete tasks, chats or attachments. On Slack's paid plans, access to history isn't limited to 90 days, and the administrator can set their own data retention rules (Slack, Customize data retention in Slack, accessed: 19 October 2026).
Six months later, Marta returns to the "Website project" task. In its thread, she can read the conversation and the note about the change of deadline. But she needs to know which matter she's looking for: Task Manager's global search covers task and chat names, but doesn't search the full content of their messages. If your team often searches for old decisions by a single word from a message's content, check how search works in the Slack plan you use; in Task Manager, global search finds the name of a task or chat, while search in Notes and Files also covers content.
The bill for 11 people shows two payment models
For 11 people, Slack Pro costs 957 USD a year at a rate of 7.25 USD per active user per month with annual billing; a Task Manager licence in the Standard variant on the Classic plan costs 1,490 PLN as a one-off payment. This comparison doesn't include Task Manager hosting, the exchange rate, or any applicable taxes. Slack's official pricing states the rate without accounting for temporary promotions for new teams.
| Question | Slack Pro | Task Manager: Standard variant, Classic plan |
|---|---|---|
| Payment model | Subscription per active user | One-off licence for up to 20 people |
| 11 people for a year | 11 × 7.25 USD × 12 = 957 USD | 1,490 PLN for the licence; hosting separate |
| 11 people for three years | 11 × 7.25 USD × 12 × 3 = 2,871 USD, with an unchanged price and headcount | 1,490 PLN for the licence and hosting; renewing updates after the first year is optional |
| Three more people | The bill grows with the number of active people | No change to the licence price, as long as the team still fits within the Classic limit |
| Where the application's data lives | Provider's service | Company's server |
For the first 12 months, Task Manager updates are included in the price. After that, you can keep working on the version you own or renew updates; for the Standard variant on the Classic plan, the annual renewal costs 447 PLN. If you need Pro variant features, the licence on the Classic plan costs 3,990 PLN. Alongside the licence price, factor in the cost of your own hosting, and alongside the Slack subscription - the exchange rate and any applicable taxes. You'll find a method for comparing these items in the guide cost of a task programme over three years.
Your own server gives you control, but requires hosting
Task Manager's application data sits on the client's server, while Slack operates as a provider's service. If you want to choose the hosting for your company's tasks and conversations yourself, Task Manager gives you that option - along with the responsibility of maintaining that environment.
Task Manager uses PHP 8.1+ and MySQL or MariaDB; a standard shared hosting plan is enough. The browser loads libraries, fonts and avatars from the application's server, not from third-party servers. In every variant, secrets such as API keys are encrypted. AES-256 content encryption, covering among other things messages and task descriptions, belongs exclusively to the Pro variant and is enabled by the administrator. Choosing hosting alone doesn't enable content encryption.
The AI Assistant is available in both variants and uses your own key to the provider of your choice: OpenAI, Google Gemini, Anthropic Claude or xAI Grok. You pay that provider directly, with no mark-up from Task Manager. You can ask the AI Assistant privately about the current thread or use the "Organise" button to summarise it. When you turn on AI, the query along with its context is sent to the model provider - having your own application server doesn't change that. The boundary is described in what reaches the AI provider.
Stick with Slack or move conversations to tasks?
Stick with Slack if your team's everyday work needs huddles, extensive integrations, or collaboration with clients via Slack Connect. Choose chat in Task Manager as the main place for arrangements if conversations are mostly about tasks with deadlines, you want to keep the application's data on your own server, and you prefer a per-seat licence to a subscription per active person.
You can also keep both tools, but set a simple boundary. Conversation on Slack is for quick contact; once a decision is made about a deadline or who's responsible, you record it against the task and update its parameters. Without this rule, two chat tools mean two places where Marta will go looking for the answer. Slack is a trademark belonging to its owner.
Tomorrow, pick one matter your team has been discussing over the past week. Create a task for it with a deadline, add the last three decisions to the thread, and on Friday check whether anyone is still asking where things stand. If you run a company of 3 to 35 people and want to see this way of working for yourself, open the Demo.
Frequently asked questions
Will chat in Task Manager replace Slack in my company?
Chat in Task Manager can take over conversations about tasks, but it won't replace Slack's huddles or integration catalogue. If you use these features daily, keep Slack for them.
Does message history in Task Manager disappear after some time?
No, Task Manager has no limit on how long conversations stay visible. An administrator can deliberately delete old content, but clearing technical logs doesn't remove messages or attachments.
How much does chat in Task Manager cost for 11 people?
Chat doesn't have a separate monthly fee per person: the licence in the Standard variant and Classic plan costs 1,490 PLN and covers up to 20 people. Add your own hosting to the bill; updates for the first 12 months are included in the price.
Can you import Slack history into Task Manager?
No, Task Manager doesn't have a feature for importing Slack history. When switching tools, set up tasks and chats for current matters, and transfer the arrangements you need into them manually.
Does everyone in the company see every chat?
No, a chat belongs to a Workspace and has its own list of participants. Permissions are set separately in each workspace, and someone without access who opens a link to a thread will see the message "No access".
Sources
- Task Manager, Chats feature documentation
- Task Manager, Tasks feature documentation
- Task Manager, Workspace documentation
- Task Manager, Pricing
- Task Manager, Installed on your own server
- Task Manager, Resources: Chats
- Slack, Pricing - https://slack.com/pricing (accessed: 19 October 2026).
- Slack, Usage limits for free workspaces - https://slack.com/help/articles/115002422943-Usage-limits-for-free-workspaces (accessed: 19 October 2026).
- Slack, Customize data retention in Slack - https://slack.com/help/articles/203457187-Customize-data-retention-in-Slack (accessed: 19 October 2026).
The Task Manager Team - we write about teamwork, AI in business and keeping tasks organised, using examples from Task Manager, software installed on your own server. Task Manager has been developed by Blue Creation Group (Piotr Łącz) since 2013 and is used by organisations including Neonet, the Military University of Technology and Polpharma - read customer reviews. We check our articles against the user guide and the latest version of the software.
