How is this communication & collaboration ranking decided?

Mechanically. The 17 approved communication & collaboration listings on this page are sorted by their published rating, highest first, with the number of ratings behind each score as the tie-break and the product name as a final tie-break so the order is stable. Those ratings are aggregated from public sources, not collected from Softwr readers, this site hosts no reviews, so the order is a summary of what is already published elsewhere, not a verdict of our own. Nothing on this page is paid placement.

Is this list re-ordered for students?

No, and it would be dishonest to imply otherwise. The catalogue records no data about which team sizes or roles each tool suits, so the ranking is the same published-rating order as the unsegmented list. What the students framing changes is which of the figures below matter most. Students want the $0 column. Anything on this page with a published free plan or an open-source licence is usable without a purchase decision at all.

How much does communication & collaboration software cost?

Across the 17 communication & collaboration tools listed here, paid plans start between $5 and $30 a month, with a median entry price of $13.50. The most expensive single tier published in the category is $250 a month (Novu). 7 of 17 also publish a $0 plan.

What is the cheapest communication & collaboration software?

1 of the 17 tools listed here cost nothing at all. Among the ones that charge, Flock has the lowest published entry price at $5 a month. Cheapest and best value are different questions: check which tier the capability you need actually appears in before you compare starting prices.

Is there free communication & collaboration software?

Yes, 7 of 17 tools in this category publish a plan priced at $0. 1 of them are free outright, with no paid tier above. A tool is only counted as free here when it publishes a $0 plan, an open-source licence, or a starting price of zero, a free trial does not count.

What features should communication & collaboration software have?

Judging by what vendors put in their own published pricing tiers, the most frequently named capabilities in this category are admin controls (2 of 8 tools that publish plan detail), advanced search (2) and api access (2). Treat those as the category baseline. Anything named by only one vendor, such as advanced analytics or ai summaries (limited), is a differentiator rather than a standard, so it is worth deciding whether you need it before it narrows your shortlist to one.

How is communication & collaboration software usually billed?

subscription (8), quote (4), freemium (3), usage-based (2), counted across the 17 listings on this page. The distinction that costs money is per-seat versus flat: a per-user plan at the same headline price scales with your headcount and a flat subscription does not. 3 of 17 tools also keep at least one tier unpriced and sold by quote.

What does communication & collaboration software actually cover?

The 17 tools on this page do not describe themselves the same way. The subject tags they carry most often are video-conferencing (4), communication (3), messaging (3), collaboration (2), developer-tools (2). That spread is the honest answer to what the category means in practice: it is not one product shape, and two tools filed under communication & collaboration may overlap on very little.

How many pricing tiers do communication & collaboration tools offer?

8 of 17 tools here publish a plan breakdown, and the median one has 3 tiers. 6 of 17 publish three or more. More tiers is not generosity, it usually means the capability you are buying for sits two rungs above the advertised price, so price your shortlist at the tier that contains it.

How many communication & collaboration tools are listed on Softwr?

17 approved communication & collaboration listings appear on this page, including Chanty, Chatwork, Courier, Flock. Each links to a full breakdown with its pricing tiers and plan detail, and the category can be filtered by price and sorted by rating above. You can also read the shortlist view at /best/communication-collaboration, which ranks the same set by published rating.

Communication & Collaboration · ranked shortlist

Best Communication & Collaboration software for Students in 2026

17 approved communication & collaboration listings, ordered by published rating with the method stated below rather than assumed. Students want the $0 column. Anything on this page with a published free plan or an open-source licence is usable without a purchase decision at all.

Tools ranked: 17
Entry price range: $5-$30
Publish a $0 plan: 7 of 17

How this ranking is derived

The sort key

Published rating, highest first. Ties break on the number of ratings behind the score, then on product name so the order never depends on what the API happened to return first. That is the whole rule, there is no weighting, no score of our own, and nothing paid: no sponsored slot runs on these pages.

Where the ratings come from

No listing in this set carries a rating, so the order falls back to name. Those scores are aggregated from public sources rather than collected here, Softwr hosts no reviews of its own, which is also why no rating on this page is marked up as ours in structured data.

What the pool is

Approved communication & collaboration listings, capped at 20 per page; 17 came back for this one. It is not the whole market, and a tool being absent means we hold no record of it rather than that it failed a test. The unranked full set is on the communication & collaboration category page.

The ranking

Each entry lists why it sits where it sits, drawn from its own published rating and pricing.

#1
Chanty
Highest rated here
Simple, easy to use, all-in-one team collaboration tool
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
Billing
freemium
Chanty breakdown Compare with Chatwork
#2
Chatwork
Group chat for global teams, built to replace email with real-time communication
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
Billing
quote
Chatwork breakdown Compare with Courier
#3
Courier
Notification infrastructure API for sending messages across channels
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Free, no paid tier is published at all.
- Its top tier is unpriced and sold by quote.
Billing
usage-based
Published tiers
3 tiers
Tags
Notifications Api, email, sms, push-notifications
Courier breakdown Compare with Flock
#4
Flock
Organized team communication platform
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Publishes a $0 plan, with paid tiers from $5 a month.
Billing
subscription
Published tiers
2 tiers
Tags
messaging, chat, collaboration, team
Flock breakdown Compare with Google Chat
#5
Google Chat
AI-powered team messaging and collaboration
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
Billing
subscription
Google Chat breakdown Compare with Grasshopper
#6
Grasshopper
The entrepreneur's phone system
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
Billing
subscription
Grasshopper breakdown Compare with Lark
#7
Lark
The super app for team collaboration
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Publishes a $0 plan, with paid tiers from $12 a month.
- 3 published tiers, topping out at $20.
Billing
subscription
Published tiers
3 tiers
Tags
team-collaboration, all-in-one, messaging, video-conferencing
Lark breakdown Compare with Mattermost
#8
Mattermost
Channel-centric collaboration for secure workflows
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
Billing
quote
Mattermost breakdown Compare with Novu
#9
Novu
Open-source notification infrastructure for multi-channel messaging
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Publishes a $0 plan, with paid tiers from $30 a month.
- 3 published tiers, topping out at $250.
Billing
freemium
Published tiers
3 tiers
Tags
Notifications Api, Open Source, multi-channel, developer-tools
Novu breakdown Compare with Quo
#10
Quo
Formerly OpenPhone
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
Billing
freemium
Quo breakdown Compare with RingCentral Video
#11
RingCentral Video
Connected cloud communications
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $19.99 a month, with no free plan.
- 4 published tiers, topping out at $34.99 plus a tier sold by quote.
Billing
subscription
Published tiers
4 tiers
Tags
video-conferencing, unified-communications, Enterprise, communication
RingCentral Video breakdown Compare with Rocket.Chat
#12
Rocket.Chat
Deployment flexibility and compliance across regulatory frameworks
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
Billing
quote
Rocket.Chat breakdown Compare with TeamViewer
#13
TeamViewer
Remote access and support software from Germany, used for connecting to computers anywhere
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
Billing
quote
TeamViewer breakdown Compare with Textline
#14
T
Textline
Business texting for teams
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
Billing
usage-based
Textline breakdown Compare with Twist
#15
Twist
Distraction-free team communication
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Publishes a $0 plan, with paid tiers from $5 a month.
Billing
subscription
Published tiers
2 tiers
Tags
messaging, async, communication, remote
Twist breakdown Compare with Vowel
#16
V
Vowel
AI-powered meetings that make everyone more productive
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Publishes a $0 plan, with paid tiers from $16.49 a month.
Billing
subscription
Published tiers
3 tiers
Tags
video-conferencing, ai, transcription, meeting-notes
Vowel breakdown Compare with Webex by Cisco
#17
Webex by Cisco
A simpler, smarter way to work
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Publishes a $0 plan, with paid tiers from $13.50 a month.
- 4 published tiers, topping out at $18 plus a tier sold by quote.
Billing
subscription
Published tiers
4 tiers
Tags
video-conferencing, Enterprise, webinar, communication
Webex by Cisco breakdown

What communication & collaboration software costs

Counted from the published pricing of the 17 listings on this page. A tool counts as free only where it publishes a $0 plan, an open-source licence or a starting price of zero.

Cheapest paid plan: $5Flock
Median entry price: $13.50across 7 priced
Dearest entry price: $30Novu
Publish a $0 plan: 7of 17

Paid communication & collaboration plans in this set start anywhere from $5 a month for Flock to $30 for Novu. The median entry price across the 7 tools that publish one is $13.50, half of them start below that figure and half above it.

Entry price is not the ceiling. The dearest published tier anywhere in this category is Novu's at $250 a month, 8.3× the highest entry price on the page. Read the top of each ladder as well as the bottom, because that is where you land after two years of growth.

7 of 17 publish a $0 plan, and 1 of those charge nothing at all. 1 tool has no free tier of any kind.

3 of 17 keep at least one tier unpriced and sold by quote, which in practice means the number you end up paying at the top end is not on this page or on theirs.

Flock pricing Novu pricing Novu plans

How these vendors bill

The billing model each of the 17 communication & collaboration listings publishes, counted. Two tools at the same headline price are not the same purchase if one of them charges per seat.

subscription: 8
quote: 4
freemium: 3
usage-based: 2

Separately, 3 of 17 publish at least one tier with no price attached. Those are sold by quote, so the top of the ladder is negotiable, and unknowable, until you talk to sales.

What comes as standard, and what you pay extra for

Every capability named in a published pricing tier by any of the 8 communication & collaboration tools here that break their plans down, counted once per vendor. This measures what vendors choose to advertise as a selling point, not everything the software does, an absence below is silence, not a missing feature.

Named most often

Admin controls , 2 of 8
Advanced search , 2 of 8
API access , 2 of 8
Basic integrations , 2 of 8
Custom deployment , 2 of 8

Named by fewer

Dedicated account manager , 2 of 8
Dedicated support , 2 of 8
File sharing , 2 of 8
Priority support , 2 of 8
Role-based access control , 2 of 8

Named by exactly one vendor: Advanced analytics, AI summaries (limited), Compliance recording, HD video, SLA guarantee, Unlimited participants. Those are differentiators rather than table stakes.

What “Communication & Collaboration” covers in practice

The subject tags that recur across these 17 listings, with the number of tools carrying each. A category label is a filing decision; this is the closer read of what is actually filed under it.

video-conferencing4
communication3
messaging3
collaboration2
developer-tools2
email2
Enterprise2
Notifications Api2

Carried by a single tool: ai, async, documents, multi-channel, push-notifications, secure, team, transcription. If one of those is the reason you are here, the category page is the wrong lens, go straight to that product.

How to choose between them

Four things the numbers above should change about your shortlist.

Start with the free tiers if there are enough of them

7 of 17 communication & collaboration tools here publish a $0 plan, which is enough to run a real trial without a purchase order. A free tier is worth more than a free trial when you are evaluating: a trial expires on the vendor's schedule, a free plan expires when you outgrow it. The thing to check before you commit is which of the capabilities below sit above the free line, starting with admin controls, the single most frequently named capability in this category's published tiers.

Read the spread before you read the features

$5 to $30 is a $25 spread on entry price alone, and a spread that wide is never about polish, it is about who the vendor built for. Tools at the bottom of this ladder are priced for one person or a small team; tools near $30 are priced for a department with a procurement process. Decide which of those you are before you compare capability, or you will shortlist four tools that were never competing for the same buyer.

Check which tier you actually land on

6 of 17 tools here publish three or more tiers, and the median vendor in this category ships 3 of them. The advertised price is the first rung, and the things teams tend to need, admin controls, advanced search, api access, are named in higher plans far more often than in entry ones. Price your shortlist at the tier that contains what you need, not at the tier on the pricing page's left edge.

The billing model matters more than the headline number

This category splits across 4 billing models: subscription on 8 listings, quote on 4, and 2 other arrangements across the rest. A per-user price and a flat subscription at the same headline figure are not the same purchase, the first one grows with headcount and the second does not. Multiply by your real team size before you compare two numbers side by side.

Compare communication & collaboration tools directly

Every pairing below is a full comparison: the same checklist applied to both, so a gap in one is a gap in the other.

Go straight to the numbers

Build your own comparison See the shortlist instead

Questions people ask about communication & collaboration software

Answered from the listings on this page, and nowhere else.

How is this communication & collaboration ranking decided?: Mechanically. The 17 approved communication & collaboration listings on this page are sorted by their published rating, highest first, with the number of ratings behind each score as the tie-break and the product name as a final tie-break so the order is stable. Those ratings are aggregated from public sources, not collected from Softwr readers, this site hosts no reviews, so the order is a summary of what is already published elsewhere, not a verdict of our own. Nothing on this page is paid placement.
Is this list re-ordered for students?: No, and it would be dishonest to imply otherwise. The catalogue records no data about which team sizes or roles each tool suits, so the ranking is the same published-rating order as the unsegmented list. What the students framing changes is which of the figures below matter most. Students want the $0 column. Anything on this page with a published free plan or an open-source licence is usable without a purchase decision at all.
How much does communication & collaboration software cost?: Across the 17 communication & collaboration tools listed here, paid plans start between $5 and $30 a month, with a median entry price of $13.50. The most expensive single tier published in the category is $250 a month (Novu). 7 of 17 also publish a $0 plan.
What is the cheapest communication & collaboration software?: 1 of the 17 tools listed here cost nothing at all. Among the ones that charge, Flock has the lowest published entry price at $5 a month. Cheapest and best value are different questions: check which tier the capability you need actually appears in before you compare starting prices.
Is there free communication & collaboration software?: Yes, 7 of 17 tools in this category publish a plan priced at $0. 1 of them are free outright, with no paid tier above. A tool is only counted as free here when it publishes a $0 plan, an open-source licence, or a starting price of zero, a free trial does not count.
What features should communication & collaboration software have?: Judging by what vendors put in their own published pricing tiers, the most frequently named capabilities in this category are admin controls (2 of 8 tools that publish plan detail), advanced search (2) and api access (2). Treat those as the category baseline. Anything named by only one vendor, such as advanced analytics or ai summaries (limited), is a differentiator rather than a standard, so it is worth deciding whether you need it before it narrows your shortlist to one.
How is communication & collaboration software usually billed?: subscription (8), quote (4), freemium (3), usage-based (2), counted across the 17 listings on this page. The distinction that costs money is per-seat versus flat: a per-user plan at the same headline price scales with your headcount and a flat subscription does not. 3 of 17 tools also keep at least one tier unpriced and sold by quote.
What does communication & collaboration software actually cover?: The 17 tools on this page do not describe themselves the same way. The subject tags they carry most often are video-conferencing (4), communication (3), messaging (3), collaboration (2), developer-tools (2). That spread is the honest answer to what the category means in practice: it is not one product shape, and two tools filed under communication & collaboration may overlap on very little.
How many pricing tiers do communication & collaboration tools offer?: 8 of 17 tools here publish a plan breakdown, and the median one has 3 tiers. 6 of 17 publish three or more. More tiers is not generosity, it usually means the capability you are buying for sits two rungs above the advertised price, so price your shortlist at the tier that contains it.
How many communication & collaboration tools are listed on Softwr?: 17 approved communication & collaboration listings appear on this page, including Chanty, Chatwork, Courier, Flock. Each links to a full breakdown with its pricing tiers and plan detail, and the category can be filtered by price and sorted by rating above. You can also read the shortlist view at /best/communication-collaboration, which ranks the same set by published rating.

Keep reading

Neighbouring categories

Adjacent in the same taxonomy, not a ranking.

How this ranking is derived

The sort key

Where the ratings come from

What the pool is

The ranking

Chanty

Chatwork

Courier

Flock

Google Chat

Grasshopper

Lark

Mattermost

Novu

Quo

RingCentral Video

Rocket.Chat

TeamViewer

Textline

Twist

Vowel

Webex by Cisco