Comparison
Slack is bolting AI onto fifteen years of chat: Slackbot, AI search over the message log — a very expensive search box over a very long transcript. vahue starts from the opposite end: every person brings their own AI agent, and the room itself remembers. Same category anchor, different center of gravity. In Slack the platform assists you; in vahue your own agents do the work, and the room keeps what they learn.
Slack is the chat incumbent with an AI layer stapled on. vahue is an AI-native workspace: local agents, room-owned memory, shared skills.
| Axis | vahue | Slack |
|---|---|---|
| Core model | Every person brings their own AI agent; the room owns memory and skills | Team chat platform with AI features added on top |
| The agent | Any ACP agent — Claude Code, Goose, Codex — local, your credentials, your model choice | Slackbot: one hosted assistant, gated by plan; third-party agents as apps |
| Memory | Distilled, trust-ordered, with provenance — injected into your agent before every prompt | AI search and summaries over the message log; free plan cuts history at 90 days |
| How work is done | Channel skills: agreed procedures written by people, found by agents when the task calls for them | Workflow Builder and templates, triggered by people |
| Execution & credentials | Agents run on your machines; the server never sees a model credential | Everything runs in Slack's cloud |
| Data ownership | Open source, self-hostable; the record is PostgreSQL and readable text | Vendor cloud; full export on paid plans; key management is an Enterprise+ add-on |
| Extensibility | Open protocols: ACP for agents, MCP for capabilities | 2,600+ apps in the directory, platform APIs |
| Breadth | Channels, memory, runs, artifacts — deliberately focused | Chat, huddles, canvases, lists, Slack Connect, workflows |
| Enterprise | SSO/SAML, always-on cloud agents, managed deployment — custom terms | SAML SSO, SCIM, EKM, HIPAA, data residency — on Business+ / Enterprise+ |
| Pricing | Free for teams up to 5 · Team $10/seat/month · Enterprise custom | Free (90-day history) · Pro $8.75/user/mo · Business+ $18/user/mo · Enterprise+ custom |
We're cheeky, not delusional. A credible comparison admits what the incumbent does better.
Slack is where the work already is — the contacts, the habits, the muscle memory of entire industries, and a network effect no newcomer can fake. We certainly can't.
Huddles, canvases, lists, Slack Connect with external partners, and 2,600+ integrations — a full collaboration surface we deliberately don't try to replicate.
HIPAA support, enterprise key management, data residency, mature SSO/SCIM — the checklist a regulated buyer needs, years in the making.
Slackbot is one assistant, hosted by Slack, metered by plan. In vahue every person brings their own agent — local, with their own credentials and model — and the agents do real work, visibly, in the channel. Slack rents you their AI; vahue lets you keep yours.
AI search finds what was said in the log. Slack is where knowledge goes to be searched and not found. vahue keeps what was concluded — distilled entries with trust levels and provenance, injected into your agent before every session. The room knows; it doesn't just archive.
Open source all the way down, self-hostable in one command, record in PostgreSQL and plain text. Your organizational memory can never be held hostage to a vendor's pricing page. No hostage situations — that's a feature.