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0 pointsnsp10y ago0 comments

Where are you located? Slack is $7-9/mo a user iirc. Genuinely curious, that seems insanely cheap for rent.

0 comments

Really? that's cheap for you? that's some thousands a year for any mid-size company. I always saw them as really expensive for something I'm used to get for free. And the paid alternatives like hipchat are like $2/month. I guess it's all a matter of perception.

http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2015/09/23/442921757/episo...

tptacek10y ago

"Thousands a year" is a rounding error for any company that has the 20+ employees it takes to get to "thousands a year" in Slack bills. Those employees are costing tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars per month.

vruiz10y ago

I think you are seeing it from the strongly-VC-backed startup perspective. In any company I've worked for that kind of expense needs to be justified. Sure, that's a small fraction compared to salaries, but there will be many such "needs" for many small fractions, and if they are not watched after they add up pretty quickly.

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unethical_ban10y ago

That's how you get bloated budgets. Why spend thousands of dollars per year on a communications platform if you don't need to spend it?

IRC, mattermost, email, Gitlab, Wekan, Skype/Google Hangouts/BigBlueButton.... there are plenty of tools to communicate without spending loads of cash.

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GFischer10y ago

giovannibonetti's employees probably cost him "only" thousands of dollars per month, so his Slack bill would be 1/10th of an employee or so.

tedunangst10y ago

And where can a mid-size company rent an office for only some thousands a year?

giovannibonetti10y ago

I'm located in Brazil. 30 users x $8/user/month x 4 R$/US$ = R$ 960/month (as a ballpark figure, a R$ is worth for a Brazilian about the same as a US$ is worth for an american)

GFischer10y ago

U$ 240 / month is not cheap, and I'd seriously consider an alternative or asking for a discount, but it's nowhere near the price of an office in Sao Paulo or Porto Alegre (I live in Uruguay and was looking for office space in Sao Paulo earlier this year).

If you have to pay for customers, then it's way too expensive.

I've seen a remote-based company put Slack to VERY good use, integrating it very tightly with their development process, I believe it definitely pays itself then.

If it's just a glorified IRC/XMPP, then definitely not.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 comments

vruiz10y ago

http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2015/09/23/442921757/episo...

tptacek10y ago

vruiz10y ago

2 more replies

unethical_ban10y ago

That's how you get bloated budgets. Why spend thousands of dollars per year on a communications platform if you don't need to spend it?

IRC, mattermost, email, Gitlab, Wekan, Skype/Google Hangouts/BigBlueButton.... there are plenty of tools to communicate without spending loads of cash.

4 more replies

GFischer10y ago

giovannibonetti's employees probably cost him "only" thousands of dollars per month, so his Slack bill would be 1/10th of an employee or so.

tedunangst10y ago

And where can a mid-size company rent an office for only some thousands a year?

giovannibonetti10y ago

I'm located in Brazil. 30 users x $8/user/month x 4 R$/US$ = R$ 960/month (as a ballpark figure, a R$ is worth for a Brazilian about the same as a US$ is worth for an american)

GFischer10y ago

If you have to pay for customers, then it's way too expensive.

I've seen a remote-based company put Slack to VERY good use, integrating it very tightly with their development process, I believe it definitely pays itself then.

If it's just a glorified IRC/XMPP, then definitely not.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse