“Ugh, not another app,” I hear you say. But stick with me – this is different. As someone who lives and breathes internal comms (and happens to work at a company building an internal comms app), I’ve spent way too many hours tinkering with intranets, chat tools, and employee engagement platforms. I’ve seen what works, what flops, and what makes HR leaders do a little happy dance in their office. In 2025, the game has changed: hybrid work is the norm, frontline employees can’t be left out, and having the best app for internal communication can make or break your company culture.

So, which app deserves that crown in 2025? I have a bold opinion (spoiler: I’m a tad biased toward one that rhymes with “Peb”). In this Neil Patel-style deep dive, I’ll walk you through my firsthand take – complete with questions, anecdotes, and maybe a coffee-fueled rant or two – on the top internal communication tools of the year. We’ll start with Pebb – the new kid on the block that I genuinely believe is changing the game – and then compare it head-to-head with heavyweights like Workvivo, Staffbase, Yammer, Slack, and Microsoft Teams. By the end, you’ll know exactly which tool deserves to connect your team (and hopefully, you’ll be itching to try Pebb for yourself).

But first, why should you even care? Because great internal communication isn’t just “nice to have” – it’s directly linked to productivity and employee happiness. Don’t take my word for it: RingCentral’s recent Connect Culture Report showed a strong link between good employee communication and productivity​. Effective comms boost engagement, morale, and yes, even your bottom line. And in an increasingly deskless, distributed world, the right app is how you build that “connected culture.”
Okay, enough preamble – let’s dive in!

Meet Pebb – The All-in-One Internal Comms Super-App (Yes, I’m Biased and Proud)

Alright, I’ll come clean: Pebb is my baby (figuratively speaking). As a Pebb team member, I’ve watched countless companies struggle with fragmented tools – one for chat, one for the intranet, one for social updates, another for file sharing… ugh. That’s exactly the mess we built Pebb to fix. Pebb is your team’s “super-app” for internal communication and engagement​ It’s designed to bring your entire organization – frontline and office alike – into one connected hub where news, conversations, and knowledge flow with zero silos. (One tool. One space. Zero silos. That’s Pebb in a nutshell​:

Let me break down Pebb’s coolest features and why our customers are saying it “feels like Facebook, but for work”​

• Home Feed: The heart of Pebb is a central news feed where your company-wide updates live. Post announcements, shout-outs, or CEO updates and everyone sees it in real-time. It’s like your internal company social wall – perfect for celebrating wins or sharing need-to-know news​. No more “I didn’t get the memo” excuses!

  
  

• Work Chat: Pebb includes a built-in chat for one-on-one and group messaging with unlimited history. It’s snappy, secure, and supports images, files, GIFs – you name it. Basically, it gives you the instant messaging of Slack without needing a separate Slack subscription. (And yes, those messages are searchable forever, not lost after 90 days like on free Slack.)

  
  

• Clubs (Groups & Communities): These are one of my favorite Pebb features. You can create public or private “Clubs” for any team, project, or even social interest group​. Each Club comes with its own mini-hub: a dedicated feed, a documents section, a shared calendar, a photo album, and even an “Apps” wall to embed tools. It’s awesome for segmenting content – e.g. an “HR Club” for policy updates, a “Sales Club,” or a fun “Friday Tennis Club” for the after-hours crew.

  
  

• Knowledge Library: No more digging through email attachments or SharePoint sites from 2010. Pebb’s Knowledge Library is a central repository for key files, forms, policies, and how-tos accessible to everyone​. Onboarding guides? Check. COVID safety protocol PDF? Yup. It’s all organized and just a quick search away, so your people can self-serve the info they need.

  
  

• Search & Profiles: Speaking of searching – Pebb lets you instantly find coworkers with an intelligent search. Every user has a rich profile (photo, role, department, etc.), so when I forget who that new person in Engineering is, I just type a name or skill and bam – live profile info​. It’s a great way to get to know the team and break down the “Who does what here?” mystery.

  
  

• Voice & Video Calls: Need to discuss something live? Start a voice or video call directly inside Pebb – no jumping to Zoom or Teams​. This is clutch for quick huddles. I can be chatting with a teammate and escalate to a video call with one click, without leaving the app. (Yes, we use our own product for our internal meetings whenever we can – dogfooding FTW.)

  
  

• Admin Analytics: I know, analytics might not sound sexy, but trust me, HR and comms folks love this. Pebb’s admin dashboard gives you engagement stats across teams, departments, locations, etc.​

  You can see which posts are getting read, who hasn’t logged in lately, which departments are most active, and so on. It’s like having a pulse check on your organization’s communication health. No more broadcasting into a void – you’ll have data to prove people are (or aren’t) tuning in.

  
  

• Mobile-First Experience: We built Pebb mobile-first, with native iOS and Android apps that are just as powerful as the desktop version​. Why does that matter? Because most frontline workers don’t sit at a desk all day. Whether your employees are on the shop floor, in a hospital ward, or out in the field, Pebb keeps them connected on the go. (True story: one of our customers is a retail chain whose store associates had zero access to email – now they all use Pebb on their personal phones to get company news and chat with HQ. Game-changing!)

  
  

Pebb’s Home Feed on mobile keeps everyone connected with real-time updates. In this example, a CEO post on Pebb’s news feed gets visible to all employees – complete with comments and even video content. It’s like an internal social media wall where kudos and announcements get the spotlight.

Pebb’s built-in Work Chat is fully equipped for 1:1 or group messaging. This mobile screenshot shows a group chat with file sharing and emojis in action – no need for a separate app. (Yes, the chat is actually called “United Shipping” in this example – we use fun demo data!)

Now, beyond features, let’s talk setup and cost for a second. We pride ourselves on Pebb being super easy to roll out. You won’t need a weeks-long IT project to onboard people. In fact, our recommended first steps are as simple as: add your branding, create a couple of Clubs, post a welcome message, and invite users​. I’ve seen companies with hundreds of employees get up and running in a single afternoon. As for cost, here’s a shocker – Pebb’s core platform is free for organizations up to 1000 employees!​ That’s not a typo.

Our Standard plan is $0 because we want as many teams as possible to start improving their comms without barriers. Even above 1000 users, or if you want advanced admin controls and premium features, our paid plan is just $3.5 per user/month​ which undercuts a lot of the big players. (We’ll get to those in a minute.) Essentially, you get the all-in-one package in Pebb for less than half the price of a fancy coffee per user.

By now, I’m sure it’s clear I can gush about Pebb all day. I mean, “team super-app” with chats, calls, feeds, clubs, profiles all in one place is literally our mantra​. And hearing customers like Loren say Pebb “entirely redefined our communication” and made work feel as engaging as a familiar social network is the fuel that keeps us hustling​. But hey – you’ve heard the sales pitch. Don’t just take it from me that Pebb is awesome; let’s see how it stacks up against the other top internal communication tools of 2025. After all, you’re probably also looking at options like Workvivo, Staffbase, Yammer (or Viva Engage, as Microsoft now calls it), Slack, and Teams. So let’s do some comparisons, shall we?

Workvivo – The Employee Engagement All-Star (How Does It Compare to Pebb?)

If you’ve been Googling around about internal comms platforms, you’ve likely come across Workvivo. These guys have been making waves – especially after Zoom acquired them in 2023. Yep, the video conferencing giant Zoom now owns Workvivo, which says a lot about the confidence in Workvivo’s approach to employee communication. Workvivo markets itself as an employee experience platform that combines comms, engagement, and intranet capabilities into one app​. Think of it as a modern social intranet: it’s got a familiar Facebook-like feel where employees actually enjoy logging in and posting, rather than feeling forced​

What Workvivo does well: In my experience playing around with Workvivo (and talking to some of their users), the strength is engagement. The interface is intuitive and social, with activity feeds, groups, and even the ability for employees to create content and shout-outs. Workvivo is great at giving every employee a voice, not just leadership. It has a central knowledge base for documents, the ability to host live streams/events for the company, and a ton of integrations.

In fact, Workvivo emphasizes integrating with your existing tools – it can plug into Gmail, Outlook, Microsoft Teams, Slack, etc., to fit into your workflow​. That integration focus is a double-edged sword (more on that shortly). Workvivo also offers nice features like pulse surveys, social recognition (badges, kudos), and robust analytics to measure engagement. It’s quite a comprehensive platform aimed at driving culture digitally. No wonder Workvivo often scores high adoption – employees log in because they want to, not because they have to​. Also, with Zoom now backing it, Workvivo has been named the “only preferred migration partner” for customers leaving Workplace from Meta​ (since Workplace by Meta is shutting down its service). That’s given Workvivo a lot of credibility and a surge of new users.

Where Workvivo falls short (and how Pebb is different): For all its strengths, Workvivo isn’t perfect for everyone. One thing to note is that Workvivo, while all-in-one in name, relies on external tools for some functions. Notice how they integrate with Slack and Teams – that’s because Workvivo itself doesn’t have a built-in real-time chat like Pebb does. If your team wants instant messaging, Workvivo expects you to keep using Slack/Teams alongside it​. Similarly, video calls in Workvivo are typically via Zoom (unsurprising given the acquisition) or other integrations. So, you might still end up juggling multiple apps (Slack/Zoom + Workvivo) to cover what Pebb alone can do. Pebb takes a different philosophy: we bundle chat and calls natively so you don’t need an external chat app. Another difference is target audience. Workvivo has primarily been catering to mid-size and enterprise companies (hundreds to thousands of employees). They don’t even list pricing publicly – it’s very much a “book a demo, custom quote” vibe​

Translation: it can get pricey. From what I’ve gathered, Workvivo’s deals often run into tens of thousands of dollars a year for larger clients. There’s no free version for small teams to try out on their own. Pebb, on the other hand, is accessible to a 50-person company or a 5,000-person company alike – you can start free and scale up, no sales hoops to jump through.

One more thing: while Workvivo’s social feed is fantastic, it might be too open-ended for some use cases. I recall a conversation with a communications manager who trialed Workvivo – she loved the engagement but found that important top-down announcements could sometimes get buried in the flood of employee-generated posts. Pebb’s approach offers a bit more structure: you have the main Home Feed for broad comms (mostly driven by leadership or designated publishers), and Clubs for more decentralized discussions. It’s a subtle difference in how information flows.

In summary, Workvivo is a strong contender and arguably one of the most similar platforms to Pebb in spirit. If you want a proven employee community app and don’t mind hooking it up to separate chat/call tools, Workvivo could serve you well. However, Pebb edges it out for organizations that want a truly unified tool. With Pebb you won’t need Slack/Teams at all – it’s all built-in – and you won’t have to beg for budget (free vs. Workvivo’s likely significant cost). Plus, if you ask me, Pebb’s UX is a tad more straightforward for frontline folks. The choice might come down to specifics of your org, but it’s telling that Workvivo itself highlights needing to integrate with other tools​ whereas Pebb’s proud claim is that we replace the need for multiple apps entirely.

Oh, and did I mention Pebb’s free-forever tier up to 1000 users versus Workvivo’s no free plan? 😉 That alone is worth considering for budget-conscious teams. Workvivo is like buying a luxury car – powerful, feature-rich, but you pay a premium. Pebb is like getting a Tesla at Toyota prices (and no gas needed because everything’s in one battery… alright, I’ll stop with the strained analogy now).

Staffbase – The Enterprise Communications Powerhouse (vs Pebb’s Agile All-in-One Approach)

Next up, Staffbase. If Workvivo is the cool up-and-comer, Staffbase is more like an established enterprise veteran in the internal comms space. In fact, Staffbase has been a leader in employee communication platforms for years, especially in Europe and North America, and they’ve grown by merging with other solutions (you might recall names like Bananatag for email newsletters – that’s now part of Staffbase). Staffbase offers a Communications Cloud that covers everything from an employee app and intranet to email newsletter tools and digital signage​.

They really aim to be a one-stop-shop for internal communicators. Key features of Staffbase include multi-channel content distribution (mobile app, intranet pages, email all integrated), audience targeting and personalization (so you can send specific content to, say, only your New York office or only Sales folks), built-in employee survey capabilities, and even content planning and editorial calendars for comms teams​ It’s a very robust suite designed for large enterprises with complex comms needs.

What Staffbase excels at: In one word – scalability. Staffbase can handle a company with 50,000 employees as easily as one with 500. It’s built to deliver content to diverse workforces and then measure the heck out of it. I was particularly impressed by Staffbase’s analytics and campaign planning tools when I tried a demo. You can track views, clicks, and engagement on each piece of content in real time​, which is gold for internal comms teams that need to report on the impact of their communications. They also have nice touches like a ghostwriting feature (which allows comms folks to post on behalf of execs – handy when that VP isn’t very tech-savvy)​. And their mobile app is quite polished, with strong adoption in frontline-heavy industries.

Another strength: Staffbase integrates well with Microsoft 365 – for example, you can surface SharePoint content or use Teams as a delivery channel if you want​. It’s clear that Staffbase’s vision is to be the central hub where all internal communications can be crafted and distributed, no matter the channel.

Where Staffbase might give you pause: Two words – cost and complexity. Staffbase is not cheap; let’s just put that out there. Their target customer is basically Fortune 1000 companies or similarly large orgs. One independent review noted that Staffbase plans start around $30,000 per year​. Yep, you read that right – we’re talking enterprise software pricing. That’s an investment only justified if you truly need an enterprise-grade comms ecosystem. If you’re a smaller company or even a mid-market one, that price tag can be hard to swallow (and honestly, overkill for your needs). In contrast, Pebb offers 90% of those capabilities at a fraction of the price – even our paid plan would be like ~$42 per user per year (at $3.5/month) which for 500 users is $21k/year, less than Staffbase’s entry point and with a free option below that. So, Pebb is far more cost-effective, especially for small-to-mid sized organizations.

Another consideration: with great power comes… a lot of menus. Because Staffbase has so many features, I found the admin interface to have a bit of a learning curve. If you’re an internal comms veteran, you might geek out over it. But if you’re an HR manager just trying to get an announcement out, Pebb’s simplicity might be more welcoming. I’ve seen some companies shy away from Staffbase because they simply didn’t have the dedicated internal comms team to leverage all those bells and whistles. It’s like buying a Formula 1 race car when you just need a reliable daily driver.

Now, let’s talk Staffbase vs Pebb directly. Both aim to be all-in-one hubs, but for different crowds. Staffbase is built for the Fortune 500 – it’s feature-rich and enterprise-ready, but requires significant budget and expertise. Pebb is built for everyone – it scales from a tiny startup up to enterprise, but we keep the user experience straightforward. A director of communications at a large firm might love Staffbase’s in-depth segmentation (e.g. crafting slightly different newsletter versions for 10 different audiences). Meanwhile, a communications manager at a 300-person company might prefer Pebb’s more out-of-the-box approach (post to the feed, share in a Club, done!). One isn’t objectively “better” than the other; it depends on your needs. That said, I’ve got to brag: Pebb has many of the same core features – mobile news feed, employee directory, multi-channel posting, analytics, even something analogous to Staffbase’s “social walls” – but we package them in a leaner way. And we even have some things Staffbase doesn’t emphasize, like built-in live chat and voice calls (Staffbase is more about planned comms; they don’t replace Slack/Teams, whereas Pebb can).

One more difference: Staffbase invested a lot in internal email newsletter capabilities (from their Bananatag acquisition). If your strategy heavily relies on email (internal newsletters), Staffbase has great tooling for that – though arguably email is a bit old-school for reaching all employees, especially deskless ones. Pebb focuses on in-app communication rather than email; we think a mobile push notification beats an email for immediacy. I’ve seen many companies pair Staffbase for their app/intranet and still use Outlook for email blasts, which is a bit redundant. With Pebb, you could actually replace the need for internal email blasts with push notifications and posts that everyone sees.

In a nutshell, Staffbase is like the Cadillac of internal comms software – powerful and enterprise-class – while Pebb is like the sporty hybrid that gives you luxury features without the cumbersome price or bulk. If you are a huge organization with a dedicated comms department and money to spend, Staffbase could be on your shortlist. But if you want 90% of the functionality at 10% of the cost (and effort), Pebb is a compelling alternative. We’ve actually had a few clients switch from Staffbase to Pebb because they wanted a more nimble, modern solution that their whole workforce (especially frontline folks) would actually engage with daily.

Yammer (Microsoft Viva Engage) – The OG Enterprise Social Network That Time Forgot

Ah, Yammer. Many of us have a love-hate relationship (or maybe a meh-hate relationship) with this one. Yammer was one of the first big enterprise social networks, launching way back in 2008 with the goal of being “Facebook for companies.” Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 and integrated it into the Office 365 suite. Fast-forward to 2025, and Yammer has essentially been rebranded under the Microsoft Viva Engage umbrella – but many people still just call it Yammer. If you’ve worked in a corporate environment in the last decade, chances are you’ve encountered Yammer: perhaps an empty feed with a few posts from corporate comms, or a random thread about the cafeteria menu. 😅

Yammer’s role and features: Yammer is (was?) designed for company-wide discussion, communities, and knowledge sharing within organizations. It provides group forums (communities) where people can post updates or questions, and colleagues can reply or like them. It’s integrated with Microsoft 365, which means it ties into your Outlook (Yammer notifications, etc.), SharePoint, and now Viva (Microsoft’s employee experience platform). The idea is to break down silos by allowing open conversations across departments. For example, the CEO can post a message to “All Company” and anyone can comment, or employees can have a Yammer group for, say, “Women at Work” or “Engineering Ideas”. In theory, it’s great for open dialogue and Q&A across hierarchy levels. Yammer also added features like polls, events (including live events streaming, which some companies used for town halls), and integration into Teams (you can access Yammer communities through the Teams app now).

It’s included in many Office 365 plans at no extra cost, so a lot of organizations have it available by default​ The problem with Yammer: In practice, Yammer often fails to get traction. I’ve personally seen at two companies I worked for that Yammer was rolled out with fanfare (“we now have an internal social network!”) and within months, it turned into a ghost town. Why? A few reasons echoed by industry analysts: Yammer lacks modern targeting and content management capabilities, and its user experience just never kept up​. Gartner – a top tech analyst – even rated Yammer as “generally ineffective” for driving a company-wide communication strategy​. Ouch. The criticisms boil down to: (1) Yammer is not great for reaching the right audiences with the right content (it’s sort of one-size-fits-all, with everyone dumped into the same general feed unless they navigate to specific groups), (2) the analytics are rudimentary so comms folks can’t tell if messages are landing​, and (3) notifications are hit-or-miss, especially for frontline workers who might not check their Microsoft apps often​. One quote that stuck with me from a Clearbox report was that Yammer has limited capability as a communication channel due to lack of targeting and only basic analytics​. Plus, many employees just see it as yet another thing to check, and default to email or Teams for their day-to-day.

Another issue: Yammer got overshadowed by Microsoft Teams. Microsoft has been pushing Teams as the hub for teamwork, and since Teams now has a “Communities” feature (which is basically a Yammer integration inside Teams), Yammer as a standalone is kind of fading. If an organization is already deep into Teams for chat and collaboration, they might ask, “why do we need Yammer?” And employees often never log into Yammer unless forced.

Yammer vs Pebb: This is like comparing an old, dusty filing cabinet to a sleek new digital dashboard. Pebb and Yammer both aim to connect the whole organization, but the execution couldn’t be more different. Pebb is built for engagement from the ground up – with a modern app that feels social and fun – whereas Yammer feels like work. (One friend described Yammer as “that place where posts go to die” in her company.) Because Pebb has a true mobile-first design, it drives engagement far better for frontline staff or anyone not chained to a desk. Yammer’s mobile app exists but is not widely loved, and frontline adoption is poor – especially since those users often don’t even have O365 licenses or corporate emails to begin with. Pebb allows easy onboarding of users with just a phone number or QR code invite, which is huge for retail or field teams that Yammer never reached.

Feature-wise, Pebb offers more out-of-the-box. Yammer doesn’t have built-in chat (that’s what Teams is for), no built-in live video calls (again, that’s Teams/Stream), no structured knowledge library (SharePoint is expected to fill that role). It’s basically just community forums and posts. Pebb bundles chat, announcements, groups (Clubs), file storage, profiles, and calls all in one. We’ve had companies replace Yammer with Pebb and report immediate spikes in engagement – finally people actually read the company news, because it’s in the same app where they chat and do their day-to-day, and they get a friendly push notification on their phone. On Yammer, posts were easily ignored or buried in email digests. Also, Pebb’s analytics let you see who saw your announcement, whereas Yammer’s were “very basic” and not tailored for comms impact​.

One anecdote: A colleague (before I joined Pebb) worked at a Fortune 500 where leadership would post occasionally on Yammer. They had over 20,000 employees, but an average Yammer post from the CEO got maybe 100 likes and a handful of comments. The reach was abysmal – most employees didn’t even know where to find those posts. This is a common theme. In contrast, another company that switched to Pebb saw thousands of employees viewing and interacting with CEO posts regularly, because Pebb made it impossible to miss – the post was top of their Home feed and the app notification drew them in. It’s the difference a modern UX and notification strategy makes.

So, if you’re currently stuck with Yammer and feeling the pain, I feel for you. Pebb is basically a generational leap over Yammer. It’s like going from a flip phone to a smartphone. Both can make a call, but only one lets you video chat, browse the web, and do a hundred other things seamlessly. And given that Gartner’s analysts openly doubt Yammer’s effectiveness as a communications tool​, you have every reason to consider a switch. (Shameless plug: Pebb even offers a hassle-free migration for Workplace or Yammer content – we’ve helped companies port over key posts and files so nothing is lost.)

In short, Yammer had its moment, but in 2025 it’s outclassed by more engaging, comprehensive apps like Pebb. If you want an internal comms platform that your employees will actually use, Yammer probably isn’t it. Pebb can fill that void and then some, while still giving you the open community vibe (via Clubs) that Yammer tried to deliver.

Slack – The Ubiquitous Team Chat King (Why You Still Need More than Slack Alone)

Time to talk about the elephant (or Slackbot) in the room: Slack. “Wait,” you interject, “Slack isn’t an internal communication tool, it’s a team chat app!” True – Slack began as a messaging tool, not a full-fledged intranet or comms hub. But it’s so widely used for internal communication (especially in tech and startups) that we have to include it in this roundup. I’ll admit: I love Slack for quick chats. Our Pebb team even uses Slack internally alongside Pebb at times (old habits die hard, and some of our devs basically speak in Slack emojis). With its channels, DMs, threads, and endless integrations, Slack has essentially replaced a lot of internal email and made workplace communication more real-time.

Slack’s superpowers: Speed and integrations. Slack is all about instant communication. You create channels for teams or topics, and conversations flow freely. It’s fantastic for cross-functional collaboration – engineering talking to product, sales pinging support, memes in the #random channel keeping morale up. Slack’s interface is polished and familiar to millions; it’s practically a verb (“Slack me that file”). And boy, does it play well with others. Slack has over 2,500 app integrations – everything from Google Drive to Jira to Zoom​. It can truly become a unified notification hub for your work if you plug in all your other tools (I’ve had Slack channels that show updates whenever someone fills out a web form, or when a server alert triggers, etc.). Slack also has some cool newer features: lightweight video calls and screen sharing, and “huddles” (spontaneous audio rooms) for quick voice chats​. In many ways, Slack set the standard for modern workplace chat – even Microsoft had to up its game (hence Teams’ chat is similar conceptually).

Where Slack struggles for internal comms: For all its strengths in team collaboration, Slack is not designed as a top-down communication tool or an engagement platform for all employees. It’s chaotic by nature – that firehose of channels and messages can overwhelm people. I’ve seen important HR announcements posted in Slack channels completely missed because, well, people were busy in other discussions. Slack lacks a central “news feed” or easy way to ensure every employee sees a particular message. You can pin things or use @everyone, but we all know how easily things scroll away in a busy Slack workspace. There’s also no built-in content repository or intranet functionality. Sure, you can search files or star messages, but Slack isn’t where you’d put the employee handbook or the official policy doc. It’s not built for long-form content or persistent knowledge sharing; it’s built for quick exchange. Additionally, Slack’s analytics for engagement are minimal – you might see how many messages someone sent, but it won’t tell a comms manager how many people read the CEO’s post (because there is no concept of a “post” to all, aside from maybe an announcement channel). And while Slack is great for desk workers, it can be less ideal for frontline workers who might not even have company email addresses to invite to Slack. (Some companies do get creative and onboard frontline staff to Slack via phone numbers or shared devices, but it’s not what Slack was originally intended for.)

Another factor: cost (for large teams). Slack’s free tier is famous and generous in some ways – you can use Slack free indefinitely, but you’re limited to seeing the last 90 days of messages (which is new as of 2022, they changed it from 10,000 messages limit to 90-day limit) and limited app integrations. Many small businesses stick to free. However, mid-sized and large companies almost always need Slack’s paid plans to have proper message archives and security/compliance features. Paid Slack isn’t cheap: the Pro plan runs about $8.75 per user/month, and Business+ is ~$15 per user/month​. That adds up quick – 1,000 employees on Slack Pro is $105,000 per year. For comparison, 1,000 users on Pebb would be free on our standard plan, or if you needed premium features, $42,000/year (and likely less if negotiated annually). So Slack can become one of those significant line items in your IT budget if you go all-in.

Slack vs Pebb: Now, I’m not going to claim Pebb replaces Slack for team chat yet – real-time messaging is Slack’s home turf and it’s excellent at it. But Pebb’s Work Chat feature was built precisely so you don’t need Slack as well. If you have Pebb, everyone from the CEO to the frontline worker can chat in the same app that houses your news feed, documents, etc. That’s a big advantage: with Pebb, important announcements (Home Feed) live side by side with everyday conversations (Chat). Employees don’t have to check two apps; there’s one place for everything. This means the announcement about the new safety protocol won’t get drowned out by the GIF parade in #general – it’s in a dedicated feed that people actually notice. Pebb also supports threaded comments on posts (like a social feed) which can capture discussions around an announcement without the fast-scrolling chaos of a Slack channel.

Another difference is audience reach. Slack is often limited to knowledge workers or those with company credentials, whereas Pebb’s invitation model can onboard everyone (by SMS invites, for example). If you have a mixed workforce, Pebb ensures the internal comms reach all, not just the desk jockeys on Slack.

One thing Slack lovers ask: “What about integrations and workflows? Slack has so many.” It’s true – Pebb as a younger product doesn’t have thousands of integrations (yet!). We do have an “Apps” section in Clubs for quick links and are building out integration capabilities, but Slack has a multi-year head start there. However, consider this: a lot of the reason Slack needs so many integrations is because it doesn’t do those things itself. Pebb packs in functionality (news, calls, etc.) so you’re not as reliant on stitching together apps. And if you do use other tools, Pebb’s App Wall and upcoming integrations will let you connect them in simpler ways.

I’ll share a real scenario: A company we worked with had been using Slack as their pseudo-intranet – basically they had an #announcements channel with all employees in it. But important HR updates were still often missed, and new hires found it confusing to onboard into the company culture via Slack streams. They adopted Pebb, and moved formal announcements to Pebb’s Home Feed (with Slack now used mainly by specific teams for project discussions). The result? They reported nearly 100% of employees were reading and acknowledging posts in Pebb (thanks to our read-tracking and gentle nudges), whereas previously maybe 60% would catch a given Slack announcement. They also loved that Pebb let them easily share richer content – like a formatted newsletter-style post with images and videos – something hard to do in Slack’s channel format. And funnily enough, the employees themselves didn’t reduce Slack usage for daily chatter, but they did start opening Pebb every morning to check company news, which was a big win for the internal comms team.

In short, Slack is fantastic for what it is (team chat), but it’s not a holistic internal communications solution. Many companies pair Slack with an intranet or comms platform – it’s not an either/or. But if you want to simplify and have one tool, Pebb gives you Slack-like chat plus the broader comms features Slack lacks. And if you’re budget-minded, consolidating into Pebb can save a lot. However, I’ll be honest: Slack’s polish in chat is something we at Pebb continuously aim to match and exceed. They set the UX bar high. Our goal is that you won’t miss Slack at all when you use Pebb’s chat – we’re pretty close, and already have some advantages (e.g. direct integration with your org’s news/events).

So if your organization is small and chat-centric, Slack might suffice. But as soon as you need to broadcast messages reliably or engage folks beyond chat, you’ll feel the gaps. Pebb is the more complete package for internal comms, with chat being one of many features rather than the only feature.

Microsoft Teams – The All-in-One Collaboration Workhorse (Why Pebb Still Stands Out)

Last but certainly not least, let’s talk Microsoft Teams. This is Microsoft’s juggernaut that practically took over the corporate world, especially after 2020 when remote work exploded. Teams is a bit of a chimera: it’s a chat app, a video conferencing app, a file collaboration tool (tied to SharePoint), and more recently, it’s incorporating intranet/community features (via Viva Engage, which is basically Yammer inside Teams). Microsoft is positioning Teams as the central hub for everything work-related if you’re in their ecosystem.

What Teams brings to the table: Integration, integration, integration. If your company uses Office 365 (now called Microsoft 365), Teams fits like a glove. It ties into your Outlook calendar for meetings, your OneDrive/SharePoint for files, your Azure AD for identity – all that. From one Teams interface, you can chat (1:1 or group), have dedicated team channels similar to Slack, jump on video meetings with up to hundreds of people, record meetings, collaborate on Office documents in real-time, and even use a bunch of third-party app plugins (Teams has an app store too). It’s truly an all-in-one hub for collaboration​. Many organizations consolidated their tools and moved fully to Teams (phasing out maybe Zoom, Webex, Slack, etc., to just use Teams). One big advantage: cost – Teams is often included for free in your Microsoft 365 subscription​. If you’re already paying for Office licenses, you get Teams “for free,” so CFOs love that. Teams also has enterprise-level security and compliance, which is a must for regulated industries.

Why Teams isn’t a dedicated internal comms platform: Teams is fantastic for synchronous collaboration (real-time chat and meetings), but for asynchronous, company-wide communication, it has some shortcomings. The interface is quite busy and geared towards smaller group collaboration rather than broad broadcasting. Yes, you can create an “Org-wide” Team or use the Viva Engage communities for all-company posts, but those often feel bolted on. A lot of employees use Teams purely for their day-to-day team chats and calls, and might ignore or miss company news that’s in some other section of Teams. Also, from a content creation standpoint, Teams isn’t where a comms manager would craft a nice looking announcement with images – that’s just not its forte. It’s also less fun or engaging; it’s a work tool through and through, without the social media vibe. I recall an HR friend complaining that posting an announcement in Teams (via Viva Engage) felt like shouting into the void – employees just didn’t interact with it like they did on, say, an internal social platform. Part of it is context: people open Teams to join a meeting or respond to a chat, not to browse company news for enjoyment. So engagement on broad comms in Teams can be low.

Teams also can be overwhelming. It tries to do everything, so the UX has lots of tabs, sections, and notifications. Less tech-savvy employees (and even savvy ones) sometimes struggle with it. Pebb, by contrast, is laser-focused on internal comms and keeping things simple for end users: open app, see news feed, check chats, done. Teams is overkill if all you need is a streamlined comms channel.

Teams vs Pebb: If your organization already runs on Teams, you might ask, “Why would I need Pebb?” It’s a fair question – some might not. But many of our Pebb clients actually use Pebb alongside Teams, because each serves a different purpose. They might use Teams for departmental meetings and file co-editing, but use Pebb as the company-wide engagement and news platform. This is especially true for companies where not everyone has a full Teams account (e.g., retail workers who don’t have corporate email logins). Pebb can reach those people easily via mobile signup, whereas giving everyone Teams access might require provisioning expensive Microsoft licenses for people who wouldn’t otherwise need them.

One of the biggest differences: user experience and engagement. Pebb feels more like a social network; Teams feels like a corporate tool. Employees are more inclined to scroll through Pebb’s feed, react to posts, and casually browse updates. In Teams, once their meeting is over or their chat answered, they close it. It’s not an app many people “linger” in for fun. Pebb’s mission is to make internal comms engaging, not just efficient. That can have huge cultural benefits – making a dispersed workforce feel like they have a shared community space. Teams, bluntly, doesn’t inspire that same feeling of community.

Feature-wise, Teams and Pebb overlap on some things (chat, calls) but diverge on others. Teams doesn’t provide a built-in knowledge hub as Pebb does (though you can integrate SharePoint sites – but again, that’s another thing to build and maintain). Teams’ org-wide communication relies on Viva Engage/Yammer as mentioned, which we’ve covered the limitations of. Pebb provides a better interface for top-down comms, and it’s separate from the clutter of project chats, so those messages shine. Also, with Pebb’s analytics, you know who’s reading the news; in Teams, you’re somewhat in the dark if people are internalizing those posts.

Let me share a use case: A mid-size company (2,000 employees) we know had gone all-in with Microsoft – everyone had Teams. Yet, their internal comms lead found it frustrating to share company news via Teams. She tried an “All Company” Team with an announcements channel – people muted it. Then they tried Viva Engage communities – very few reactions. Important HR announcements would often get lost or people would say “I never saw that.” So they brought in Pebb as a dedicated internal comms app. They still use Teams for meetings and daily work, but now when there’s an important announcement, they publish it on Pebb. Employees get a push notification on their phone from Pebb, separate from the noise of Teams chats. Engagement went way up. Frontline workers who rarely opened Teams started engaging via Pebb’s mobile app. And interestingly, there was no revolt or confusion – employees clearly understood “Teams is for work collaboration, Pebb is where I go to see what’s happening company-wide.” And Pebb’s UI was so straightforward that training was minimal.

From a cost perspective, since Teams is bundled with Office, adding Pebb is an extra expense – but as we’ve covered, Pebb’s cost is modest, and the ROI in engagement can justify it. Plus, if you have a chunk of employees not on Office 365 (to save license costs), giving them Pebb access ensures they’re not left out of the communication loop.

Bottom line on Teams: It’s great for what it’s built for – internal meetings, chat, and working on docs with colleagues. It’s not great as a culture-building communication platform. Pebb complements or even replaces the internal comms part that Teams doesn’t do well, providing a lively space for news, recognition, and cross-company interaction. If you’re already using Teams and it’s working fine for broadcasts, maybe you’re the rare case who doesn’t need something else. But most organizations I know find that they need a dedicated internal comms solution in addition to Teams, to really engage people. That’s where Pebb shines.

To wrap up the comparisons, let’s put all these tools side by side on key features and criteria, so you can clearly see how they differ:

Feature Comparison: Pebb vs. Workvivo vs. Staffbase vs. Yammer vs. Slack vs. Teams

⚠️ Partial/Limited: indicates the feature exists in a limited form or via integration rather than natively.

As you can see, Pebb checks the most boxes natively as an all-in-one solution, without relying on other tools. Workvivo and Staffbase also score high on features but target a different scale (and often require integrations for the real-time chat/calls). Yammer (Viva Engage) covers some bases but in a very limited way, and Slack/Teams, while excellent for chat/collaboration, lack many internal comms features out-of-the-box.

Pricing Comparison

Of course, features aren’t the whole story – pricing and plans matter, especially if you’re an HR leader pitching this investment. Here’s a quick overview of how these tools compare on cost and pricing model:

Notes on pricing: Pebb’s free tier is a big differentiator – you can roll it out at no cost and only pay if you need premium features or have a very large user base. Slack and Teams offer free versions too, but with limitations (Slack free is more for trial or small groups; Teams free is a basic version). Workvivo and Staffbase are investment-grade platforms – amazing for the right scenario but require a sales process and significant budget. Yammer being bundled “free” in Office sounds nice, but remember the adoption issues – free doesn’t mean effective if no one uses it.

From a value perspective, Pebb aims to give you the best bang for your buck. You get the broad feature set like the big enterprise platforms but at a SaaS price that even a small business can afford (or free). And if you’re a larger enterprise, the cost is predictable and usually far less than legacy intranet solutions or the combo of Slack+Yammer+SharePoint that Pebb can replace.

Conclusion: Choose the Tool That Connects Your Team – (Pebb, ahem, Cough Cough)

We’ve covered a lot – from the new-age super-app approach of Pebb, through the engagement-centric Workvivo, the enterprise-heavy Staffbase, the aging Yammer, and the collaboration staples Slack and Teams. By now, you’ve seen that “internal communication” can mean different things: it can be social feeds and culture building, real-time chats and collaboration, or top-down broadcasts and information hubs. The best app for internal communication in 2025 is the one that brings all those pieces together for your organization in an engaging, easy-to-adopt way.

As an internal comms practitioner (and tech enthusiast), my honest take is this: employees today expect their workplace tools to be as user-friendly as their consumer apps. They won’t adopt clunky old intranets or log into five different platforms to get company info. The winners in this space are those that make communication simple, fun, and centralized. That’s why I’m such a fan of Pebb’s approach – it was literally built to address the shortcomings of older systems like Yammer, and to save us from the app overload of using Slack + SharePoint + email + {insert tool du jour}. Pebb isn’t the only good solution, but it’s the one that I’ve seen turn skeptics into believers the most. (Yes, I’ve watched a few HR directors go from “Do we really need another app?” to “I can’t imagine life without Pebb” in a matter of months.)

If you’re an HR leader or communications director reading this, a few parting pieces of advice:

• Involve your employees in the decision. Whichever tool you lean toward, get a diverse pilot group to try it and give feedback. The frontliners, the engineers, the office staff – make sure it works for all. The best internal comms app is one that everyone in the org uses, not just HQ.

• Consider the long-term strategy. Are you trying to foster more bottom-up engagement (a sense of community)? Are you streamlining critical top-down announcements? Are you replacing email overload? Map your needs to the tool. For instance, if culture and engagement are key, something like Pebb or Workvivo (with social features and praise, etc.) will be better than trying to do it in plain Teams or email.

• Don’t underestimate ease-of-use and support. A tool with tons of features (hello Staffbase) can be amazing, but only if you have the bandwidth to manage it. Sometimes a simpler solution that’s plug-and-play will deliver better results because you’ll actually fully utilize it. Also, look at the vendor’s support and onboarding resources. (Shameless shout: Pebb’s team is known for hands-on support and even a bit of hand-holding during rollout – we love helping customers succeed.)

• Budget smart, but think ROI. If a free or included tool (Yammer, Teams, basic Slack) isn’t moving the needle on engagement, the “savings” from not buying something else is a false economy. Investing in a great internal comms platform can yield returns in employee alignment, retention, and productivity that are hard to measure but very real. That said, no need to throw money away – pick a solution that fits your budget. Pebb’s free tier or Slack’s free plan can be good starting points to prove value before scaling up to paid.

At the end of the day, my bold opinion: Pebb is the best app for internal communication in 2025 for the vast majority of organizations. It hits that sweet spot of being all-in-one, engaging, and affordable/free. Workvivo is hot on its heels, especially for larger enterprises wanting a Zoom-backed solution. Staffbase is the choice for those who need enterprise-grade everything and have the budget to match. Slack and Teams are awesome for what they do, and likely you’ll still use them for certain workflows, but they just aren’t purpose-built to be the primary internal comms hub that unites your company’s voice.

I encourage you to give Pebb a try – since it’s free to start, there’s literally nothing to lose except perhaps an hour of setup and inviting some colleagues. Kick the tires, post a welcome message, and see how people react. You might be surprised at the difference when communication is fun, not forced. As one of our clients told us, “Implementing Pebb was like breathing new life into our organization – suddenly people were talking to each other and actually reading the company news!” That put a huge smile on my face, and it’s what drives us to keep improving the app every day.

Thank you for sticking through this lengthy post – If you have any questions or want to know more about any tool mentioned, feel free to reach out. And if you’re ready to boost your internal comms and engagement, you know where to find us. 😉

Here’s to a more connected and communicative workplace in 2025! 🚀