Slack has changed the way the professional world communicates today. Although quick, WhatsApp was too informal, and although formal, emails were too slow. Slack took advantage of the best of both worlds and turned out to be the most preferred option for professional communication.
So, it isn't surprising that, in its quest to become the do-it-all app, Slack allows itself to be integrated with various other apps. One such category of app it integrates with is Slack Standup Bots. The sheer number of them is overwhelming. But are they all affordable?
Here, we bring you a breakdown of the top affordable Slack daily standup bots: Sup, Standup Jack, My Check-ins, and Standup Alice.
Come on, let’s have a detailed look.
Before we dive into the details of each Slack standup bot, let's first understand what the parameters are that we must judge a standup bot by.
First things first. Money matters. This is why affordability must be the first criterion you judge a Slack stand-up bot by.
Any stand-up bot you buy makes responding to the daily stand-ups quick for your employees. This results in your employees dedicating more time to productive work. A stand-up bot, therefore, is an investment you make.
But would you also need to check if the standup bot aligns with the financial numbers you are willing to allocate? Yes. So, here are a few questions you could ask yourself to help you go ahead with getting a Slack daily standup bot.
This probably should have been the first criterion, but can we deny the importance of the money we are willing to part with? Nevertheless, the second immensely crucial parameter to judge a stand-up bot by is its features. Needless to say, it is because it tells you exactly how it is going to help you reach the goal you wish to achieve.
Some questions to help you with this:
Ah, the criterion that can make or break the user experience for the best standup bots. How many times has it been that you were waiting for a technical glitch to get fixed when you needed that app the most? Quite a few times, right?
The quality and pace of response that you receive from the support team during this time will determine whether or not you will continue with this tool or look for alternatives with better customer support.
A few questions you could ask yourself in this regard:
Sup Bot is the Slack daily standup bot you should go for if you want all the boxes checked on your checklist for the best affordable Slack standup bot in 2023. Let's see why.
When it comes to pricing, there is no Slack stand-up bot that beats Sup. This is because Sup allows you to avail of its features at a price that covers your entire team.
So, if you have a team of up to 250 members, you get access to all the Pro features of Sup at a flat price of $29 per month and the Premium features at a flat price of $49 per month. What more? The rates get subsidized further if you avail yourself of its annual plans.
Sup also offers a free plan that gives you one active follow-up for 15 members. Find all the details here.
Sup, as a standup bot, offers varied features. Let's take a look.
With great power comes great responsibility. Sup understands that, and this is why, besides offering the best of features, it offers an excellent customer experience. You can find a chatbot both on the website and in the app interface for all your support. The average response time can be measured within 24 hours. What more? You can even find simple user guides for each of its features documented here.
The second Slack standup bot we are going to be looking at is Standup Jack. This stand-up bot is unique in its own way. Let's take a look.
You can avail yourself of Standup Jack for free for a maximum period of 14 days. After this period is over, you will need to upgrade to the paid plan, which is priced at $1 per user per month, or it will go into hibernation.
Although it is an affordable option, the drawbacks are that it does not have any more packages to choose from or a free plan to continue on.
Standup Jack gives you all the features that any Slack stand-up bot will give you. So, what's different? The one unique feature that Standup Jack offers is that it does all of this on Slack. This means that there is no webpage to go to. You create and edit your Slack stand-ups on Slack itself.
However, Standup Jack comes at a cost when it comes to reports and customizations. The standup bot does not offer you any of this, and neither do you have access to any mood tracking feature.
You can contact customer support by typing a simple command to Standup Jack on Slack. The website also has an FAQ section where it answers queries that you might have regarding its features.
The third affordable Slack standup bot we will be talking about today is My Checkins. How affordable is it, exactly? Let's take a look.
My check-ins come in three packages.
The features that My Checkins offers again are not very different from what you would expect from a simple Slack daily stand-up bot, apart from the filters that you can use to sort out standup responses.
However, it has introduced something that can entice users into using it: summarising responses using AI. A new attempt at best, this feature seems redundant when all it offers is a basic summary of individual Slack standup responses in the text when you can already view it in a clearer manner in a tabular form.
The My Checkins webpage has a section where you can contact its team for any support or feedback. However, it does not offer any user guides aside from a 3-step guide on how to set up a daily standup on its website.
The fourth software on the list is Standup Alice. Do you want to know why this was added to the list? Read on.
Standup Alice, too, comes in three packages.
Standup Alice offers simple standup bot features, which is indicative of the price. To make things interesting, it offers customizations in the form of various question types.
However, it must be integrated into a Slack channel first, unlike all the other Slack standup bots we have spoken of so far. Moreover, it does not allow you to send custom reminders or customise the pre-submission and post-submission messages to your standups.
It has a dedicated support section on its website. You will also find contact information on the website in case you wish to reach out to the team for support or feedback.
It is up to you to select the right Slack daily standup bot for your team. Go grab the marker, pan yourself out on the whiteboard, and chalk out the pros and cons with regard to affordability, features, and customer service. Go on, we aren't looking. I wish you good luck!