Slack Connect vs guest accounts: which to use for people outside your company

There are two ways to bring an outsider into Slack. You can add them to your workspace as a guest, or share a channel with their company through Slack Connect. Both work, but they suit different people and they bill differently, so choosing well up front saves an awkward migration later.

The short answer

If the other person's company already uses Slack, use Slack Connect, which is also what Slack's guide to guest roles recommends. If they are an individual without a workspace of their own, such as a freelancer or a contractor on one project, add them as a single-channel guest. Multi-channel guests are for the rare outsider who works almost like a member of staff, across several channels, for months at a time.

How the three options compare

The difference that matters most is where the person lives. A guest is an account inside your workspace, so your admins create it, control it and eventually switch it off. A Slack Connect partner keeps their own account in their own workspace, and their company decides who joins and leaves on their side.

The second difference is who carries the cost and the admin work. With guests, both sit with you. With Slack Connect, each company looks after its own people.

Who pays

When you invite a guest, your company pays for their account. Single-channel guests are free, and you can add up to five of them for every paid active member of your workspace. Multi-channel guests are billed as regular members, however few channels they use. In practice, a workspace with ten paid members can invite up to fifty single-channel guests without paying more, which covers most small teams' contractors comfortably.

Slack Connect splits the bill differently. Your company needs a paid plan to invite another company into a channel, and accepting the invitation costs the other side nothing. If the partner is on a free plan, eligible workspaces get a Pro trial when you invite them, and on Enterprise+ free partners can join without upgrading. Slack sets all of this out on its Slack Connect page.

Control and visibility

Guests are fully under your control. Workspace owners and admins invite them, though members can request an invitation. Admins can also set guest accounts to expire, and both the guest and the admin get a reminder five days before deactivation. In the member list, a single-channel guest shows a triangle next to their name and a multi-channel guest a square.

Slack Connect hands some of that control to the other company. They decide which of their people join the channel, and anyone in the channel can send a direct message to anyone else in it, including people from the other company. Slack's comparison of guests and Slack Connect channels covers this from the admin's side. That is usually what you want with customers and partners, but it is worth knowing before you share a channel with a large organization. Our guide to Slack Connect direct messages covers how those conversations work.

What happens when the work ends

This is the difference people discover too late. A guest's access ends when you deactivate the account, and everything they wrote stays in your workspace. That is good for you and bad for a freelancer, who loses the record of the work. Slack's advice on bringing outsiders into a workspace suggests a fix: freelancers who move between clients can create their own paid workspace instead of joining each client as a guest.

With Slack Connect, each company keeps the conversation in its own workspace. When the project ends, both sides still have the history they need, which suits agencies and long-term partners far better.

Edge cases

A freelancer with their own paid workspace. Use Slack Connect. They keep their history and their own notifications, and you avoid managing their account.

An agency with a large team. Use Slack Connect. Adding a dozen guests means a dozen accounts for your admins, while a shared channel lets the agency add and remove its own people.

A customer on a free plan. Start with Slack Connect, since eligible free workspaces get a Pro trial. Before the trial ends, agree with the customer what happens next, so the channel does not stop working at the worst moment.

An intern or temporary hire. A guest with an expiry date fits well. Set the date when you invite them, and both you and the guest are reminded before the account switches off.

A contractor who needs several channels. A multi-channel guest works, but check the cost first, because each one is billed like a member. If they have their own workspace, a few shared channels may be simpler.

Whichever you choose, set the channel up carefully from the start. Our guide on how to create an external Slack channel walks through the invitation and the permissions, and the main Slack Connect guide covers running shared channels day to day.

Questions people ask