Slack
Where work happens — team messaging and collaboration
Slack is the leading team communication platform, organising conversations into channels by project, topic, or team. Free tier: 90 days of message history, 10 integrations, unlimited users. Used by virtually every remote-first African startup team for async communication, customer alerts, and developer notifications.
Best for
Use when
You have a team of 2+ people and want organised async communication with integrations for GitHub, Jira, error alerts, and payment notifications.
Skip when
You're a solo founder — Notion or email is simpler. Some early African teams use WhatsApp or Telegram groups instead for cost reasons.
Fully accessible from Africa. Free tier is sufficient for most startups under 20 people with a short message history requirement.
Alternatives
Microsoft Teams, Discord, Telegram