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If it鈥檚 possible to be a cool kid in enterprise software, Slack has managed it.

The enterprise messaging application, gunning to take over internal comms in workplaces large and small, has raised over half a billion dollars, pushing its valuation over $3 billion. Fueling investor demand for its shares, and driving the price they are willing to pay, is its impressive growth.

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As 罢别肠丑颁谤耻苍肠丑鈥檚 Josh Constine put it in 2016: 鈥溾�� And the company has held onto that growth. at the Slack Conference yesterday, the company has picked up 500,000 paying users since October of last year, putting it at a total of 2 million paying users. The messaging company also reported 6 million daily active users across both its free and paid plans.

But that growth hasn鈥檛 just attracted deep-pocketed investors and glowing coverage. It also has attracted competitors, some of which are formidable in size and ambition. So today, let鈥檚 take a cursory look at some of those competitors and how they may fare against Slack鈥檚 impressive growth. (Slack didn鈥檛 return a request for comment before the time of publication.)

Let鈥檚 go.

Atlassian

Primarily known for its developer tools and project management software, is the owner of Slack鈥檚 primary competitors, , a messaging app the public company acquired in 2012. But the app, while maintained, was not as beloved as Slack became.

Without firm numbers, we can鈥檛 definitively say how much of a dent Slack has made in HipChat鈥檚 growth. But for Atlassian, the perception that it鈥檚 fallen behind was likely enough to justify a complete .

In general, the Stride platform appears to mimic Slack. But it has several unique features that set it apart, such as Focus mode (a way to mute all of your notifications and messages) and the ability to self-host an install. The company will also port all HipChat data into the new Stride platform, bringing its former userbase into the new product.

So while Atlassian may have let HipChat slide, the company appears to have made a concerted effort to improve the product. It also has a large install base to sell into via its other product offerings, and, with the redesign, Atlassian can potentially swat off future HipChat-to-Slack converts.

And unlike Slack, Atlassian鈥檚 livelihood doesn鈥檛 depend on owning internal comms鈥攅ven if it would prefer to.

Doist’s Twist

, a startup in grant funding from a Chilean startup incubator, has proved itself as a very serious competitor in the project management space.

The company鈥檚 main application, , offers cross-platform to-do lists for personal and team use and has over five million users. The company this year, its competitor to Slack.

Called the “company’s bet against real-time messaging,” Twist has a channel structure much like Slack’s; however, the app prioritizes threaded conversations rather than one-off messages to help keep conversations on topic. The company also has done away with an online indicator in an effort to reduce notification-induced FOMO.

However, convincing teams to switch from Slack to threaded-only convos may prove to be a difficult sell. To some, the difference may be marginal and not worth the switching cost. This leaves Twist to fight for organizations that have not adopted a messaging solution. That鈥檚 not an impossible task鈥擠oist has bootstrapped its way to success in project management. But in messaging, it鈥檚 now up against a unicorn with an army of well-funded sales and marketing folk.

Although bootstraps are durable, it’s not unheard of for them to break.

Microsoft Teams

When Microsoft announced Teams, Slack鈥檚 CEO, Stewart Butterfield, welcomed the competition in a .

Teams, like the other competitors mentioned, hews closely to Slack鈥檚 interface. And given that it comes from Redmond, Teams integrates tightly with Microsoft Office ecosystem. Microsoft has also taken advantage of its developer chops to support a bot ecosystem similar to Slack鈥檚. Recently, the software giant a partnership with Adobe to integrate its e-signature technology into Teams.

And while we don鈥檛 have solid user numbers to compare, Microsoft鈥檚 alternative to Slack appears to be growing. According to a SA国际传媒 News report, Teams is employed by 125,000 organizations. Slack, meanwhile, announced that it counted 50,000 organizations across its paid member base.

Given that Microsoft Teams is bundled with Office 365鈥攚hich has, at last report, 鈥擲lack has a serious contender in terms of scale. That said, Microsoft has a history of failing to compete effectively in this space, even when its install base gives it immense competitive advantage. Yammer, which Microsoft acquired for $1.2 billion, has convulsed under its owner . Time will tell if Microsoft will manage to leverage its competitive edge through Teams.

Discord

While not on its face a Slack competitor, Discord, the messaging application geared towards gamers, has taken on a life of its own.

With bubbly branding, Discord appears to work much like Slack. It features groups and channels, with a particular focus on how easy it is to start video and voice chats among users. And it鈥檚 target market appears to be responding well. The platform has attracted 25 million users, likely helping fuel its funding to slightly over .

Right now, has not directly set its sights on Slack. The company, at least publicly, compares itself primarily as a competitor to Skype. But it鈥檚 not hard to imagine that the company could eventually diversify its target market to include businesses. However, it may well be content with staying in e-sports market, That said, Slack is only one landing page and a campaign away from attempting to grab the same market. After all, Slack鈥檚 a unicorn, and unicorns aren鈥檛 known for passing up an opportunity to grab market share.

Of course, there are many other Slack competitors. There is , a self-hosted enterprise messaging application that raised a in February. Google has also announced intentions to compete with Slack through , though details on its real-world use are spare. Facebook has also attempted to get in the enterprise messaging market through Facebook at Work, but the company has no history of competing effectively in the workplace.

All in all, Slack may have growth, but that success has earned it new, and able competition. Will that competition be able to cut into Slack鈥檚 growth, eventually impacting its ability to raise or go public?

Hopefully Butterfield takes out another ad answering those questions.

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