Chanty and Pumble solve the same basic problem the same way: give small teams a Slack-like chat tool without Slack's price tag. Beyond that shared starting point, they diverge on what they bolt onto the core chat experience, and that difference is the whole story here.
What Chanty actually does
Chanty combines Slack-style channels and DMs with a built-in task management system called the Teambook. Any message can be turned into a task, assigned, given a due date, and tracked in a Kanban view without leaving the app. That message-to-task conversion is genuinely useful for small teams trying to close the gap between discussing something and actually tracking it, without juggling a separate project management tool for every to-do that comes out of a conversation.
The free plan supports up to 5 users with unlimited message history, no 90-day cutoff to worry about. Business costs $3/user/month and adds unlimited members, guest access, unlimited integrations, and audio and video conferencing. Voice and video calls work on both tiers. Integrations cover Google Drive, Dropbox, GitHub, Trello, Asana, and Zapier, a modest but workable list for a small team's actual stack.
Reddit feedback praises the simplicity and the message-to-task workflow specifically, while noting the task management is too basic to replace dedicated project management for anything complex, Chanty's Kanban won't substitute for Jira or Asana once a team's workflow needs sprint planning or dependencies. The interface is clean and modern, which most reviewers rank ahead of Pumble on pure polish.
What Pumble actually does
Pumble is built by the same company behind Time Doctor and Clockify, and it positions itself around one specific promise: team messaging with a permanently free tier that never limits message history. Slack's free tier deletes messages after 90 days, a real operational problem for small teams that Pumble's free plan simply doesn't have, unlimited users and unlimited history at zero cost.
Paid plans start at Pro for $2.49/user/month, adding group calls, screen sharing, guest access, and custom roles. Business runs $4.99/user/month with an admin dashboard, priority support, and advanced permissions. Both tiers stay substantially cheaper than Slack's $7.25/user/month Starter plan. The core feature set otherwise mirrors Slack closely: channels, threads, DMs, file sharing, and voice and video calls.
The integration ecosystem is genuinely thin compared to Slack, native connectors exist for Zapier, Google Drive, Trello, and GitHub among a handful of others, but nowhere near the Salesforce, Jira, or PagerDuty depth Slack offers. Reddit feedback skews positive for small teams wanting free persistent messaging, with the recurring complaints centered on limited integrations and occasional reliability issues, particularly on mobile.
Where the two genuinely diverge
Chanty optimizes for teams that want messaging plus lightweight structure in one place: the Teambook and message-to-task conversion give small teams a reason to pick it specifically, not just as a cheaper Slack substitute but as a tool that does something Slack doesn't do natively. Pumble optimizes purely for being the free-tier fix: its entire value proposition is solving the message-history paywall that makes Slack's free plan frustrating, without adding scope beyond that.
The free tier structure is the sharpest practical difference. Chanty's free plan caps at 5 members, which limits how much evaluation you can do before committing to Business. Pumble's free plan has no user cap at all, unlimited users and unlimited history for $0, making it the more generous starting point for a team that isn't ready to pay anything yet.
Task management is the other real divide. Chanty's Teambook gives you a built-in Kanban view tied directly to conversations. Pumble has no equivalent at all, it's a pure messaging tool, meaning teams that want any task tracking alongside chat need a separate tool regardless of which platform they pick, unless that team is specifically choosing Chanty for the Teambook.
Real cost for different teams
A small team (under 20) that wants lightweight task tracking without paying for a separate PM tool: Chanty's Teambook at $3/user/month for Business delivers real value here that Pumble simply doesn't offer.
A pre-funding startup or team with zero budget that just wants Slack without the 90-day message cutoff: Pumble's free tier, unlimited users and unlimited history at no cost, is the more generous starting point since Chanty caps free usage at 5 members.
A team evaluating both before committing to a paid plan: Pumble lets a larger group try the product for free longer, while Chanty's 5-member cap forces a faster decision on whether Business is worth $3/user/month.
A team that constantly converts Slack messages into tasks in a separate project management tool: Chanty's built-in conversion feature directly addresses that workflow gap, a genuine differentiator Pumble doesn't attempt to match.
A team with simple integration needs that Zapier can bridge: either tool works fine here, since neither has deep native integrations, and the choice comes down to whether task management (Chanty) or a larger free tier (Pumble) matters more.
What actually breaks in practice
Chanty's failure mode is the 5-member free tier cap and a genuinely smaller integration library than Slack or Teams, around 20 native integrations versus thousands. Teams that outgrow the basic Kanban will need a dedicated PM tool regardless of which chat platform they're on.
Pumble's failure mode is the thin integration ecosystem paired with reported reliability issues, especially on mobile, that show up consistently in Reddit threads. There's also no workflow automation builder at all, a real gap for teams that lean on Slack's automation features.
Data handling and where your messages live
Chanty states no AI training and no data selling, with messages stored on AWS in the US. Data is exportable, though Chanty carries less formal compliance certification than enterprise competitors, a reasonable tradeoff for a small-team tool but worth noting for anyone with strict vendor requirements.
Pumble, built by CAKE.com (the same company behind Clockify), similarly states no AI features and no data training, with data hosted across the US and EU. The platform is GDPR compliant with a relatively transparent privacy policy for a smaller company, and message data is exportable.
Switching between them
Migrating from Pumble to Chanty means gaining the Teambook task management layer in exchange for a smaller free-tier user cap, a reasonable trade for a team that has outgrown pure chat and wants structure without adding a third tool. Message history generally doesn't transfer between platforms, so migration means starting fresh rather than importing conversation history.
Migrating from Chanty to Pumble means giving up built-in task tracking for a larger, more generous free tier, sensible for a team that never used the Teambook feature anyway and just wants the cheapest possible messaging tool. Both platforms have small enough integration ecosystems that reconnecting third-party tools is a minor part of any migration either direction.
Onboarding and day-to-day usability
Chanty's signup takes an email with a free tier available and no credit card required. Workspace and channel setup is fast, and the interface is notably simpler than Slack. Onboarding completes in under 5 minutes for most new users.
Pumble's signup accepts email or Google login with a free tier and no credit card needed. Workspace creation and channel setup takes under 3 minutes, and the interface feels immediately familiar to anyone coming from Slack, channels, direct messages, and threads work the way you'd expect. Voice and video calls work on the free plan without any separate install.
Which one to actually pick
Pick Chanty if you're a small team that wants lightweight task management built into your chat tool, and $3/user/month for Business fits comfortably once you outgrow the 5-member free tier.
Pick Pumble if you just want the cheapest possible Slack replacement with no message history limit, and you're not looking for task management or deep integrations bundled in.
For teams still deciding, the honest test is whether you'd actually use the Teambook. If task tracking inside chat sounds useful, Chanty earns its price. If you just want to talk without a 90-day cutoff, Pumble's free tier already does that at zero cost.