How to replace Telegram for work: 5 popular Russian corporate messengers

On 30 July 2026, Pavel Durov was added to Rosfinmonitoring's list. That doesn't mean Telegram will be blocked tomorrow — that would take separate decisions. But if your company has started talking about it, it's a good moment to prepare in advance: set up a workspace in another service, move your main chats there and try the alternative with one team before moving the whole company.

Why Telegram doesn't always work for work

In Telegram, work chats live on employees' personal accounts. When someone leaves, you have to remove them from every group by hand. When a contractor joins one chat, they also get access to conversations that have nothing to do with them.

A corporate messenger works differently. It lets a company:

• manage team accounts;
• revoke access as soon as someone leaves;
• create open and private channels;
• invite contractors with limited permissions;
• call each other right inside the messenger;
• connect bots and integrations;
• manage security centrally.

Which alternatives to consider

Pachca

A Russian corporate messenger with direct and group chats, channels, cross-chat threads where you can @mention any colleague, video calls, meeting recordings, guest access, bots and an open API. The Corporation plan adds SSO, Active Directory, hybrid on-premise hosting with BYOK (the encryption keys stay with you, Pachca has no access to them), an audit log and integrations with information security systems. You can also connect an AI agent: mention it in a thread, it reads the context of the discussion and does the task right in the conversation.

Telegram import: yes.
Best for: companies that value a familiar work chat format, easy communication, access management and integrations with internal systems.
Customers: Lamoda, Burger King, Ivi, Yandex Practicum, Flowwow, Alfa-Bank, Renaissance Health, PSB.
Pricing: free up to 2,000 messages a month, then from 159 ₽ per employee per month when billed annually.
Mobile: App Store, Google Play, RuStore, AppGallery.
Desktop: pachca.com/apps

eXpress

A messenger built as a corporate super app: you can create and add third-party services to it so everything is in one window. Federation lets employees of different companies and branches work in one space. The corporate plan adds connection to internal HR systems, hosting on your own servers, flexible access rights and data leak protection.

Telegram import: yes.
Best for: organisations that need import substitution and FSTEC certification.
Customers: PhosAgro, Nornickel, Rosatom, Russian Railways.
Pricing: a free public version is available; the cloud version for business starts at 200 ₽ per employee per month.
Mobile: App Store, Google Play, RuStore, AppGallery.
Desktop: express.ms/download

VK WorkSpace (formerly VK Teams)

Part of the VK WorkSpace suite, together with Mail, Calendar, Disk and Boards. It has chats, channels, threads, video conferencing, guest access for external participants, plus bots and mini apps for CRM and HR document flow integrations.

Telegram import: no.
Best for: companies that already use VK products.
Customers: TASS, VEB, T2.
Pricing: from 309 ₽ per user per month on the Basic plan; you can try it for 14 days for 1 ₽.
Mobile: RuStore, AppGallery.
Desktop: biz.mail.ru/teams/download

Link Chats (MTS Link)

A messenger from the MTS ecosystem with video meetings, tasks, whiteboards and webinars. It has chats and channels, one-click calls from a chat for up to 200 people, separation of personal and work chats by team or department, and an AI assistant.

Telegram import: yes.
Best for: companies where video meetings and webinars come first and chat complements them rather than being the main tool for teamwork.
Customers: Chernogolovka, Kazan Federal University, Atom.
Pricing: free with a chat history of up to 2,000 messages, then from 3,600 ₽ per employee per year (10 employees minimum).
Mobile: App Store, Google Play, RuStore, AppGallery.
Desktop: mts-link.ru/application

Compass

A messenger with chats, threads, search, bots, files and video conferences for 1,000+ participants. On security: the server version can be deployed in your own infrastructure, and Active Directory, LDAP and SSO are supported. The source code is open on GitHub.

Telegram import: no.
Best for: companies that want full control over their servers and data storage.
Customers: according to the company's website — IT teams, content agencies, product teams and law firms.
Pricing: 390 ₽ per employee per month, with a 7-day free trial.
Mobile: App Store, Google Play, AppGallery.
Desktop: getcompass.ru/download

How to choose

It comes down to three things.

1. Familiarity and ease of use. If your team is used to Telegram and you don't want a big move, look at the interface, how chats are organised, and whether there are threads, channels, search and other familiar tools.
2. Team size and how you work. Almost any service on the list will do for a small team. For 500+ employees, performance, access management and integrations start to matter.
3. Moving from Telegram. If your Telegram chats hold a history you don't want to lose, pick a service with import. Pachca, eXpress and MTS Link support migration, but how much data they move differs.

How to move from Telegram to Pachca

Start with one team: create a workspace, move a couple of work chats there together with their history and use it for a week. If it sticks, move the rest of the chats and bring in the whole company. We explain how the move works on the Moving from Telegram page, and the step-by-step guide to importing your chat history is in the help center.