MIPT

The MIPT team had known about team chat apps for a while and used the free version of Slack for short projects. They worked that way for about two years. Then, roughly a year ago, they found Slack's education program, submitted the required documents and upgraded to a paid plan with an education discount. That let them move teamwork into the app instead of spreading it across news feeds.

But in February 2023, the MIPT workspace was first downgraded to the free plan, and then a plan limit kicked in: a free workspace only shows messages from the last 3 months. That didn't work for the team. Slack held books, articles and files they needed for work, and at the same time it was where they discussed projects and wrote research papers and a book. So they needed a team chat app without limits.

First attempt

At first, they decided to try paying for Slack anyway and keep the education discount. Friends at European universities helped out by sharing the documents needed to get the discount and pay for the app. But two weeks after they paid a year in advance and started working in the new workspace, Slack blocked it. Only two days later did Slack email a warning that the account would be blocked.

Of course, they tried to get a refund and asked support why they'd been cut off. Slack never replied, so the search continued, this time on a tight timeline: nearly all work communication had ground to a halt.

Second attempt

They decided to look for a team chat app that was a bit friendlier to users in Russia. They considered switching to Mattermost, but it was blocking Russian companies too. So they decided against Western apps. They also looked at Chinese solutions, but those didn't meet MIPT's needs. In the end, they settled on Russian team chat apps.

Their expectations for Russian solutions were simple: not to give up much on quality, and to have developers based in Russia for extra reliability. If a product did fall short on quality and features, they wanted a team that was actively developing it and open to user feedback and ideas.

Pachca was one of the first options they noticed, and there weren't many other Russian options, so they decided to take a look. A small team tested it for three days and decided to stay with Pachca. There were several reasons:

We'd been using Slack heavily for more than three years. When it was suddenly taken away from us, we didn't think we'd find anything comparable. Pachca is every bit as good as Slack on the things that matter most to us. And in a number of ways, Pachca turned out to be even more convenient.

1. MIPT uses channels as a place to store articles, books and other information. Free team chat apps aren't convenient for that, and in Slack information disappears after three months. In Pachca, you can store everything without limits.
2. Specific projects and work chats are all in one place. That makes work easier, because you don't have to chase anything down or search for it. When all your work revolves around communication, collaboration and education, a dedicated team chat app is the best fit. For example, 15 people in the MIPT workspace are currently working on a single book. To keep that team organized, they split into channels by chapter and keep discussions focused there. When their work overlaps, it's easier to sort everything out on group calls.
3. Threads keep the main chat free of clutter. Without them, it's hard to properly discuss a specific task and reach a decision in large work chats.
4. A clear interface without unnecessary bells and whistles.
5. Calls are more convenient than in Slack and work well even for large teams.