Flock is a collaborative business messaging application developed by the small (but multinational) company of the same name, designed to compete with Slack. The company boasts that the app is a fast and reliable means of communication, and is available in a free edition.
$250
one-time fee up to 50 attendees
Workplace from Meta
Score 7.9 out of 10
N/A
Facebook at Work allows users to interact with co-workers through the Facebook interface.
$4
per month per user
Pricing
Flock
Workplace from Meta
Editions & Modules
Micro
$250
up to 50 attendees
Add-Ons
$250
one-time fee
Standard
$550
up to 500 attendees
Container
$950
one-time fee
PRO
$950
up to 2000 attendees
PLUS
$1500
up to 5000 attendees
Event App
$1950
one-time fee
Enterprise Live
$2.00
per month per user
Enhanced Admin & Support
$2.00
per month per user
Workplace Core
$4.00
per month per user
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Flock
Workplace from Meta
Free Trial
No
Yes
Free/Freemium Version
No
No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No
Yes
Entry-level Setup Fee
No setup fee
No setup fee
Additional Details
*Indicative pricing, get in contact for a customised free quote
Flock provides a casual as well as professional approach. Prevents the hassles of communicating over phones. Once logged out the employee will not be disturbed after work hours. All the information, messages, and data that have been communicated to date are secure & can be accessed anytime. A great channel to pass on information to all the employees within an instant.
Well suited: - leadership communication. When our CEO posts a video to all company - it always gets the highest engagement - recognition/achievements posts - live streams for education, knowledge sharing - we are a company of 12000 associates and there is no other corporate channel for us to gather more than 500 people in one place. Less appropriate: - sharing some very targetted messages - it's impossible to do at Workplace without creating a group. So we use email channel for such targetted communications - instant communication like in a chat (probably it's less appropriate in our specific case because we use MS Teams for such quick communication instead of WP chats)
Bring groups of people together to share info, stories, updates, etc.
The chat app is pretty decent.
Workplace Live is a good large-group meeting broadcast platform.
It's pretty intuitive to use for anyone who's used Facebook.
It provides different levels of "security" for groups, allowing you to have open, closed, and "secret" groups.
It's easy to paste images into your posts and comments, without having to necessarily go through the process of saving an image as a file, etc.
It has search capabilities for finding old information.
It's available for both desktop/laptop and mobile devices.
It's secured to allow only those within the company to see company-related info (but it also has a few inter-company groups, which can be useful, too).
Workplace Chat has the ability to set it to Do Not Disturb.
You can set notifications, including email notifications, if you want to be alerted to new activity in your groups, etc.
It would be helpful if a review confirmation checkbox was able to be placed by files that needed to be read or reviewed. Along the same line, approve, review again, etc. would be helpful checkboxes to add by files, proposals.
The layout is clean but suffers a bit from the center column width with two sidebars and a lot of empty space. It almost looks like a going out of business sale retail store where you notice the empty shelves. Workplace feels a bit bare at times. I think some good design modifications can help. Now on mobile, it is a great layout. I am addressing specifically the desktop browser login.
An admin control dashboard would be really effective and even more so with more users on the platform.
Having to download multiple apps just to use the tool is very cumbersome. Facebook would have make this better by wrapping it in as a main feature within their app, but having to use multiple apps to see discussions and walls is so frustrating.
We've only needed customer support a few times with Flock (mainly concerning app integration and security), and they've always been timely and helpful, which are the only things I truly need from support. The response rate was still rapid, and there's plenty of support available online as well for Flock.
Workplace by Facebook is an excellent fit in respect of support and documentation. It has excellent tutorials and documentation, as well. The UI and UX are already great as it is developed and maintained by Facebook, so most of the times, there is no need for any support or documentation.
I did not like Google Hangouts. Hangouts is more geared toward personal communication instead of business related communication. Flock is also a lot easier to use and has more options related to a business setting.
Workplace by Facebook is so much more than just a project management tool like Basecamp or Slack. The ability to disseminate information to employees is easier and better with Workplace by Facebook. It can also be used for informal messaging and sharing of information. It combines the best features of both with the same look and feel as Facebook.
It did provide a creative space for conversation and this does equal a great return on investment, considering the investment is free for the base use.
For the team members who enjoyed using it, it helped them save time in their day by having a repository for notes and creative ideas.
We can meet the project times, that with the communication in real time.
We provide solutions to our suppliers in a reliable and efficient manner.
When a business can save time and at the same time respond to the demands of customers, this translates into greater market capture of action for the company.
