When comparing Stride (previously HipChat) vs Flowdock, the Slant community recommends Flowdock for most people. In the question“What is the best team chat software?” Flowdock is ranked 4th while Stride (previously HipChat) is ranked 5th. The most important reason people chose Flowdock is:
An easy & simple interface to filter chat discussion into separate threads.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Available on Web, Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android
You can access HipChat from pretty much every common platform. HipChat even allows chatting via SMS.
Pro Powerful @mentions
You can ping people to get their attention even if they are not online by @mentioning them. Depending on how the person has set their account up it can be by notifications via in-app sounds, visual alerts, and even email, SMS, or mobile app push notifications.
Pro Huge list of integrations
Including Asana, Github, Zendesk, WordPress, MongoDB, TeamCity, JIRA, Confluence, PowerShell and more that 40 others.
Pro Cheap
Free with unlimited users, $2/user/month for voice + video calls, screencasts, full history retention and management. (Even enterprise feature like SAML)
Pro Simple, easy to use
An intuitive, easy to overview interface listing both online and offline users.
Pro Embeds files
Things like photos get automatically embedded in the chat thread once you upload them.
Pro Guest access
You can invite people to join conversations even if they don't have a HipChat account. HipChat will generate a link to share and the guest will only need to enter their name to join the conversation.
Pro Desktop client
HipChat has an optional desktop client powered by Adobe AIR.
Pro Good audio and video support
HipChat audio and video works on mobile platforms and web browsers.
Pro "Rooms" for persistent group chat
Participate and keep tabs on ongoing discussions on particular topics or amongst certain groups of people.
Pro Self-Hosting available
If you are worried about third-parties getting access to your data you should consider self-hosting. With self-hosting you are in control over where your data is stored, who has access to it. You will also not be vulnerable to exploits of a third-party provider.
Pro Plentiful GIFs and custom Emoticons
Pro Syntax coloring
Pasted code can be colored based on syntax.
Pro Will be updated to have more functions in the future
A big company with experience will bring in more options like Google Apps One Time Login.
Pro Reliability has been great
Pro Powerful command system
E.g. part, away, all, here etc.
Pro Threaded discussions
An easy & simple interface to filter chat discussion into separate threads.
Pro Drag and drop file sharing
Files can be dragged and dropped in to the flow dock screen for upload.
Pro Multi-platform
Browser Based, as well as:
- iPhone and iPad App
- Android App
- Mac OS X App
Pro Stored chat history
Content and discussions are stored forever.
Pro Smart pastes & code syntax highlighting
Pro Private chat option
Able to speak privately/talk head-to-head.
Pro Notification system
A specific user or everyone in the channel can be notified via @user or @everyone respectively.
Pro A full developer API
Flowdock API allows developers the freedom to create custom integrations.
Pro Create and assign PRs from Flowdock
You can interact with Github directly from Flowdock to create PRs.
Pro Free for teams of five, non-profits and students
Pro Data exports
Back up conversations and files fully at any time.
Pro Add Tools
On top of our 50+ custom integrations, easily integrate any tool that sends emails or generates RSS feeds, as well as having the option to build a custom integration with Flowdock's API
Pro Status updating
Allows co-workers to know what you’re up to "/status I'm busy today!"
Pro Google Apps Integration
Google Apps get a Flowdock link to the Apps tool-bar and won't have to separately manage users
Pro Typo Fix-ups
Pro Able to host users external to your team
When working with stakeholders (clients or partners) you can add organizations to manage internal privacy
Cons
Con Will be discontinued Feb 2019
Slack acquired Stride / Hip Chat. Both Stride and Hip Chat will cease to exist. Sad since they were quite usable.
Con Prioprietary (non-free/libre)
Con Reliability of service has been weak
The reliability of the hosted HipChat service, particularly in the early days of version 4.x, has not been a strong suit.
Con Free plan has limited storage
Free plan comes with 5GB of storage, where as paid plan has "Unlimited".
Con Only one-on-one video calls in free version
There is no option for multi-user conference calls.
Con No emoji
There's no emoji support. Instead there are some strange custom emoticons which only make sense for people steeped in internet subculture and never get updated.
Con API calls are limited even on paid plan to 500 calls in 5min by default
This will force you to contact them when you need more calls.
Con Non-synced notifications
Messages read on one client don't sync their status to another client.
Con Proprietary (non-free/libre)
Con No self-hosting available
If you are worried about third-parties getting access to your data you should consider self-hosting. With self-hosting you are in control over where your data is stored, who has access to it. You will also not be vulnerable to exploits of a third-party provider.
Con Buggy android app
Google sign up didn't work, then after going to the website to do the sign up, the invite team members screen was broken.
Con Free only for small teams, non-profits or students
Unless it's used by a team of less than five people, a non-profit or students, Flowdock will cost $3/mo per person.