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Microsoft Teams vs Google Chat vs Naven

Teams and Google Chat are the chat halves of two office suites. Naven is a free messenger that runs in any browser. Here is what each does well, and who each one is for.

Compared on	Microsoft Teams	Google Chat	Naven
Price	Free personal version; full features come with paid Microsoft 365 plans	Free with a Google account; business features come with paid Google Workspace plans	Free, with no paid tier for members and no advertising
Sign up with	A Microsoft account; most people use one issued by work or school	A Google account	Any email address you already have
Phone number needed	No	No	No
Install	Desktop and mobile apps recommended; a web version exists	Works in the browser and inside Gmail; mobile app available	Nothing to install; runs in any browser and can be added to the Home Screen
Who can reach you	On a work or school account, whoever the organisation allows	On a Workspace account, whoever the administrator allows	Anybody with your email or @username, as a request you can decline
Messages screened before they are sent	No; blocking, reporting and admin policies act afterwards	No; blocking, reporting and admin policies act afterwards	Yes, against twelve published categories, with stricter rules for under-18s
End-to-end encrypted	No, by default	No; client-side encryption is available on some paid Workspace plans	No; Naven reads messages in order to screen them, and says so
Who else can see your chats	Your organisation's administrators, on a work or school account	Your organisation's administrators, on a Workspace account	Naven's screening software; there is no employer or school administrator
Calls	Full meetings with scheduling and screen sharing	Through Google Meet	Voice and video calls in the browser
AI assistant	Copilot, on paid plans	Gemini, on Workspace plans	Naven AI, free
Parents and young people	Through a school's settings or Microsoft Family Safety	Through Family Link or a school's settings	A parent agrees for anybody under 18 and gets their own controls: pause, contacts, time limits, AI and channels
Public community	No	No	Yes: the Naven Forum, readable by anybody
Work integrations	Hundreds, across Microsoft 365 and third parties	Google Workspace apps and add-ons	None

Who each one is for

Microsoft Teams: A school or workplace that already runs on Microsoft 365 and needs meetings, files and compliance in one place.
Google Chat: A group that already lives in Gmail, Drive and Calendar, especially on Google Workspace.
Naven: Clubs, families and classes of mixed ages, where some people have no phone number or cannot install apps, and messages should be screened before they arrive.

Questions

Can I use Naven for work?

You can, for a small team or a volunteer group, but it has no business integrations or compliance tools. For a company, Teams or Google Chat is the better fit.

Why is Teams so slow?

Teams is a large application that loads chat, meetings, files and apps together, and it is known for heavy memory use on older computers. The web version or closing unused tabs inside Teams can help.

Is any of them end-to-end encrypted?

Not by default. If end-to-end encryption is your first requirement, use Signal.