What is mobile workforce management?

Why consider Flock alternatives for team messaging in 2025

Flock has long been recognized as a reliable team messaging and collaboration app, but many organizations are now exploring alternatives that better meet their needs. Whether it’s more advanced integrations, a stronger mobile experience for frontline employees, or broader tools for internal communication, companies are looking beyond basic chat. In this guide, we’ll explore the top Flock alternatives in 2025 — from industry leaders like Slack and Microsoft Teams to modern employee experience platforms like Blink, which offers the most complete solution for messaging, engagement, and productivity.

What to look for in a Flock alternative

When evaluating Flock competitors, keep these criteria in mind:

• Ease of use – Adoption matters. Look for platforms that employees actually want to use.
  
• Mobile experience – With more hybrid and frontline workers, mobile must be seamless, not an afterthought.
  
• Integrations – Your collaboration tool should connect with HR systems, productivity suites, and line-of-business apps.
  
• Communication formats – Modern tools should support more than chat: think video, voice notes, newsfeeds, and live streaming.
  
• Scalability – Choose a solution that grows with your organization and supports both desk-based and frontline teams.
  

Top 10 Flock alternatives

#1. Blink (best overall alternative)

Blink goes far beyond team chat — it’s an all-in-one employee experience platform built for organizations that need to connect every worker, from HQ to the frontline. Unlike Flock, which is primarily chat-based, Blink combines instant messaging with a powerful news feed, surveys, recognition, voice & video calling, live streaming, and document access. Its mobile-first design ensures adoption rates that stick, even among employees who rarely use email or sit at a desk. Blink also offers deep integrations with systems like Workday, Microsoft 365, and Google Workspace, driving real productivity gains inside the flow of work. With a 4.8 Gartner rating, Blink consistently outperforms competitors for ease of use, customer support, and engagement impact. If you’re seeking a modern, future-proof solution that delivers ROI across the entire workforce, Blink is the clear #1 Flock alternative.

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#2. Slack

Slack is one of the most recognized Flock competitors, known for its intuitive chat interface and extensive third-party app integrations. It’s particularly strong for tech-savvy teams that rely heavily on messaging, channels, and bots. While Slack excels at knowledge-based collaboration, it can become noisy as organizations scale, leading to message overload. Pricing also rises quickly for larger teams, especially if you need enterprise-grade features. Still, Slack is a great option for teams that prioritize real-time chat and want a highly customizable experience.

Read more: 10 Slack alternatives

#3. Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is a natural fit for organizations already embedded in the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. Its strengths lie in native integration with Outlook, SharePoint, and Office apps, making it a strong collaboration hub for desk-based employees. Teams supports chat, video meetings, and file sharing, but it can feel complex and unintuitive for users who don’t live in Microsoft. Adoption among frontline and non-desk employees is often limited, since the platform was designed with office workers in mind. For enterprises that need deep Microsoft integration, however, Teams remains a top choice.

Read more: 12 Teams alternatives

#4. Google Chat

For companies that primarily use Google Workspace, Google Chat provides a lightweight and integrated alternative to Flock. It allows users to communicate in direct messages or spaces, while tying neatly into Gmail, Google Meet, and Drive. While easy to use, Google Chat’s feature set is relatively basic compared to standalone collaboration platforms. It lacks some of the advanced engagement and workforce-wide communication tools found in competitors like Blink. Still, it’s cost-effective and convenient for Google-first organizations that want a simple messaging layer.

#5. Zoho Cliq

Zoho Cliq is part of the larger Zoho ecosystem, making it a strong option for organizations already using Zoho apps for CRM, HR, or finance. Its chat-first approach supports real-time messaging, channels, and video calls, with integrations across Zoho’s suite and third-party tools. One of its strengths is affordability — Zoho Cliq offers competitive pricing that appeals to small and mid-sized businesses. While it’s not as feature-rich as Blink, it provides solid communication capabilities for teams that value simplicity. Larger enterprises may find its scalability limited, but for SMBs looking for a cost-effective collaboration tool, Zoho Cliq is a practical Flock alternative.

#6. Chanty

Chanty is a simple, affordable collaboration tool that combines messaging with task management. It’s designed for small to mid-sized businesses that want straightforward communication features without the complexity of enterprise platforms. While its integrations are limited compared to Blink or Slack, Chanty offers good value for teams that just need basic collaboration. Its clean interface and easy onboarding make it appealing for startups and small companies seeking a low-cost Flock alternative.

#7. Ryver

Ryver differentiates itself by combining chat, task management, and workflow automation in one platform. Teams can create topics, manage tasks in Kanban boards, and use built-in automation to streamline processes. While versatile, Ryver’s interface can feel dated compared to modern competitors, and it’s less widely adopted than Blink or Teams. Still, for organizations that want an affordable “chat + task” hybrid, Ryver offers a compelling option.

#8. Mattermost

Mattermost is an open-source collaboration platform designed with IT and security teams in mind. It offers self-hosting options, giving enterprises full control over their data — a differentiator from most cloud-based tools. Mattermost supports messaging, integrations, and DevOps workflows, making it popular among engineering teams. However, it requires more technical expertise to implement and maintain. For companies prioritizing security and customization, Mattermost is a viable Flock alternative.

#9. Troop Messenger

Troop Messenger is a secure team messaging app designed for organizations that prioritize privacy and compliance. It offers chat, voice and video calling, file sharing, and screen sharing, with on-premise and self-hosting options for enterprises with strict IT requirements. Troop Messenger also integrates with productivity tools like Google Drive, Dropbox, and Jira, giving teams flexibility in how they collaborate. While its interface is less polished than Slack or Blink, its security-first design makes it a strong choice for government, defense, and regulated industries. For companies looking for a Flock alternative with robust data control, Troop Messenger is worth considering.

#10. Rocket.Chat

Rocket.Chat is an open-source communication platform that offers both cloud-hosted and self-managed deployment options. It supports real-time chat, audio and video conferencing, and integrations with a wide range of business tools. Rocket.Chat is particularly appealing to organizations that want complete control over their data and the flexibility to customize features. Its open-source nature makes it popular with IT teams and developers, though it requires more technical resources to maintain compared to cloud-first tools like Blink or Slack. For businesses seeking a highly customizable and secure alternative to Flock, Rocket.Chat is a solid contender.

Final thoughts: Choosing the right Flock alternative

While Flock is a capable tool, many organizations need more than just team chat to drive engagement, productivity, and connection across every employee. From Slack and Microsoft Teams to Chanty and Ryver, there are plenty of competitors worth considering. But Blink stands out as the best overall alternative, offering a mobile-first, all-in-one platform that engages every worker — frontline and desk-based alike. With its breadth of communication formats, deep integrations, and industry-leading adoption rates, Blink is the clear choice for companies ready to evolve beyond chat.

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Why teams choose Blink over Flock

Flock is a capable team messaging tool for desk-based teams already comfortable in a chat-first workflow — but it isn't built with frontline or deskless workers in mind. Blink is mobile-first, requires no corporate email, and is used daily by teams at McDonald's, Domino's, and Chick-fil-A. See how Blink compares.

C-suite leaders in the healthcare industry have long been interested in ways to improve their hospital performance. Now, studies show that one factor with a profound positive impact on meeting your business goals is increasing staff engagement in their jobs. HBR’s research showed that higher employee engagement levels can improve outcomes such as:

• Hospital costs (Any legal action taken by a patient against a hospital for negligent complications) 
• Treatment effectiveness and patient outcomes (Measured by the rate patients are readmitted) 
• The level of hospital acquired infections and conditions (Surgical complications, etc)

The research also found that just a small increase (1%) in employee engagement leads to a 3% reduction in hospital acquired complications and a 7% reduction in hospital readmissions. In addition to this, research supports that the quality and care with which their company leaders engage their healthcare employees influences key aspects of the care those employees go on to provide.

Simply put, employee engagement initiatives lead to better patient care. And if you treat your employees right, they'll in turn treat their patients right. The direct link between engagement and operational success is undeniable across all frontline sectors, from optimizing hospital outcomes to figuring out how to improve employee engagement in manufacturing. It's clear that C-suite leaders need to act now if they want to see improvements in hospital performance.

It's clear that C-suite leaders need to act now if they want to see improvements in hospital performance. But how can hospital leaders improve employee engagement among their staff? 

Well, there are a few key employee engagement trends in healthcare that organizations should keep an eye on, which our experts have delved into in this handy guide.

Trend 1: Moving towards consistent & clear communication

Our research has found that almost one-fifth of frontline workers state they don’t receive relevant communications from their employer organization. Our research also found that over one-third (34%) of workers can’t easily access workplace systems on their mobile, nearly 2 in 10 aren’t using their intranet, and of those, two-thirds don’t know how to.

But, so what? What does this downward trend in effective comms mean for leaders of healthcare organizations? Well, it turns out that ineffective communications can actually have a negative impact on patient safety, a critical concern for anyone in the healthcare sector. As NIMH states: 

"When health care professionals are not communicating effectively, patient safety is at risk for several reasons: lack of critical information, misinterpretation of information, unclear orders over the telephone, and overlooked changes in status."

On the flip side, consistent, clear and transparent communication within a healthcare organization creates highly engaged employees, which in turn improves the quality of care your employees provide their patients. 

So, if your paper announcement boards, sporadic emails and disparate communication tools are no longer working to effectively engage your staff, don’t just brush it under the carpet. With the pressure on for HR and IT leaders to digitize, a mobile-first, all-in-one approach to employee engagement can provide the perfect solution to both problems. 

When using mobile communication tools, you are able to easily and directly communicate with your frontline staff. Whether it’s instant company updates and news to the palm of their hands, simplified and secure document access at the drop of a hat, or direct and open two-way communication channels available 24/7, a mobile-first approach is a great way to engage and empower your healthcare employees – and improve patient safety. 

Trend 2: Actioning employee feedback

Whilst consistent communication will be vital to your employee engagement levels, you can’t simply provide workers with the means for communication and expect improved engagement. You have to use your communications channels to truly listen to, and action feedback from, your workforce in order to engage them.

Not only does this show your staff that their opinions matter, but it can also improve the overall work culture and job satisfaction within your healthcare organization, as they feel more autonomy over their work.

And the benefits don’t end there. Research from HR healthcare found that 60% of healthcare workers claim listening to employees drives changes for a more progressive business. Additionally highlighted in HR Healthcare's research, effective employee feedback has been found critical for improving patient employee environments.

As such, by perceiving employee engagement as an outcome-related effort in which patients themselves are directly affected by its success, healthcare leaders can better understand the impact that their engagement initiatives have on the overall patient experience.

Unfortunately, current trends in healthcare seem to be working away from these potential benefits. Our recent employee engagement statistics highlight that 87% of healthcare workers believe their employer should do more to listen to the needs of their workforce, and nearly 4 in 10 workers don’t feel that their feedback will be acted on. To combat this, leaders need to do more to ensure they are consistently making efforts to collect and act on direct employee feedback.

Finding the right employee engagement tools to facilitate clear communication around worker issues will be important, but one key feature you should look out for when it comes to worker feedback is Employee Surveys. By creating customized and targeted surveys for key demographics, departments and employees in your workforce, you can show them that their input is valued and taken into account when the big decisions are made.

Trend 3: Driving employee recognition 

According to research, recognition is a key driver for healthcare worker engagement.

However, our research shows that nearly 4 in 10 (37%) healthcare workers don’t feel as valued as their desk-based colleagues. This is a huge missed opportunity for healthcare organizations, as recognizing and rewarding your frontline staff not only boosts morale and job satisfaction, but can improve patient care as well.

A simple shout-out or a direct message goes a long way in showing your appreciation for your employees' hard work, but a one-on-one approach shows the organization is willing to go the extra mile to show they care about their team members. 

Ask your team questions about how they like to receive feedback. Do they prefer you shout it from the rooftops or keep it private? If your organization uses rewards, does your teammate prefer gift cards or meals? Asking these questions will provide you many options to meaningfully recognise employees.

Other ideas include:

• Recognition events (paid for team lunch or dinners etc)
• Providing development opportunities
• Personalized rewards
• Giving managers exposure to senior leaders.

At the end of the day, taking the time to recognize and appreciate your employees' efforts will go a long way in improving the overall employee experience – and your engagement levels will follow suit.

Trend 4: Understanding quiet quitting

While it's not a new concept to the healthcare sector, quiet quitting—where employees slowly disengage and eventually leave their job without giving notice—is a growing problem in the industry. 

Unfortunately, Gallup found that 32% of US employees were actively engaged at work in 2022 (compared with 34% in 2021) and that the largest decline in engagement was found among health care professionals, who realized a 9 point drop in engagement scores year-on-year. Some reasons cited for employees becoming disengaged include:

• They receive poor communication from management
• They don't believe management has their best interests in mind
• They feel a lack of autonomy and control 
• They do not have the resources needed to career out their role effectively
• They face little or no career advancement opportunities.

In addition to this, another recent survey found that 61% of physicians are currently experiencing burnout, and when asked about the cause, 62% of physicians blamed their current employer. The impact of this on the healthcare industry has been drastic.

The true impact of the quiet-quitting trend in healthcare

This phenomenon can have detrimental impacts to your healthcare organization, as it not only results in decreased productivity and higher turnover/low retention rates, but also requires additional resources—and costs—to recruit and train new staff members. 

Jeremy Sadlier, executive director of the American Society for Healthcare Human Resources Administration, commented on how this trend is playing out in hospitals all over the US:

“Ultimately, this trend has the potential to make a significant impact in the industry. Any lack of engagement on the part of staff ultimately impacts patient care, teamwork, safety and throughput, all of which impact the financial health of an organization and the patient experience. 

It's incredibly important for leaders to focus on engagement, growth opportunities, and to recognize and reward hard work. These are a few ways to focus on your employees to help them feel engaged with their work." 

In order to combat this growing trend, healthcare leaders should prioritize open communication with their staff to address any concerns or issues that may be causing employees to disengage in the first place. By understanding and addressing these issues with strong engagement initiatives, healthcare organizations can prevent quiet quitting and improve the entire employee experience.

Another way to tackle the quiet-quitting crisis, Forbes suggests, is that leaders humanize work. This could include offering flexibility and autonomy in the workplace, as well as recognizing and valuing employee contributions and investing in a mobile-first, intuitive solution to healthcare employee engagement.

Trend 5: Pushing diversity, equity & inclusion

One trend we're seeing in the healthcare industry is a greater focus on creating a diverse and inclusive workforce, as well as providing DEI training for employees.

And it's not only a recent trend. According to one study, the number of HR leaders identifying DEI efforts as a top priority was 1.8 times higher in 2020 than in 2019. In 2021 leaders indicated that “setting goals and tracking DEI progress through metrics” was one of their two top priorities for the year.

This trend is supported by further research from Deloitte, who surveyed 20 CEOs within the healthcare industry to find that addressing and improving health equity was one of their top goals. But why is that?

By promoting diversity and inclusion in the workplace at every level, healthcare organizations can improve employee engagement levels by making all staff members feel valued and respected. In turn, this can lead to improved patient care and better overall organizational practices.

Rola Aamar, PhD, Senior Clinical Effectiveness Consultant at Relias states:

“Commitment to consistent DEI initiatives, especially training, not only is important for patient safety and better health outcomes, but also can be key for retaining qualified, engaged employees. Organizations that create and promote inclusive work environments and consistently let staff know that DEI is a priority are the ones that are most likely to reduce moral injury and burnout among staff.”

Research has also shown that diverse patients who see themselves in the healthcare workforce, are more likely to trust their healthcare provider. This in turn leads them to be able to communicate better about their condition, more likely to understand and follow treatment plans, and overall are more satisfied with their healthcare. 

It really does matter at every level.

DEI is important at every level, with CEOs recognizing and pushing it forward this trickles down into other levels of management right down to the frontline.

In their 2021 State of Healthcare Training and Staff Development Report Relias found that over half of respondents indicated that their organization was moving to actively address DEI-related issues. However, only 40% of those with DEI training require managers to participate.

With this in mind, healthcare business leaders need to take action now: review your organization's current DEI practices, set goals for improvement, and make a plan to implement them effectively.

And don't forget to regularly track and assess your progress along the way. Consider utilizing resources such as DEI training programs, diversity consulting services, and healthcare employee surveys to gather feedback and ensure your DEI efforts are truly making a positive impact.

Trend 6: Prioritizing mental health and wellbeing

The mental health and wellbeing of your healthcare workforce has to be a priority if you want to succeed as an organization. However, historically, the healthcare sector has seen elevated stress levels. 

As Frontier’s research states:

Numerous factors contribute to elevated stress among healthcare workers, including heavy workloads, long shifts, a high pace, lack of physical or psychological safety, chronicity of care, moral conflicts, perceived job security, and workplace related bullying or lack of social support.

And this elevated stress isn't without its challenges. Physician burnout and caregiver stress is a real issue and, according to Frontier's research, work-related stress can have a negative impact on health care providers' professionalism, quality of care delivery, efficiency, and overall quality of life.

As such, it is critical that leaders in the healthcare sector are prioritizing the mental health and wellbeing of their employees. This includes offering direct and easy access to communication solutions to allow employees to reach out for support when needed, support resources such as employee assistance programs and crisis resources, mindfulness/resilience training, and flexible work schedules.

Whilst mental health should be a key focus, you can’t neglect physical safety.

In the quote above, Frontier cited “lack of physical safety” as one of the factors that contribute to stress. This is supported by research from NSC which found 40% of people who reported feeling “very” unsafe at work reported having symptoms of depression all or most days, while only 1% of people who felt very safe at work reported the same.

From the research, there are 3 key ways frontline safety can impact mental health:

• Employees who feel unsafe at work are more likely to experience symptoms of depression and anxiety. 
• Employees who feel the most unsafe at work are also the most likely to meet the criteria for clinical diagnosis of mental illness. 
• Feeling unsafe at work impacts employees on and off the clock. The feelings they have at work can follow them home.

By prioritizing the mental health and wellbeing of healthcare workers, organizations can improve overall employee engagement levels and decrease burnout rates, in turn driving patient care success and overall organizational success.

So let's take action now and prioritize the mental health and wellbeing of our healthcare employees. It's time to put an end to burnout and promote a culture of support within our organizations. The benefits, for both our employees and our patients, are worth it.

Trend 7: Using people analytics tools

People analytics tools are gaining traction in the healthcare industry, as they offer a way to track and measure employee engagement levels, analyze performance data, and inform HR decision-making. With the rising trend of big data and analytics in the healthcare sector, these tools can offer valuable insights to organizational leaders.

Deloitte tells us that with people analytics, healthcare organizations can:

• Increase employee satisfaction.
• View employees as a critical and valuable asset in the supply chain; an asset that can be analyzed and optimized to benefit individuals and the company as a whole
• Uncover opportunities to transform HR practices and optimize talent-focused programs.

By utilizing people analytics tools, healthcare organizations can gather valuable insight to inform and improve their HR strategies, ultimately driving employee engagement and overall organizational success.

Healthcare firms are also using people analytics to increase profitability, as employee engagement has been proven to be a strong predictor of financial performance.

With Blink's Frontline Intelligence, healthcare organizations can analyze and track employee engagement, satisfaction, and other key metrics in real time, using them to guide their employee engagement initiatives and reach their goals.

Final Thoughts

Unfortunately, Healthcare networks can be complicated enough, without staff having to download and juggle a number of different employee systems. 

The Blink mobile-first employee app connects them to core industry apps in seconds, without requiring a password. From shift scheduling to PPE requests to Sharepoint, everything's ready for your staff in one (digital) dashboard.

By providing a platform to help you stay on top of the latest trends, facilitate communication, and track performance and satisfaction, we can help drive HR success within your organization. With Blink, you can achieve:

• 10X higher communication rate using an employee app
• 300% increase in feedback through survey responses
• Higher employee retention and engagement
• People analytics to focus on burnout and DE&I initiatives.

So why wait? As healthcare leaders, it’s vital that you keep up with the latest trends and take action to improve employee engagement within your organization. And we can help you do just that.

Book A Demo Now

Want to learn more? Check out one of our healthcare client testimonials below to see how we helped them.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/EB4EVQx04ak

As companies rethink how they connect with employees in a hybrid, mobile, and fast-moving world, many are looking beyond traditional intranet platforms like LumApps. While LumApps is a solid option for knowledge management and Microsoft/Google integrations, it can fall short when it comes to usability, real-time communication, and mobile performance.

Whether you’re rolling out internal comms globally, trying to unify systems into one employee app, or simply seeking a more flexible and modern intranet experience, there are better options out there.

What to look for in a LumApps alternative

When evaluating alternatives to LumApps, here are five key factors to consider:

#1. Mobile usability

Your employee experience platform should be just as powerful on mobile as it is on desktop — especially with today’s hybrid, frontline, and remote workforces.

#2. Ease of use

A modern intranet or communications tool must be intuitive for both admins and end users. Platforms with steep learning curves or clunky interfaces will see low adoption.

#3. Real-time communication

Timely communication is essential — whether it's leadership announcements, crisis updates, or team alerts. Look for platforms that offer native chat, push notifications, or news feeds.

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#4. Integration ecosystem

You shouldn’t have to cobble together multiple tools. The right platform integrates with your HRIS, LMS, scheduling, payroll, file storage, and more.

#5. Analytics & insights

Data matters. Choose a solution with actionable dashboards that help you measure what’s working, what’s being read, and where to improve.

The top 12 LumApps alternatives

Now that you know what to look for — and why LumApps might not be the best long-term fit — here are the best alternatives, starting with the standout:

#1. Blink – The #1 LumApps alternative for unified employee experience

Blink is an employee experience platform designed to bring communications, resources, and tools into a single, easy-to-access app. With a strong focus on usability, real-time engagement, and seamless integrations, Blink empowers companies to connect with their entire workforce—whether they’re on mobile, desktop, or a shared device.

Why Blink is the best LumApps alternative:

• All-in-one communications hub: Combines chat, news, content, HR tools, recognition, and surveys into one streamlined platform.
• Mobile + desktop parity: Offers full functionality on any device, with no reliance on corporate email.
• Powerful analytics: Gives real-time insights into usage, engagement, and sentiment to help you optimize comms strategies.
• Integrations-first approach: Blink integrates with HRIS, LMS, payroll, scheduling, and document systems to centralize everything your workforce needs.
• Top-rated platform: 4.8★ average on Gartner Peer Insights and a leader in G2 for internal communications and employee apps.

Pros:

• Unified digital workplace accessible from anywhere
• Highly intuitive UI with rapid user adoption
• Dedicated support and success teams for onboarding and beyond
• Transparent pricing and strong ROI

Cons:

• May require customization for highly complex intranet needs
• Some advanced analytics features are part of higher-tier plans

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#2. Simpplr

Simpplr is an intranet platform designed to streamline internal communication, content distribution, and knowledge sharing. It includes personalization features, integrations with HR tools, and prebuilt templates to simplify setup. The platform is geared toward companies looking for a structured, branded experience.

‍Pros: Great personalization, modern interface
Cons: Limited customization, costly at scale
Pricing: Custom
Gartner: 4.7★

#3. Staffbase

Staffbase supports internal communications across multiple channels, including email, mobile apps, and digital signage. It offers features for content scheduling, targeting, and employee surveys. Often used by global enterprises, the platform emphasizes scalability and branding consistency.‍

Pros: Email, mobile, signage comms; powerful targeting
Cons: Less flexible for content management or smaller teams
Pricing: Custom
Gartner: 4.1★

#4. Interact Software

Interact Software delivers an intranet platform with features for content publishing, employee engagement, and search. It includes integrations with Microsoft products and offers tools like blogging, forums, and document sharing. The platform is designed for medium to large organizations.‍

Pros: Social features, easy setup
Cons: Limited analytics and design flexibility
Pricing: Custom
Gartner: 4.6★

#5. Haiilo

Haiilo combines intranet functionality with features for social advocacy and personalized content delivery. The platform includes analytics, customizable pages, and AI-based search to help surface relevant information. It is commonly adopted by organizations prioritizing internal engagement and branding.‍

Pros: Strong search, personalization, advocacy tools
Cons: Steep learning curve for admins
Pricing: Custom
Gartner: 4.1★

#6. Unily

Unily provides a cloud-based intranet designed for enterprise use, with features for knowledge management, internal communications, and collaboration. It integrates with Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, and other enterprise tools. The platform is known for its flexible content management and multilingual support.‍

Pros: Rich design options, integrations
Cons: Expensive and complex setup
Pricing: Custom
Gartner: 4.4★

#7. MangoApps

MangoApps offers a unified platform that combines intranet, collaboration, learning management, and document storage. It supports both desktop and mobile access and is used by a variety of industries. The platform is modular, allowing organizations to deploy only the tools they need.‍

Pros: Feature-rich; good for training-heavy orgs
Cons: Dated interface; inconsistent UX
Pricing: Custom
Gartner: 4.4★

#8. Workvivo by Zoom

Workvivo is a social intranet platform that combines internal communications with engagement tools like activity feeds, shout-outs, and surveys. It offers a familiar social media-style experience and integrates with Zoom and Microsoft 365. The platform is primarily used by mid-size to large organizations.‍

Pros: Engaging UX, employee advocacy tools
Cons: Lacks unified mobile-desktop parity and deep analytics
Pricing: Custom pricing
Gartner: 4.7★

#9. Firstup

Firstup is a communications platform focused on personalization, automation, and real-time analytics. It supports targeted messaging and integrates with a range of enterprise systems. Firstup is commonly used by large organizations with distributed workforces.‍

Pros: Powerful targeting, personalization, and analytics
Cons: High cost; not ideal for smaller teams
Pricing: Custom
Gartner: 4.8★

#10. Connecteam

Connecteam is a mobile-first platform designed for managing non-desk workforces. It includes scheduling, task management, chat, and time tracking tools. The platform is often used in industries like retail, logistics, and hospitality.‍

Pros: Ideal for dispersed teams; affordable tiers
Cons: Lacks deep intranet functionality
Pricing: Free tier available; paid starts around $29/month
Gartner: 4.7★

#11. ThoughtFarmer

ThoughtFarmer focuses on knowledge sharing and collaboration within hybrid and remote teams. It provides customizable intranet pages, wiki functionality, and employee directories. The platform is suited for organizations seeking structured documentation and internal search tools.‍

Pros: Excellent for documentation and wikis
Cons: Setup can be time-intensive
Pricing: Custom
G2: 4.8★

#12. Bitrix24

Bitrix24 is a collaboration suite that includes intranet features alongside tools for CRM, task management, and chat. It offers free and paid tiers, making it accessible to a wide range of teams. The platform is modular but can be complex to navigate.‍

Pros: Wide feature set for budget-conscious teams
Cons: Overwhelming interface; some tools feel outdated
Pricing: Free plan available; paid starts ~$24/user/month
G2: 4.2★

Final thoughts: Blink vs. LumApps

While LumApps remains a strong player — especially for companies tightly integrated with Google Workspace or Microsoft — Blink stands out for teams that value ease of use, real-time communication, data-driven insights, and a single place for everything work-related. It offers a more unified experience across devices, better analytics for employee engagement, and faster time to value.

If you’re looking for an employee experience platform that’s as intuitive as it is powerful, Blink is your best bet.

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Why teams choose Blink over LumApps

LumApps is a strong enterprise intranet, particularly for Google Workspace-centric organizations, but it's built with desk-based collaboration as the default. Blink is mobile-first, requires no corporate email, and is used daily by teams at McDonald's, Domino's, and Chick-fil-A. See how Blink compares.

By Lauren Burns, Chief Operating Officer, Blink

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Big news for small businesses

At Blink, we believe every worker — not just the ones glued to a desk — deserves to feel connected, in the loop and part of something bigger.

Until now, Blink has been the go-to for massive organizations keeping their frontline teams buzzing.

But today, we’re flipping the script. For the first time, everyone can try Blink free right from our homepage.

That’s right: no red tape, no long sales calls, no IT headaches. Just instant access to the same platform trusted by retail and hospitality giants, healthcare heroes and transport legends around the world.

Why this matters

If you run a small or midsized business, you know the struggle:

• Important updates vanish into the black hole of your email inbox
• WhatsApp groups spin out of control, with current employees frustrated with the lack of work-life balance and ex-employees still lurking in the wings
• Your “intranet” is basically a dusty folder no one dares to open

Meanwhile, your people — especially those on the frontline — are ready for a better way to communicate. They live on mobile, expect apps that feel as easy as Instagram, and they hate feeling disconnected.

That’s exactly why we built Blink. And you don’t need enterprise money to experience it.

What you’ll unlock in your free trial

Sign up today and you can start building your employee communications hub — via an intuitive set-up experience — in minutes:

• A social-style news feed that people actually read and post to
• Secure chat and groups that replace rogue WhatsApp chains
• Fully branded and personalized so your intranet reflects your brand at every touchpoint
• Everything in one place with a one-stop shop for policies, shifts, training, and more
• Recognition and surveys to keep morale sky-high

All of it designed for quick adoption and lasting engagement. And the best part? Your team already knows how to use it.

A big moment for small businesses

Here’s the truth: The future of work isn’t just for enterprises. When every team, no matter the size, gets world-class communication and collaboration tools, big things happen. Morale grows. Operations run smoother. And the culture you’re building has a digital home that matches the energy of your people.

But this is just the start. What comes next is even more exciting: unlocking the potential of your people. 

Our Blink for Everyone team is driven by one simple mission: to make it easier for people to find, try, and love Blink. So I want to also take this opportunity to thank all of our founding Blink for Everyone customers, some of whom are celebrated on our Customer Wall of Love. 

There’s nothing to hold you back. The same tech trusted by global enterprises is now in your hands — free to try, starting today.

‍Blink. And start your free trial today.

Out of all the terms we’ve added to our lexicon over the course of 2020, ‘frontline workers’ is our favorite.

At Blink, we build software that improves the experience of thousands of frontline workers all over the world. We know how hard they work. The hours they put in. The pride they take in keeping their communities healthy, fed and well looked-after. 

There’s a lot about this year we’d all like to move on from. The word 'unprecedented' being one of them. But there’s one thing that we need to take forward, and that's our appreciation of brave frontline teams.

We're forever indebted to you. Thank you for looking after us during the most unprecedented (sorry) of times. 

We can’t possibly mention you all, and we’re sorry. But we hope you know how much we appreciate everything you do for us.

Long live society’s newfound appreciation; long may it continue!

The frontline workers we need to thank

NHS medical teams

This Christmas, many will be raising glasses to the medical staff who threw themselves behind global efforts to contain the pandemic and minimize its impact. 

We’ll certainly be joining them. 

So, here’s to the doctors, nurses, paramedics, healthcare assistants, physios, occupational therapists and pharmacists.

Whether directly or indirectly involved in treating Coronavirus patients, the world owes you one.  

While we extend our gratitude to healthcare workers globally, we can’t help but be extremely grateful for our native NHS. Providing stellar, free-at-the-point-of-access care during a global pandemic isn’t easy - but somehow you’ve managed, and managed spectacularly.

It’s stories like that of Dr Sarbjit Clare, Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospital NHS Trust's deputy medical director, that demonstrate what a gargantuan effort healthcare workers put in.

Central to operational and clinical decision-making surrounding COVID-19 treatment, Dr Clare cared for over 700 patients. Oh, and she single-handedly kept her department open when all her colleagues were sick or self-isolating. 

If treating and caring for patients wasn’t enough, some healthcare workers took on even more responsibility in their spare time. Ashleigh Linsdell founded and coordinated a national effort to make scrubs during the UK shortage.

Alison Williams raised funds for COVID-19 patient essentials, including iPads to help them contact their families during isolation.

NHS support teams

We need to thank the often-overlooked support teams that keep wheels turning behind the scenes. 

Without them, it would be practically impossible for healthcare workers to do what they do. They’re the backbone keeping the NHS - and healthcare organisations the world over - together and functional. 

Caterers for keeping staff and patients fed. 

Laundry and housekeeping staff for keeping hospitals clean, whilst navigating intense and often-changing safety regulations. 

Hospital porters, for providing an ever friendly, welcoming service. Veteran porter Terry Allen worked tirelessly for patients, transferring them between departments, facilitating their treatment and helping them feel comfortable.

The NHS’s medical teams provide first-class care, but they couldn’t do it without Terry and thousands of others like him. 

Care home workers

Residential care home staff - working with elderly people or those with disabilities - look after those most vulnerable to COVID-19. 

It’s a tough, underappreciated (and often underpaid) job. So, it's all the more remarkable that care workers have gone above and beyond for their patients and their families. 

Care staff have made it an absolute priority to keep their residents safe. Sometimes, they have done so at great personal sacrifice to them and their own families. 

A staggering one in four residential care workers left their families to isolate with residents. Staff from the Victoria House Care Home even committed to sleeping in tents (during March, no less).

Countless others moved away temporarily, when the support of loved ones has never been more important. 

We haven’t even mentioned all the work they put in keeping spirits up amongst those who couldn’t go outside. 

From fiddling about with FaceTime to organizing activities, care home residents would have struggled without them.

Supermarket workers

A huge shoutout to supermarket and food supply chain workers for putting food on our tables.

Whether you’ve been working on the supermarket floor or manning the warehouse, we wouldn't have survived the pandemic without you. We mean that literally –– access to food is generally important for long-term survival, after all. 

Here are a few of the ways food supermarket and food supply chain workers made a difference: 

• Eased shortages by introducing limits on certain items (toilet roll, anyone?) and enforcing them effectively at checkouts
• Remapped warehouses and supermarkets and implemented queueing systems so they could operate with social distancing
• Kept up with frequently changing regulations with regard to masks and PPE 
• Stepped up to a massive increase in demand for online orders/home delivery

Julie Cook, who works at Asda in Aberdare, South Wales, spent her time off shopping for care homes to ensure they received key supplies. 

It’s thanks to supermarket workers like Julie that we’ve all been able to eat and shop safely this year. So, wherever you shop, make sure to thank their in-store team for their efforts when you pop in next.

Teachers

As schools shut and lessons launched online, anyone with a child found themselves more appreciative of how hard teachers work. 

If you thought homeschooling your school-aged child was hard, imagine trying to teach a class of 30. Then imagine trying to teach a class of 30 online, with the myriad distractions and potential for disruption that offers. 

Teachers have kept classrooms open for children of key workers. Dealt with whole year groups being sent home for isolation. And increased their risk of exposure to the virus to minimise disruption to education. 

Headteacher Jane Davenport and the staff at Reynalds Cross School kept classrooms open for children of key workers. They also made sure the school’s most vulnerable children - with complex educational, healthcare and behavioural needs - could attend classes safely. Jane put so much work that she was recognised with an OBE for services to young people with special educational needs and disabilities.

They’ve certainly earned those Christmas chocolate boxes, bottles of wine and ‘best teacher ever’ mugs. If you can’t offer these, a nice note thanking them will be equally as treasured!

Logistics personnel

In a pandemic, it’s vital to keep key supply lines open. That’s exactly what lorry drivers do, alongside the logistics teams that support them. 

The logistics sector made sure food, essential medicines, PPE and medical equipment were delivered to organizations in need, whilst working under significant pressure and increased demand. 

To all the frontline workers across the logistics and supply chain sector, whether working for an in-house operation or a third-party logistics specialist –– thank you.

You can’t eat food that doesn’t arrive on supermarket shelves before expiring. Pharmacists can’t fill prescriptions if they don’t have the right medication on hand. Doctors and nurses can’t protect themselves with PPE if it doesn’t arrive on time. 

Logistics teams make this all happen. 

Public transport workers

Car ownership is by no means a given amongst many groups of frontline workers. Without the efforts of public transport personnel worldwide, lots of urgently-needed staff would have been stranded. 

Drivers, ticket sellers, platform guards and many others in every transport system across the globe need to be thanked here. 

We were in awe of how professionally our own transit clients’ workforces carried out their duties under lockdown regulations. 

Drivers from Go Ahead, Metroline and Stagecoach provide essential services whilst operating in uncertain and unfamiliar circumstances. Not to mention dealing with significantly reduced capacity to ensure social distancing. Kudos to you.

Police, fire and social workers

While it’s great we recognize the contribution ambulance drivers and paramedics made, it’s easy to forget other essential services.

For police and fire crews, this involved keeping essential services running, whilst adding new responsibilities to their workloads. 

For example, UK police have been tasked with enforcing both national and local lockdown laws. These have often changed quickly, and guidance for policing them has been somewhat vague at times. 

Enforcing them whilst strengthening links to local communities has been a difficult, often thankless task. We’d like to thank them for their part in containing the spread of the virus. 

Meanwhile social services workers have continued to do an emotionally demanding job in extremely difficult conditions. 

The Queen’s Birthday Honours List reflected this, with both senior and on-the-ground practitioners recognised for the work they do. 

Social workers Manvir Hothi (Hammersmith and Fulham), Danny Levine (North Yorkshire) and Louise Peart (Vale of Glamorgan) were all recognised for supporting service users throughout the pandemic - but that’s only the tip of the iceberg. 

Thousands more helped vulnerable people and families navigate a particularly confusing time, provided community-based support and eased the loneliness of those self-isolating. 

Postal workers and parcel couriers

There’s a lot to be said for delivering ‘everyday’ post as well.  

Ask yourself: how much more difficult would those initial stages of lockdown have been without that new hobby you took up?

How much more lonely would elderly relatives or those living alone have felt without cards, letters and gifts delivered?

Postal workers kept it together in tough working conditions. In doing so, they kept countless others together by keeping them connected and keeping them occupied. 

Lockdown would have been a lonelier, more boring place without them. 

Honorable mentions

Containing and treating the Coronavirus pandemic has required a Herculean effort from so many key workers across different industries. 

Not everyone involved in the COVID effort needed to work directly on the frontline. So much organization has gone on behind the scenes, from so many people – many of whom weren't involved as professionals. 

We’d like to give an honourable mention to the groups below for stepping up!

Operations who repurposed their facilities

The most impressive thing about society’s collective response to the Coronavirus was how everyone came together.

Companies repurposing their manufacturing operations to provide essential items and supplies was just one example of this phenomenon. 

It takes entrepreneurship, ingenuity and a lot of hard work to turn around a new, unfamiliar product at short notice. We think it’s important to recognise just how much effort this took, for both strategic decision-makers and on-the-ground workforces. 

There are countless examples across the globe here. Close to home, we saw international craft beer brewery BrewDog produce batches of hand sanitizer to help meet skyrocketing demand.

Luxury fashion brand Barbour’s manufacturing workforce turn their sewing machines away from wax jackets to making seriously high-quality medical gowns. 

Further north, design teachers from James Calvert Spence College and Duchess’s Community High School in Northumberland teamed up to make PPE. 

James Calvert Spence science teacher Dan Davison, who previously worked in an NHS lab, helped develop a test protocol whilst still teaching online classes. Miss Scrimgeour, Mr Donnison and Ms Whitelock from the two schools’ DT departments laser cut visors for use across local hospitals and care homes. 

This ‘all hands on deck’ attitude helped significantly in easing shortages - particularly at a local level. 

Last but not least... let's hear it for the volunteers

Alongside frontline workers and key workers paid to do their jobs, an army of volunteers rose to the challenge.

They transformed old bedsheets into useful medical scrubs, started essential goods collections for struggling families, dedicated their time to befriending isolated people over the phone and so much more. 

We can’t list everyone who helped out, so to finish off, we’ll share Cambridgeshire resident  Geoff Norris’ story.

Already a frontline worker, Geoff worried elderly and vulnerable residents would struggle to get their groceries amidst food shortages. Noticing that all the delivery slots were booked up too, he set up a weekly food delivery service.

On the days he wasn’t working at Asda in Wisbech, he picked up orders, put them through the tills and delivered them at his expense, using his own vehicle. Soon, he had recruited colleagues to help, and was taking orders via phone and email.

We all know a Geoff - or several - who has selflessly given up their time to help others during the pandemic. In our eyes, they’re just as much key workers as anyone else. 

So we’ll end by saying “thank you, volunteers, for donating time when you didn’t have to, and making a real difference to so many.”

Your contribution has been absolutely unprecedented (oh no!), and we appreciate it. 

While 2020 was a rotten year for many, many reasons, the sense of togetherness fostered is inspiring and moving. 

There's a question HR and comms leaders hear constantly. Not from their teams. From finance, from the C-suite, from every budget conversation they've sat in.

"Can you put a number on it?"

For years, employee experience has struggled to answer this question cleanly. The work is real. The impact is real. But the costs are spread across departments, buried in different reports, attributed to different owners. Turnover sits in HR. Productivity drag lives in ops. Compliance risk belongs to legal. Nobody's joining the dots.

So the status quo continues. And the bill quietly compounds, yet the symptoms get louder and louder across the organisation.

This is the cost of inaction - and it's larger than most organizations realize.

When frontline employees don't receive the right information at the right time, things go wrong in slow, expensive ways. Managers get buried in administration instead of being out on the floor with their teams. New starters take longer to get up to speed. Safety incidents increase when critical information doesn't reach the right people. And when workers don't feel connected, absenteeism climbs and your best people start to leave.

None of these show up as a line item called "poor employee experience." But they are costing money. Every week. Across every site.

The challenge for HR and comms leaders isn't proving that the problem exists. It's translating it into language that moves a business case forward.

The most effective approach is to align on the inputs before you build the case. Work backwards from what the business already tracks. Confirm the turnover figure with HR. Ask ops for average shift-fill time. Check with compliance on how often missed communications create rework or incidents. When the data points are owned across the organization, the problem is too - and the conversation shifts from "can you prove this?" to "what do we do about it?"

That's exactly the framework behind Blink's Cost of Inaction Calculator. It takes the metrics your organization already holds - workforce size, average salary, turnover rate - and models the financial impact of communication gaps, productivity loss, employee replacement costs, and operational risk. This can then be used in your business case for employee engagement, built in the language leaders can't ignore: tangible financial impact, grounded in your own numbers.

We work alongside our customers and prospects to diagnose these symptoms every day. The goal isn't to win a budget argument. It's to make the cost of doing nothing impossible to ignore.

If you want to see how the model works in practice, I am running a live session on June 17 - The hidden cost of a disconnected frontline. The session walks through the calculator methodology, the assumptions that drive the calculations, and how to use the output to build a stronger business case with finance and operational leaders. It's also available on demand.

The investment in employee experience is easier to justify than most people think. You just need the right framework to show what inaction is already costing.

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