A nonprofit organization called Hack Club, which provides coding clubs for teens, was given an ultimatum by Slack: pay $50,000 within a week or have its message archive deleted. The club had been using Slack’s free non-profit plan, but the company recently raised the cost to $5,000 per year.
Hack Club’s leader, Mahad Kalam, expressed outrage at the sudden hike in cost and the short notice period. He stated that he doesn’t think a six-month transition period is sufficient for such a significant increase in price.
Instead of paying the demanded amount, Hack Club decided to switch to a rival open-source platform called Mattermost. The club’s experience has taught them the importance of owning their data, especially for small businesses.
The sudden change forced dozens of staff and volunteers to update systems, rebuild integrations, and migrate years of institutional knowledge. Kalam advises others to consider moving away from external SaaS providers like Slack and prioritizing data ownership.
Note: I simplified the text by removing unnecessary details and focusing on the main events and quotes from Mahad Kalam’s post.
Source: https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/19/slack_nonprofit_license_hike_threat