Slack or Teams alternative that keeps data in India
A Slack or Microsoft Teams alternative that keeps chat data in India: what each vendor's own pages say about Indian residency, and what self-hosting changes.
The short answer: both Slack and Microsoft Teams can keep chat data in India, on certain plans or with an add-on, and both are more complete chat products than DNX Team Chat. The difference with a self-hosted chat is who holds the server. DNX Team Chat runs on DNX Hub, a server your company installs in its office or in an Indian data centre, so where the messages are is your decision and nobody else's. It has groups, direct messages, files, voice notes and calls. It has no guest accounts or threads. DNX OS is in beta from December 2026 and launches in January 2027, with no published price.
Who is this page for?
Indian companies whose internal conversations carry customer details, prices or personal data, and who are asked by clients or auditors where that data is kept. Also companies running on consumer chat apps that want something the company owns. It does not suit teams that depend on shared channels with clients or on a large library of integrations.
What do Slack and Teams do well, and what do they say about India?
From each vendor's own documentation, read on 12 November 2026.
Slack. Slack's help page on data residency says the feature is "Available on Business+ and Enterprise subscriptions". It lists "Mumbai, India" as a data residency region, with Hyderabad as its backup region. In the chosen region Slack stores messages, canvases and snippets, uploaded files, the search index of customer data, and messages and files generated by apps or bots. The same page lists what is not kept in the chosen region, including member profiles, workspace and channel membership information, and data used for analytics.
Microsoft Teams. Microsoft's data residency page for Teams describes commitments under its Product Terms, under an Advanced Data Residency add-on and under a Multi-Geo add-on. The Advanced Data Residency overview lists India among the Local Region Geographies, names Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Standard and Premium among qualifying subscriptions, and requires the add-on for all paid licences in the tenant. Committed Teams data includes chat and channel messages, media used in chats, and meeting recordings.
Beyond residency, and as our own observation: both are mature products with more integrations and more polish than a young one. If you already use Microsoft 365, Teams is part of what you have.
We have not quoted prices for the plans or add-ons. Read them on the vendors' pages on the day you decide.
How does a self-hosted chat compare?
| Slack | Microsoft Teams | DNX Team Chat | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who runs the server | Slack | Microsoft | You, or a host you choose |
| Keeping data in India | A data residency region in Mumbai, on Business+ and Enterprise | Through Advanced Data Residency, an add-on, for tenants in India | Host the hub in India and it is in India |
| What stays in region | Messages, files and search index; profiles and membership data are kept elsewhere | Chat and channel messages, chat media, recordings | Messages, shared files and voice notes, all on your hub |
| Sign-in | See Slack's pages | See Microsoft's pages | Work email and a six-digit code |
| Guests and shared channels | See Slack's pages | See Microsoft's pages | No |
| Threads | See Slack's pages | See Microsoft's pages | No |
| Calls | See Slack's pages | Online meetings and video conferencing | Voice and video, screen sharing, live captions, recording |
| Phone app | See Slack's pages | See Microsoft's pages | DNX Hub for Android |
| Same login for HR | Not covered on the pages we read | Not covered on the pages we read | Yes, with DNX People and meetings |
| Availability | Available now | Available now | Beta from December 2026 |
Where a cell says to see the vendor's pages, it is because we did not read that fact on an official page on the day, and we will not state it from memory.
What does DNX Team Chat not do yet?
- It is for your own team. No guest accounts for clients and no channels shared with other companies.
- Messages are plain. You can write, mention people, attach files and send voice notes. There are no threads under a message.
- Search is limited. It finds chats, people and file names, not the full text of old messages.
- No AI reads chats in the background. A direct conversation has an action that asks the on-device assistant for a summary when you choose it.
- You are responsible for the server. A hub you host must be kept running, updated and backed up. If the office has nobody for that, host it with a provider who will.
- Remote staff need a route in. The hub has to be hosted where people outside the office can reach it securely.
How do you switch?
- List the channels that are really active. Usually fewer than ten.
- Decide what history must be kept, and export it from the current tool before anything else.
- Choose where the hub will live: a machine in the office or a server in an Indian data centre. Name the person who looks after it.
- Create accounts by work email and mirror only the active channels.
- Move announcements first, then one working conversation per team, over four weeks.
- Keep external collaboration where it is. Conversations with clients stay in the tool they use.
- Close the old workspace at renewal, once nothing has been posted there for two weeks.
The week-by-week plan is in moving branches to company chat.
Which articles show the app?
- DNX Team Chat: team chat that keeps data in India: six real screens and the full list of limits.
- DNX Meetings: automatic minutes for any meeting: recording and minutes on the PC.
- Where is your AI processed? Data residency in India: storage versus processing.
- DPDP Act checklist: where does your company's data live?: the map every company needs.
- The guide to India's technology ecosystem
See DNX Hub on the DNX OS page, or apply for the beta and run the four-week move as your pilot.
Sources
All four pages were read on 12 November 2026. Slack is Slack's name and Microsoft Teams is Microsoft's, used here only to identify the products being compared.
- Slack Help Centre, Data residency for Slack: eligible plans, the Mumbai region, and what is and is not stored in region.
- Microsoft Learn, Data residency for Microsoft Teams: the commitments and the Teams data covered.
- Microsoft Learn, Advanced Data Residency: overview and requirements: India as a Local Region Geography, qualifying subscriptions and licence coverage.
- Microsoft Learn, Microsoft 365 for business overview: Teams and online meetings in the Business plans.
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