Eleven for Business vs Yay.com Business Instant Messaging

Eleven for Business is encrypted group chat for small businesses that want to keep conversations off another party’s servers. It supports spaces, groups, direct messages, file sharing, reactions, replies, threads, GIF search, and link previews. Spaces also offer scheduled reminders, morning summaries, and a helper that can answer questions and build small apps. The service works in a browser and has native Mac and iPhone apps; its business page also says it runs on warehouse Android devices. Businesses can invite clients by link and remove them when a job ends without provisioning guest accounts. Messages and attachments are encrypted on devices, while the server stores and relays ciphertext it cannot read. Self-hosting is available at no charge with the same apps and features. The Free plan costs nothing and includes every feature, up to three spaces, and 1 GB of files per space. Business costs €11 a year, billed annually, and provides 11 GB of storage per person, pooled for the space.

Yay.com Business Instant Messaging combines business chat with voice calling in an app for teams and their external contacts. Users can send files, organize discussions with threads and group chats, and search by keywords, people, shared links, files, or phone numbers. One-to-one chats can start a voice call, while group chats can connect to a conference bridge. Yay says users can invite clients and partners into business conversations. The product page describes messaging and file sharing as end-to-end encrypted and GDPR-compliant. Administrators can grant chat access per user and configure individual permissions. The service is integrated with Yay’s VoIP phone system; listed phone-system integrations include Pipedrive, HubSpot, Capsule CRM, Slack, Zoho CRM, Google Contacts, Office 365, Microsoft Teams, and Intercom. The app runs on Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, web, and Windows. Its messaging features are included in a 14-day trial of the cloud phone system, which does not require a credit card. Paid plans are priced per user per month when billed yearly, and prices exclude tax: Core is $12 a month, Standard is $20 a month, and Premium is $32 a month. Yay was founded in 2014 and is based in Guildford, Surrey, United Kingdom.