Slack raises prices for Hack Club: “They are extorting us”

“Slack is extorting us with a $195k/yr bill increase,” complained Hack Club. It now needs to move its 80,000 members and a decade of institutional knowledge out of the digital workspace.

Hack Club, a global, student-led, high school coding network and non-profit organization, has shared an open letter blaming Slack for extorting them.

“Salesforce (a $230 billion company) is strong-arming a small nonprofit for teens by providing less than a week to pony up a pretty massive sum of money, or risk cutting off all our communications. That’s absurd,” complained the organization in the letter.

The non-profit has been using the digital workspace’s services for the past 11 years to communicate with its global community.

“A few years ago, when Slack transitioned us from their free nonprofit plan to a $5,000/year arrangement, we happily paid. It was reasonable, and we valued the service they provided to our community,” wrote the organization.

But that was not the end of the price rises. The organization claims that Slack representatives contacted them about “an extra $50k this week and $200k a year.”

If the non-profit refuses the new conditions, Slack will deactivate the workspace and delete all message history within five days.

The organization states that a six-month grace period is the bare minimum for a “massive” price hike like this. The short notice has been “catastrophic” to the non-profit's programs.

According to the letter, dozens of staff and volunteers are currently updating systems, rebuilding integrations, and migrating years of institutional knowledge. However, the time given is very short.

“Anyway, we’re moving to Mattermost. This experience has taught us that owning your data is incredibly important, and if you’re a small business, especially, then I’d advise you to move away, too,” said the organization.

Hack Club board member and CEO of Sourcegraph, Quinn Slack, posted on X pleading for help fixing the “mistaken decision.”

“This would strand thousands of the world’s smartest future coders. They’re asking for $50k (a surprise 60x nonprofit price increase) but won’t even give assurances of more time or future service if that’s paid,” he wrote.

Hack Club has more than 36,000 active students involved in its programs across 1000 schools. The total number of members in its online community is much higher, reaching 80,000. The new yearly pricing would mean that the non-profit would be charged around $2.50 per member.

Salesforce's response to increased Slack prices

Cybernews has reached out to Salesforce for a comment on the situation. The company called the increased pricing a mistake. "This was the result of an oversight in our billing process, and we have returned Hack Club to its previous nonprofit pricing and ensured their workspace remains fully accessible,” said the spokesperson.

“We value the work Hack Club does to inspire and educate young people in coding and technology, and we regret the concern this situation has caused,” they added.

Saleforce said it will review their billing and communications processes to provide nonprofits with “clearer guidance and adequate grace periods as they grow.”

Slack is threatening to shut off a big nonprofit teen coding community @hackclub (which is amazing and which I’ve helped for years) with just 3 days to migrate off. This would strand thousands of of the world’s smartest future coders. They are asking for $50k (a surprise 60x…

undefined Quinn Slack (@sqs) September 18, 2025

Slack is raising prices

Slack was acquired by Salesforce for $27.7 billion in 2021. Salesforce announced that it will raise prices by an average of 6% across several of its core products, including Enterprise and Unlimited SKUs of Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Field Service, and selected Industries Clouds.

The new pricing was supposed to come into effect on August 1st, 2025. This gave users just a few weeks' window to prepare for higher bills or find alternative solutions.

Slack charges organizations on a per-member basis, with Pro plans costing $8.75 a month per user. However, non-profits can access discounts.

The company claims that groups with 250 or fewer members qualify for a free upgrade to the Pro Plan, while larger nonprofits receive an 85% discount on Pro or Business+ tiers, significantly reducing costs from standard rates.

The eligible organisations include:

• A legislative or political organization
• A church, an association of churches, or other religious organization
• A school, college, or related organization
• A government office
• An organization that attempts to influence public opinion
• A hospital, an organization involved with health insurance or group health plans
• A private grant-making, independent, or operating foundation

The organization needs to apply, and after Slack evaluates the application, the company can grant a discount.

Updated on September 19th [09:00 a.m. GMT] with a statement from Salesforce.