Why Virola is a good self-hosted alternative to Meta Workplace

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Organizations got used to Meta Workplace because it was like Facebook. Thus, employees collaborated in the environment they became accustomed to. They did not need special knowledge or Active Directory accounts to access company news and exchange messages with co-workers. With most people having a Facebook account, they intuitively know how to navigate and use the Workplace. As a result, Meta Workplace was a great solution for non-techy employees to collaborate and communicate.

However, Meta started the process of closing their Workplace, and now many businesses are looking for alternatives. The modern digital software market offers a wide range of collaboration platforms and communication tools. Both cloud and self-hosted solutions are available as alternatives to Meta Workplace. Apart from the official partner Workvivo, many tools offer detailed migration step-by-step guidelines and can be successfully used as alternatives to Meta Workplace.

In a statement about the closure, a Meta spokesperson revealed that the company was shutting down the Workplace platform, which had reached 7 million paid subscribers in 2021, in order to prioritize the development of AI and Metaverse technologies that are expected to transform the future of work.

What are the main benefits of self-hosted alternatives to Meta Workplace

Vulnerabilities are present to some extent across all cloud communication and collaboration platforms, making them a key target in the evolving landscape of cybercrime.

While the motivations behind these attacks vary, they often resemble threats aimed at endpoint devices. Cybercriminals and corporate spies frequently exploit collaboration tools to gain quick access to sensitive corporate, personal, and financial information. In other instances, these platforms become pathways for deploying ransomware attacks. Additionally, researchers have found evidence that cryptojackers misuse these tools to hijack computing power for mining cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and other digital assets.

Therefore, deploying a collaboration platform on-premise brings an additional layer of data security. Still, there is no protection against the careless treatment of login details. In such situations, multifactor authentication is a good practice to minimize the risk of compromising the organization's collaboration tools.

The main benefits of hosting the collaboration platform on-premises include:

  1. An ability to customize the software for peak performance
  2. No dependency on the Internet connection
  3. An ability to maintain a consistent quality of service
  4. Cost-effectiveness in the long run
  5. Full control over corporate information
  6. Control over updates and maintenance

Self-hosted collaboration tools provide a secure and efficient setting for managing sensitive information, delivering benefits such as stronger data control, enhanced security measures, and greater reliability and performance to maintain seamless workflows.

However, the main benefit of the self-hosted alternative to Meta Workplace is the cost-effectiveness in the long run and the independence from the decisions of the service provider.

Virola corporate messenger as an alternative to Meta Workplace

Virola corporate messenger can become a good self-hosted alternative to Meta Workplace as it supports group and private chats, video meetings, unlimited document storage, search in the conversation history, and task board.

While using Virola, employees can exchange files and messages both from their computers and mobile devices. Virola works like any instant messenger with additional collaboration opportunities such as:

Virola corporate messenger can be a good alternative to Meta Workplace. Its interface is user-friendly and looks like any instant messenger that users are familiar with.

The bottom line

Workplace from Meta is a decent, though not exceptional, platform for business communication. Its user-friendly interface, which closely mimics Facebook, and impressive communication features are notable strengths. However, it lacks key business functionalities such as robust chat search and document management. Given its pricing, many companies might find better value in alternatives like Connecteam, Staffbase, Workvivo, or self-hosted collaboration platforms like Virola or Troop Messenger.