7 Ricotta Alternatives for Team Games in Slack and Microsoft Teams

Ricotta Games & Trivia is a game bot that lives in your chat tool. It posts trivia, icebreakers and word games into a Slack or Microsoft Teams channel, and people play without leaving the app.

Teams usually look for a Ricotta alternative for one of four reasons. They want games that are more than chat messages. Part of the company is not on Slack or Teams. The user cap on their tier is about to be crossed. Or the channel got noisy and people stopped joining in.

Quick answer. For one small game every workday that the whole team plays in the browser, use Halftime. For another in-chat game bot, look at Trivia, which has a free tier, or Tacos & Trivia, which comes from the same company as Ricotta. For one quiz a week, use Water Cooler Trivia. For a live hosted quiz, use Kahoot! 360 or Polly.

Ricotta alternatives at a glance

Prices are what each company published on November 10, 2026. Several vendors show different figures on different pages of their own site, and we note where that happens.

How we put this list together

We read each company's own website and marketplace listings on November 10, 2026, and compared format, platform, who starts the game and any price the company publishes. Sources are Ricotta, Ricotta for Microsoft Teams, Trivia, Water Cooler Trivia, QuizBreaker, Polly, Kahoot! 360 and Tacos & Trivia.

Halftime is our product. We have not run the other tools with a team, so this is a comparison of what each one says it offers, not a hands-on review. Nobody paid to be included, and we are not affiliated with Ricotta or any company listed here.

What Ricotta does well

Ricotta runs inside Slack, Microsoft Teams and Webex. Its Slack library is the widest. There are multiple-choice and picture quizzes, a weekly trivia contest, custom trivia, This or That, Never Have I Ever, Most Likely To, Two Truths and a Lie, Hot Takes, a Wordle-style Word of the Day, a daily anagram, Hangman, Word Chain, and two-player games such as Connect 4 and Tic-Tac-Toe that are played in a direct message. Its own pages say Teams and Webex get a smaller set.

Games are positioned as asynchronous, and a scheduler can spread them across the week so nobody has to launch each one. It also bundles virtual coffee pairing, a leaderboard and an engagement dashboard.

Pricing is flat per tier with a user cap. On November 10, 2026, the homepage listed these Slack plans.

The Microsoft Teams page listed Starter at $34 a month or $288 a year for up to 40 users in the organisation, Basic at $59 or $480 for up to 100, and Growth at $99 or $948 for up to 250. Both come with a 14-day trial and no card.

One caution. Ricotta's older Slack pricing page is still live and shows a different set of plans, with caps of 50, 200 and 500 users and no free plan. Confirm the plan and price at checkout.

That is a good fit for a Slack-first company that wants a lot of light, text-based games in one channel at a low flat price. If that is you and the price works, you may not need an alternative.

People usually start looking for one of these reasons.

• The games are questions and word puzzles in chat messages, and the team wants something more like a game.
• Some of the team is not in Slack or Teams, or the company runs on email.
• On Teams the cap is worded as users in the organisation, so a 60-person company would land on the 100-user tier even if eight people play.
• A busy channel of game threads became something people mute.
• On G2, where Ricotta has seven reviews, the most common request is more games and modes.

1. Halftime for one daily game the whole team plays

Best for. Teams that want a single shared moment each workday, with nobody running it.

Halftime works differently from a chat bot. Each workday one two-minute game opens for the team. People play in the browser when they have a spare moment, results are revealed later in the day, and a weekly leaderboard and champion keep a running story going. The library has more than 50 games across arcade, puzzle, word, trivia and strategy, so Tuesday is not the same as Monday.

Slack and Microsoft Teams carry the reminder and the result, and the game itself stays out of the channel. Email is on by default, so a team with no chat tool can still play. For a meeting or a social, the same library runs as a live session with a room code.

Pricing. $39 a month flat for a team of up to 20 players. Every new team starts with 30 days of full access and no card. It is not priced on the size of your workspace, so only the people on the team count.

Choose it when. You want one thing a day that everyone does, and a result worth talking about.

Watch out for. Play happens in the browser, not inside Slack. If the point is to never leave the chat window, a bot fits better. There is also no bank of icebreaker questions to fire off on demand.

2. Trivia for live games inside the chat

Best for. Teams that like Ricotta's in-chat model and want a free way to start.

Trivia is the app long known as Trivia by Springworks. It is now owned by Heron HR and lives at trytrivia.co. It runs in Slack and Microsoft Teams with instant quizzes, image quizzes, Pictionary, Emoji Rebus, GIF Charades, Hangman, True or False and a bluffing game called Gotcha. Its listing describes the games as real time, meaning the team gets together to play, with self-paced quizzes that stay open for 24 hours as the async option. It bundles coffee pairing, a water cooler prompt and birthday and anniversary celebrations.

Pricing. Basic is free and limited to three participants a game. Standard is $1 a user a month with a $29 monthly minimum, and Pro is $2 a user a month with a $49 minimum. Every plan starts with a 7-day Pro trial.

Choose it when. You want a wider range of live games in the chat and a free tier to test with.

Watch out for. Three players a game is a taster, not a team plan. Its homepage still quotes older prices than its pricing pages, so check before you budget. For more on the ownership change, read Trivia by Springworks alternatives.

3. Water Cooler Trivia for one quiz a week

Best for. Teams that want one fixed weekly tradition and like trivia.

Water Cooler Trivia sends each person a ten-question quiz every week by Slack, Microsoft Teams or email. People answer in their own time and the results arrive later on a schedule the organiser sets.

Pricing. $10 a month for up to 10 participants, $25 for 11 to 25, $50 for 26 to 50 and $100 for 51 to 100, with a four-week free trial and no card.

Choose it when. Weekly is often enough, and you want email to work as well as chat.

Watch out for. It is one format on one day. See Halftime vs Water Cooler Trivia.

4. QuizBreaker for getting to know each other

Best for. New or fast-growing teams where people do not know each other yet.

QuizBreaker asks teammates questions about themselves, then sends a scheduled quiz where everyone guesses who said what. It is delivered by email or Slack. The same plan includes live trivia, virtual escape rooms and personality tests for a video call.

Pricing. Essentials is $39 a month billed annually, or $49 month to month, for up to 100 users, with a 21-day trial.

Choose it when. The goal is familiarity, not competition.

Watch out for. Its pages do not mention Microsoft Teams delivery. See Halftime vs QuizBreaker.

5. Polly for trivia inside a polling tool

Best for. Teams that already want polls, surveys and Q&A and would like trivia in the same app.

Polly runs in Slack, Microsoft Teams, Zoom and Google Meet. Its Team Trivia is a live, timed game that a presenter runs.

Pricing. On Slack there is a free plan without trivia. Basic adds trivia at $19 a month for one licence, billed at $228 a year, and Pro is $29 a month billed annually. On Microsoft Teams, Pro is $19 a month billed annually and the free plan lists quizzes and trivia games.

Choose it when. Trivia is a side feature and the polling is the main job.

Watch out for. Pricing is per licence and someone has to run each game. See Halftime vs Polly.

6. Kahoot! 360 for a live hosted quiz

Best for. An all-hands, a training session or a Friday social with a presenter.

Kahoot! 360 is the business version of the classroom quiz tool. A presenter shares a screen, everyone answers at the same time and a leaderboard updates between questions.

Pricing. Plans are per presenter and billed annually. Pro Start is $9 a month for up to 50 participants, Pro Standard is $25 for up to 200 and Pro Plus is $39 for up to 1,000. The Microsoft Teams integration is listed under Kahoot! 360 for Enterprises.

Choose it when. You want a high-energy live event and have someone happy to host.

Watch out for. It needs a time everyone can make, which is the thing async games avoid. See Kahoot alternatives for work teams.

7. Tacos & Trivia for a themed weekday schedule in Slack

Best for. Slack teams that want a set game for each day of the week.

Tacos & Trivia is a Slack app whose Marketplace listing names Ricotta Software Services as the developer, so it is a sibling of Ricotta and not a rival. It posts a themed game each weekday, including Moji Mondays, Trivia Tuesdays, Watercooler Wednesdays and Find the Place Fridays, plus Would You Rather, This or That and Rock Paper Scissors. A scheduler runs them without a host.

Pricing. Starter is $24 a month for up to 50 users, Pro is $39 for up to 100, Growth is $59 for up to 200 and Enterprise is $99 for up to 500, with lower rates on yearly plans and a three-week free trial with no card.

Choose it when. You like how Ricotta works and want a tighter weekly rhythm.

Watch out for. It is Slack only, and it shares Ricotta's shape, so it will not fix a problem with the format itself.

Which alternative fits which job

In the channel or around it

The real choice is where the game lives.

A chat bot puts the game in the channel. That is convenient, because nobody opens anything. It also means every game is a message, a thread and a set of replies. A handful a week is fun. A dozen is a channel people mute, and a muted channel is the end of the habit.

The other shape keeps the channel for the talking. One link in the morning, one result later in the day, and the play happens somewhere built for it. You give up the convenience of never leaving the chat window. You get a game that can be more than text, and a channel where the only posts are the ones people react to.

Neither is wrong. A team that lives in Slack and loves a quick question will be happy with a bot. A team that wants one shared thing a day, or has people outside the chat tool, usually wants the second shape. For more Slack options, including games that need no app at all, read Slack games for work. For teams on Microsoft Teams, see Microsoft Teams games for work.

---

Want to see the daily version before you decide? Halftime gives your team one two-minute game every workday, with async play, leaderboards and weekly champions. Start a 30-day team pilot. No card required.