Facebook is working on a free version of its business tool and Slack competitor Workplace.
The free product is still being tested, and will be called Workplace Standard, Facebook’s Simon Cross recently told CNBC.
It will offer a very similar experience to the premium version, but without certain features such as analytics, monitoring tools, or workplace admin controls.
Facebook’s Workplace was built as another version of the social network, but one that connects employees of businesses, rather than friends and family.
Workplace enables employees to connect using group discussion, a personalised News Feed, along with voice and video calling tools.
Cross told CNBC: “We’re making Workplace work for more companies, so it’s a pretty big step for us.
“They can use it in their team, they can use it in their department and maybe eventually go on to deploy Workplace Premium across the company, but with Workplace Standard they can get started for free.
“Not every company wants to go through a full-scale enterprise deployment and not every company is in a position to pay for Workplace.”
The new free version is designed to appeal to smaller companies and those in emerging markets, Cross said.
The current pricing plan for Workplace is $3 per user for the first 1,000 active users, $2 per user for the next 9,000, and $1 for each additional user.
It is, however, free for non-profits and educational institutions.
The Standard version is currently being advertised on the Workplace website, which says the platform is “coming soon”, and gives a list of all the features that will be available to businesses who use the platform.
Find out more here.