Idle Pilot vs Stay Green On Slack.

Idle Pilot and Stay Green On Slack do the same core thing: keep your Slack dot green from the cloud, so you stay active even with your laptop shut. Both are legitimate, both work, and both connect the same way Slack's own client does. The real differences are price, whether Microsoft Teams is covered, and how the free trial works. Here's the honest rundown.

At a glance

What both actually do

Slack flips you to Away after about 30 minutes without input. Both Idle Pilot and Stay Green On Slack get around that the same way: instead of keeping your laptop awake, they hold a presence connection to Slack open on a server, so your dot stays green whether your machine is on, asleep, or off. To a workspace admin, both look like a normal Slack session — there's no integration in the App Directory and nothing unusual to flag.

Price

This is the clearest gap. Idle Pilot is $9/month (or $5/month billed annually, $60/year). Stay Green On Slack is $3.99/month or $29.99/year — roughly half the monthly cost. And because the same subscription covers Microsoft Teams, the gap widens further if you'd otherwise pay for two tools.

Slack only vs Slack + Teams

Idle Pilot does Slack and nothing else. Stay Green On Slack covers both Slack and Microsoft Teams from one account via staygreenonteams.com. Most 2026 workplaces run both, so for a lot of people this is the deciding factor — you keep one dot green on each platform without paying twice.

Free trial

Here's where Idle Pilot has the edge on friction: its 7-day trial needs no credit card. Stay Green On Slack's trial runs 14 days but asks for a card up front — you're not charged until it ends and you can cancel in one click before then. So Idle Pilot is faster to "just try," while Stay Green On Slack gives you twice the runway to actually live with it through a full work week or two.

Track record

Both are real, maintained products. For what it's worth, Stay Green On Slack was voted #1 Product of the Week on Tiny Startups and runs the same cloud that powers its Teams sibling — so it's actively supported, with a person on the other end if something needs fixing.

Verdict

Pick Idle Pilot if: you only use Slack, and a no-card 7-day trial is the thing that gets you over the line.

Pick Stay Green On Slack if: you want to pay about half as much, you use Microsoft Teams as well as Slack (one subscription covers both), or you'd like a longer 14-day trial to be sure. For most people who live in both Slack and Teams, the combination of lower price and dual coverage makes it the easy call.