Stay Green On Slack
A cloud-based tool with a Chrome extension that keeps your Slack status green from its servers. Its pricing page lists $3.99 a month or $29.99 a year after a 14-day free trial with no card, and a Developer API. Teams is a separate product on its own website (Stay Green On Teams). Our side-by-side comparison has the details.
Slack Green
Offers a cloud service that runs on its servers and a self-hosted command-line tool, sold for $79 one-time, that you run on your own computer or server, with work-hours, custom or 24/7 schedules. Its sign-up page says free; cloud prices were not listed on its homepage when we checked. Covers Slack. See Slack Green and OnlineHours compared.
Presence Scheduler
Uses the Slack API to set your presence to auto at regular intervals during your chosen hours (auto is not the same as always active). Its optional Chrome extension keeps a hidden Slack tab open on your own computer, and its site notes you may still show offline without it, so it is not fully independent of your computer. $3 a month with a minimum one-year term, or $250 lifetime; 7-day free trial; covers Slack. More in our Presence Scheduler comparison.
OnlineHours
OnlineHours keeps Slack, ClickUp and Microsoft Teams online during the hours you choose, from its own servers, so your laptop can be closed. Slack and ClickUp connect with a private code from the free OnlineHours Connector; Teams connects through the Teams Connector, recommended for Teams in your browser, or Microsoft sign-in for work accounts. Plans start at $3.49 a month for Slack and $3.99 for Teams or ClickUp, $29.99 a year for one app, or $9.99 a month for all three, with a 7-day trial for one app and no card.
It also sets an optional Slack status on a timetable, for example Focus 11:00–12:00.
Mouse jigglers and keeping Slack open
Both keep your own computer looking active, which means it has to stay on and awake. They are cheap or free, including software jigglers for Mac and Windows, but end when you close the lid. A jiggler covers every app on that computer, not only Slack; the mouse jiggler trade-offs are worth reading first.
A keep-awake tool such as caffeinate is not enough on its own: Slack still sets you away after 10 minutes without activity.
How to choose
Only Slack, and you want the simplest cloud option: any of the cloud services above will do; compare price and trial.
You want the longest free trial: Stay Green On Slack lists 14 days.
You want to pay once: Presence Scheduler’s $250 lifetime plan, or Slack Green’s $79 self-hosted tool on a machine you keep running.
Slack plus ClickUp or Teams: OnlineHours covers all three in one dashboard and one Plus plan.
You want your team to see why you are slower to reply: OnlineHours adds a timed Slack status alongside the green dot.
You prefer to run things yourself on a machine that is always on: a self-hosted tool or a jiggler.
Keep your status on your hours, laptop closed
OnlineHours sets Slack, Teams or ClickUp to online from its servers during the hours you choose, and stops outside them.
If you only use Slack, any cloud service above will do. OnlineHours fits when you also need Teams or ClickUp, laptop closed and no tab open.
One app, no card. Nothing is charged when it ends.
Common questions
Which app keeps Slack active with the laptop closed?
A server-based service: Stay Green On Slack, Slack Green’s cloud version and OnlineHours run without your laptop. Presence Scheduler sets presence through the Slack API but says its extension, which runs on your computer, may be needed to avoid showing offline. Jigglers and keeping Slack open need the computer awake.
Is there one app for Slack, Teams and ClickUp?
OnlineHours covers all three in one account. Stay Green offers Teams as a separate product, Stay Green On Teams.