Established MMXXIII · Hybrid Gardens Division

The Collaboration
Seed Catalog

Teams & Alternative Varieties — Spring 2023
A curated selection of the finest collaboration species for the modern hybrid garden. Choose the variety that flourishes in your organization's unique soil.
☀ Sunlight = Ecosystem
💧 Water = Cost/user/mo
🌡 Zone = Best For
🌸 Bloom = Key Feature
🌱 Seeds = Rating
Variety No. 01 · Perennial
Microsoft Teams
Collaboratus omnibus · The Everything Plant
🏰Est. 2017
☀Sun: Microsoft 365
💧Water: $4/user/mo
🌡Zone: M365 orgs
📏Height: 300 attendees
🌸Bloom: Office co-edit
📅Season: Year-round
A vigorous hybrid perennial that thrives in Microsoft 365 soil. Produces abundant blooms of chat channels, video meetings, document co-editing, and task management. In 2023, the new "Teams 2.0" cultivar launched — faster, lighter, using 50% less memory. Copilot AI buds appeared in late 2023 as a premium add-on. Spreads aggressively through existing Office 365 subscriptions.
🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱 5/5 seeds · Best All-Around Variety
PKT-2023-001300M+ Monthly Users
Variety No. 02 · Perennial
Zoom Workplace
Zoomus crystallinus · The Crystal Clear Bloom
💎Est. 2013
☀Sun: Any ecosystem
💧Water: $13/user/mo
🌡Zone: Video-first
📏Height: 1,000 attendees
🌸Bloom: HD video
📅Season: Year-round
The hardiest video-flowering specimen available. Blooms in any soil — works with any ecosystem, any device, any guest. In 2023, Zoom rebranded as "Zoom Workplace," adding Team Chat, Whiteboard, email, and calendar to compete as a full-garden solution. AI Companion launched for free with paid plans — generating meeting summaries and smart recordings.
🌱🌱🌱🌱 4/5 seeds · Best Video Variety
PKT-2023-002300M Daily Participants
Variety No. 03 · Climbing Vine
Slack
Slackus connectorum · The Integration Vine
🌿Est. 2013
☀Sun: Any + Salesforce
💧Water: $7.25/user/mo
🌡Zone: Dev & startup
📏Height: 50 video max
🌸Bloom: 2,500+ apps
📅Season: Year-round
A vigorous climbing vine that wraps around every tool in the garden. Its tendrils reach 2,500+ integrations — connecting GitHub, Jira, Salesforce, Google, and hundreds more. Slack Canvas launched in 2023, adding document-like surfaces inside channels. Huddles matured with screen sharing and threads. Under Salesforce cultivation since 2021.
🌱🌱🌱🌱 4/5 seeds · Best Messaging Variety
PKT-2023-003~24M Daily Active
Variety No. 04 · Ground Cover
Google Meet
Meeticus minimalis · The Low-Maintenance Ground Cover
🍀Est. 2020
☀Sun: Google Workspace
💧Water: $6/user/mo
🌡Zone: Google shops
📏Height: 500 attendees
🌸Bloom: Zero install
📅Season: Year-round
The easiest variety to plant — no download, no install, just open the browser and it blooms. Grows best in Google Workspace soil alongside Gmail, Calendar, and Drive. In 2023, translated captions expanded to more languages, emoji reactions debuted, and the companion Google Chat matured with Spaces.
🌱🌱🌱 3/5 seeds · Best Simplicity Variety
PKT-2023-004Bundled w/ Workspace
Variety No. 05 · Heritage Specimen
Cisco Webex
Webexus securitas · The Armored Heirloom
🛡Est. 1995
☀Sun: Cisco + any
💧Water: $14/user/mo
🌡Zone: Enterprise/Gov
📏Height: 1,000 attendees
🌸Bloom: 100+ lang AI
📅Season: Year-round
An heirloom variety cultivated since 1995 — the oldest in the catalog. Produces the sturdiest blooms: best-in-class noise cancellation, FedRAMP-authorized security, and AI Assistant with real-time translation in 100+ languages. In 2023, Webex AI Assistant expanded with meeting summaries, action items, and messaging catch-up. Thrives in Cisco-rich environments.
🌱🌱🌱🌱 4/5 seeds · Best Security Variety
PKT-2023-005650M Monthly Mtg Users
Variety No. 06 · Wildflower
Discord
Discordius communis · The Community Wildflower
🎮Est. 2015
☀Sun: Any / open
💧Water: Free
🌡Zone: Community/Dev
📏Height: 25 video
🌸Bloom: Always-on voice
📅Season: Year-round
A resilient wildflower that self-seeds across communities. Unlimited free users, unlimited message history, always-on voice channels, and rich bot ecosystem. Originally cultivated for gaming gardens but increasingly adopted by dev teams, DAOs, and open-source communities in 2023. Forum Channels added structure to previously chaotic growth.
🌱🌱🌱 3/5 seeds · Best Free Community Variety
PKT-2023-006150M+ Monthly Active
Comparative Planting Guide — At a Glance
VarietyCost/moVideoChatDocsSecurityIntegrationsEase
Teams$4GoodGood★★★High1,000+Medium
Zoom$13★★★BasicNoneGood100+Easy
Slack$7.25Limited★★★CanvasGood2,500+Easy
Google Meet$6GoodBasic*G SuiteGoodG SuiteEasiest
Webex$14GreatGoodNone★★★100+Complex
DiscordFreeBasicGoodNoneBasicBotsEasy
The Head Gardener's Note — Season 2023
The collaboration garden of 2023 was defined by two forces: the maturation of hybrid work and the arrival of AI. Microsoft Teams released its completely rewritten "Teams 2.0" app in October 2023, cutting memory usage by half and launching faster — a response to years of criticism about bloat. Copilot for Microsoft 365 began its enterprise rollout in November, bringing AI-generated meeting summaries and document drafts to the platform, though at a premium $30/user/month price point that put it out of reach for many organizations. Zoom, having weathered post-pandemic revenue declines, pivoted from "meetings company" to "workplace platform" — adding email, calendar, and document features alongside its free AI Companion. Slack deepened its Salesforce roots and launched Canvas, giving channels a document-like surface for pinning important information. Google Meet continued its strategy of radical simplicity, while Webex expanded its AI Assistant across meetings and messaging. And Discord, the surprise entry, proved that always-on voice channels and unlimited free messaging could make it a legitimate workplace tool for communities and developer teams. The best gardens in 2023 were not monocultures — they combined multiple varieties, each planted where it grew best.
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All product names are trademarks of their respective owners. Seed ratings are editorial assessments based
on publicly available features, pricing, and community reviews as of 2023. For informational purposes only.
Not professional procurement advice. No actual seeds were harmed in the production of this catalog.
THE HYBRID GARDENER'S SEED CATALOG · VOL. MMXXIII · PRINTED ON 100% RECYCLED CLOUD DATA