We've compared the top 5 Github Slack integrations in 2024

Managing code reviews and pull requests can often feel like a juggling act for engineering teams. The need for a streamlined process has never been greater, especially with remote work becoming the norm. That's where GitHub Slack integrations come into play.

While you may be familiar with the official GitHub Slack integration, there are several other options that offer unique features to enhance your team's productivity. In this article, we'll dive deep into the top 5 GitHub Slack integrations that can revolutionize the way your engineering team collaborates.

From real-time notifications to creating dedicated Slack channels for each pull request, these integrations offer a range of functionalities that cater to different team needs. Read on to find the perfect GitHub Slack integration for your team.

We've summarized our research into an article and a table for you to easily compare:

If you prefer watching a video, here is a 10 minutes YouTube video recap of this article:

1. Official GitHub Slack integrations.

Since this is an official integration there are cool features you will not see in another type of reminder bots, such as displaying code directly in Slack.

😍 What we like:

Code can be displayed directly in Slack. It's highly customizable, you can choose which repository you can subscribe to, deactivate some notifications. The integration is well documented. It's also maintained by the GitHub team, and if you have questions you might be able to ask them directly.

Axolo has more than 1k installations on the official GitHub marketplace and offers a free tier.

🤔 What we don't like:

It takes time to set it up and can be confusing as well. In order to have it work, you will need to subscribe manually to each of the repositories using Slack slash commands.

2. Axolo: improving the developer experience

Focusing on collaboration across the whole engineering team, Axolo is not another pull request notification bot. It is engineered to optimize code review and streamline the pull request resolution process by fostering collaboration across the entire engineering team. The platform is designed to enable seamless discussions about code, ensuring that all team members have access to the information and tools they need to resolve pull requests efficiently.

😍 What we like:

Axolo makes a temporary Slack channel for every GitHub pull request, it will invite reviewers and assignees to the channel, notify them of relevant events like code comments, comments, GitHub Actions, Deployments and finally it will archive the channel once you close or merge pull request.

🤔 Improvements:

Some teams have shared that it used to be too noisy. The Axolo team introduced code reviewing timeslots in September 2021. Developers can choose the time in the day when they want to be invited to review a new pull request. It's a good way to keep the focus on coding and having dedicated time for code reviews during the day.

✨ Features:

• 💭 An ephemeral Slack channel for each pull request: Axolo opens a Slack channel each time one of your collaborators opens a pull request. Only people that should be invited (reviewers & assignees) are invited.
• ⏰ PRs reminders: Set up Axolo to send daily reminders in stale PRs.
• 💻 A complete synch for code reviews: Each Github code review comment creates a new Slack thread. Then, the following comments from GitHub or Slack are sent to the other tool.
• 👀 High-level view on your team's PRs: With team-specific notifications, Axolo will send new pull request notifications in team channels and react upon the status of the PR (awaiting review, work in progress, mergeable, ...).
• 🤖 Approve pull requests with /lgtm: Developers can use /lgtm to approve a pull request directly in PR channels!
• 🏀 All your PRs are a command away: Ask /axolo open to show all open PR of your organization, /axolo me for your open PRs, and /axolo team [name of your team] to show all PRs from a specific team.
• 🕵️‍♂️ Organize your stand-ups with daily PR recap: You can set up Axolo to send daily PR recap to specific channels to organize your stand-ups.
• ⏳ Dedicated times for code review: Organize your time with code review time slots and let Axolo notify you only when you're available. Save your development sessions from distractions.

And you can see more features here!

Axolo User Experiences

2480+ developers online

Dan

Axolo has made it easier to hold developers and QA engineers accountable for reviewing and merging pull requests on a timely basis. Our average PR time-to-merge was 2.40 days before Axolo, this has been reduced to 1.51 days after only using it for 2 weeks.

Read more Axolo reviews ->

Anubhav Malik

We used to send each other our GitHub PR links on Slack to ask for a review. Having Axolo made it a zero-effort thing. Having discussions on Slack is much more natural and Axolo does a great job doing it. The support is amazing as well! Arthur and Sydney proactively reach out to ask if we're facing any issues and even released one feature request within hours!

Read more Axolo reviews ->

Pawel

Axolo is a must-have for teams using GitHub. My team can discuss pull requests without leaving Slack now. Axolo helped us merge pull requests faster in a more seamless way. I was waiting for this product for so long!

Read more Axolo reviews ->

Try Axolo for free

3. Toast.Ninja

😍 What we like:

They have a enterprise version for GitHub enterprise. It feels like the founders spend a lot of time making it fully integrated into Slack. For example, the onboarding process is well integrated into Slack, where you can choose different options without leaving the app.

They recently added analytics that are sent directly into Slack as well.

🤔 What we don't like:

The lack of GitHub actions and deployments notifications. We didn't find any collaborative aspect to this app. It could easily be used by just one person in the team.

Toast is not visible on the GitHub marketplace.

4. CodeKickBot

😍 What we like:

It's free and simple. You receive in direct messages notifications about code comments and reviews.

🤔 What we don't like:

We are not sure whether it's been updated last.

They do not have GitHub actions notifications, either deployment notifications.

5. PR Chat:

😍 What we like:

You get updates from GitHub in a thread in Slack.

🤔 What we don't like:

You don't get CI/CD. Cannot follow code comments vs PR comments easily. PR Chat has only 112 installations on the GitHub marketplace.

6. Case Study on GitHub-Slack integration: Agency Analytics - How Axolo reduced PR cycle time by 65%

Blake Acheson is the CTO and cofounder of Agency Analytics. He's been using Axolo for a year. We sat down with him to discuss how Axolo has improved their code review process and reduced their pull request cycle time by 65%.

Before Axolo:

The team at Agency Analytics was struggling with GitHub's inefficient code review process and unintuitive notification system. They faced issues like slow pickup times, elongated pull request review cycles, and generally inefficient workflow.

The Transition to Axolo:

Initially tested with one team, Axolo soon proved itself indispensable, making the code review process more efficient and streamlined. The integration of Slack and Axolo facilitated open communication, transforming their trunk-based development approach.

Key Takeaways:

• Axolo's close integration with Slack was a significant advantage, fitting seamlessly into the company's existing workflow.
• Transitioning to Axolo was smooth, and even the initially hesitant team members became advocates for its efficiency.
• The open communication facilitated by Axolo has cultivated a more collaborative environment, leading to improved architectural skills and a more discerning approach before deploying to production.

You can find the complete Agency Analytics case-study here.

Key Takeaways:

• The seamless transition to Axolo allowed the team to continue their work without significant disruption.
• Axolo eliminated repetitive, manual tasks, freeing engineers to focus on development.
• Real-time updates and features of Axolo continue to make the code review process smoother and more efficient for the Irwin team.

For those interested in a deeper dive into how Axolo has revolutionized Irwin's code review process, a full video recording is available here.

Conclusion

We looked at 5 different GitHub and Slack integrations. Those 5 integrations take a different approach in trying to make pull requests last shorter.

We see two types of GitHub and Slack integrations:

1. The one that are simple notifications based on events:

Those bots, like Toast.ninja, the official GitHub Slack integration will notify either you personally or a channel that a Pull Request is ready to be reviewed.

Downside:

One place for all pull requests notifications is good for smaller teams but can become a nightmare for larger teams. It can easily be ignored after a while.

2. The truly collaborative apps:

Axolo is the best in this category. On top of enabling the right notifications (like CI/CD, GitHub actions, deployment and checks), Axolo creates contextual channels for each Pull Request.

Companies that use Axolo found that creating those spaces to talk about a specific pull request makes it easier to collaborate during code reviews, impove the developer experience and resolve pull requests quickly.