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ViewExport vs Hanzo
Overall: Hanzo is a real-time archiving platform built for regulated firms that need to capture every message as it happens. ViewExport is a focused Slack eDiscovery tool for review, search, and export — bought and launched in minutes, at a fraction of the cost.
ViewExport vs Hanzo Overview
A simpler, cheaper Hanzo alternative for Slack
The main question is whether you need continuous live capture across many collab tools, or defensible review of Slack exports when an investigation or DSAR lands.
| Feature | ViewExport | Hanzo |
|---|---|---|
| Primary Focus | Search, review, and export Slack data for legal holds, DSARs, and HR cases | Real-time, continuous archiving across Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom |
| Capture Model | Export-based — you ingest a Slack JSON export when you need to investigate | Live archiving — Hanzo captures messages as they happen, including edits and deletes |
| Best For | Legal, IT, and HR teams that need defensible review of Slack on demand | Regulated firms with continuous capture obligations across many collab tools |
| Pricing | ✅ Transparent; enterprise plans start at $6k/yr | ⚠️ Custom quotes; market data puts most contracts in the $10k–$50k/yr range |
| Setup Time | ✅ Minutes — upload a Slack export and start searching | ❌ Weeks — requires sales, procurement, and connector configuration |
| Platforms Covered | Slack only — deep, focused tooling | Slack, Teams, Zoom, and other collab platforms |
| Slack Discovery API Partner | Works with the standard Slack export and Discovery API outputs | Yes — official Slack Discovery API partner |
The main question
Continuous capture, or on-demand review?
Hanzo and ViewExport solve different parts of the eDiscovery problem. Hanzo is the always-on tape recorder. ViewExport is the review room.
We're purpose built for Slack review
ViewExport is designed for the moment you need to investigate a Slack channel, respond to a DSAR, or pull every message a former employee sent. Filter by date range, redact PII, and export a defensible record without a multi-week project.
It's easy to sign up and go
Hanzo requires a sales conversation, a SOW, and connector setup. ViewExport lets you start a trial and upload a Slack export the same afternoon. No procurement cycle required.
Priced for the mid-market
Hanzo’s contracts typically land between $10k and $50k per year. ViewExport’s starting Enterprise pricing is $6k/yr. If your team doesn’t need real-time capture, you’re paying a premium for features you’ll never use.
Where Hanzo wins
Honest take: when to pick Hanzo over us
Comparison pages should help you decide, not just sell. Here are the cases where Hanzo is genuinely the right call.
You're a regulated broker-dealer or insurer
FINRA, SEC 17a-4, and similar regimes require continuous message capture with immutability guarantees. Hanzo’s WORM-style live archive is built for that. ViewExport works against existing exports and does not provide a live capture pipeline.
You need Teams, Zoom, and Slack in one platform
Hanzo archives multiple collaboration platforms under one roof. ViewExport focuses exclusively on Slack. If you’re standardizing archiving across the entire collab stack, Hanzo is the more natural fit.
You need to preserve deleted and edited messages
Because Hanzo captures continuously, it preserves messages even after they’re deleted or edited in Slack. An export-based workflow only sees what existed at export time.
Where ViewExport wins
If you only need Slack, the trade isn't close
Most teams we talk to evaluated Hanzo, decided real-time capture was overkill for their actual use case, and switched to a tool sized for the job.
Built around the review workflow
Search across channels, DMs, and private channels without joining them and triggering Slack alerts. Filter by date, user, channel, and content. Export defensible PDF or CSV bundles.
No connectors, no agents
ViewExport works with Slack’s native export and Discovery API output. There’s nothing to install in your Slack workspace and nothing for your security team to vet beyond a SaaS application.
Desktop edition keeps data on your machine
If your Slack data can’t leave your infrastructure for legal or contractual reasons, ViewExport ships a Mac and Windows desktop edition. Your data never touches our servers, the annual license includes a year of updates, and the app keeps running after renewal. Hanzo is a hosted-cloud archive only.
Security
Enterprise-grade security, built for legal workflows
ViewExport is designed with strict access controls, audit trails, and encryption to meet your legal, IT, and compliance standards.
Immutability
Audit logs are locked by default and cannot be altered or removed by any user — including administrators. This preserves a tamper-proof record of activity for legal defensibility.
Retention
All audit logs are automatically retained for a minimum of 12 months, in line with common legal and regulatory requirements. Optional custom retention settings are available where longer storage is needed.
Access Control
Only designated administrators with the correct roles and permissions can view or query audit logs. This reduces exposure risk and aligns with internal access policies and compliance frameworks.
Encryption
Data is encrypted at rest and in transit using industry-standard protocols. Sensitive access data remains secure even in the unlikely event of a system compromise.
Sensitive Data Protection
Passwords, access tokens, and API keys are automatically filtered and excluded from all logs, preventing accidental logging of high-risk secrets.
Compliance Support
ViewExport helps you align with GDPR, SOC 2, ISO 27001, and HIPAA requirements. Combined with access controls and retention policies, we support audit-readiness out of the box.
Testimonials
Trusted by attorneys and IT leaders.
Most customer testimonials are anonymized at their request.
“With ViewExport, we were able to easily work with a very large Slack export and resolve our incident much faster compared to other Slack export solutions. The tool has great functionality with improvements happening on a regular cadence as well as fantastic support from the ViewExport team.”
Matt R, Head of IT
Large Game Studio in California
Name and company redacted for client privacy.
“Glad for ViewExport - in Slack you can't filter easily by date range, which is annoying and not usable for Legal/eDiscovery. And Onna is way too expensive. You guys are perfect.”
Chief Information Officer
NYSE-Listed Adtech Company
Name and company redacted for client privacy.
“Handling DSARs is a massive pain point for me with GDPR compliance. We've been working around this problem for 6+ years, across multiple companies.”
Head of IT & Security
Midmarket UK Tech Company
Name and company redacted for client privacy.
“This is marvelous. I'm the Slack admin of my company and I'm tired of searching through the json files for messages for HR investigations. Now I can share relevant exports with legal in a few clicks.”
Deborah, IT Manager
Large Not-For-Profit Organization
“With ViewExport, we were able to easily work with a very large Slack export and resolve our incident much faster compared to other Slack export solutions. The tool has great functionality with improvements happening on a regular cadence as well as fantastic support from the ViewExport team.”
Matt R, Head of IT
Large Game Studio in California
Name and company redacted for client privacy.
“Glad for ViewExport - in Slack you can't filter easily by date range, which is annoying and not usable for Legal/eDiscovery. And Onna is way too expensive. You guys are perfect.”
Chief Information Officer
NYSE-Listed Adtech Company
Name and company redacted for client privacy.
“Handling DSARs is a massive pain point for me with GDPR compliance. We've been working around this problem for 6+ years, across multiple companies.”
Head of IT & Security
Midmarket UK Tech Company
Name and company redacted for client privacy.
“This is marvelous. I'm the Slack admin of my company and I'm tired of searching through the json files for messages for HR investigations. Now I can share relevant exports with legal in a few clicks.”
Deborah, IT Manager
Large Not-For-Profit Organization
FAQ
Need help?
Whether you're a small startup, a growing mid-sized business, or a large enterprise, we're here to make things simple and support you at every step.
We're compatible with all Slack plans: Free, Pro, Business, and Enterprise. Just export any Slack JSON archive!
Yes! Find pricing for the downloadable, local-hosted edition of ViewExport on our pricing page. Great for if you have security concerns about employee data leaving your private cloud, or if your contractual obligations prevent sensitive IP from touching third-party servers. With the local edition, we'll never see or have access to your Slack data files.
You can upload anything that is included with the .ZIP file that contains your .JSON exports from Slack. If those files contain private channel and direct message data, they'll be searchable in ViewExport as well. However, we can't help you get data from Slack that was not contained in your export.
There's no implementation required: ViewExport is as easy as setting up an account, and uploading a .ZIP file. That said, we're happy to walk you through configuration and best practices.
We take security seriously and serve organizations around the world who are entrusted with strict data governance procedures, including for their Slack data. Here's our full security overview.
Yes, with 2 year contracts we can offer 12% off the Annual Enterprise plan, and with 3 year contracts we're able to offer 14.5% off the Annual Enterprise plan. Above-contract usage is billed monthly pro rata. Reach out to our team for details and we can get you set up.
No, ViewExport is an independent service not affiliated with Slack Technologies Inc. We provide tools to view and search Slack export files but are not connected to, funded by, or endorsed by Slack.
ViewExport is a modern, cloud and desktop platform for searching and governing corporate Slack messages to maintain compliance. Think of us as a single-purpose tool — an alternative to Onna, Mimecast Aware, Hanzo, Smarsh, and Pagefreezer. Technical teams can also compare us to Slackdump or Backupery, or read why teams outgrow Slack's native export for legal review. Message Crawler customers will also enjoy switching to ViewExport so that they can filter and search their Slack archives before uploading them to Relativity, saving a reported $10-50k per year on RelOne data and hosting costs, according to some of our customers. You can read more here about the top Slack eDiscovery tools available.
The free trial is 7 days with a nominal data usage limit to prevent abuse. We want you to know that we're able to handle your needs, and we've noticed that most organizations can determine this in 24-48 hours. Need help with your trial? Shoot us a note and see if we can customize the experience for you, or provide a walkthrough.
