I've used both Wake and a competitor called Relay. Relay offers perfect synchronization with Slack and can thread messages in both places. It uses Slack auth to integrate tightly.

I've talked with Chris Kalani, the founder of Wake, and a buddy of mine. His take is different. The goal is really to have Wake be a space that a design team can collaborate, share information, and get instant feedback. Slack integration for Wake is really just to have broader feedback with other teams that may want visibility.

It may not be the tool for you. I have enjoyed using it. The iOS app is beautiful and allows me to share quick bits of inspiration, a whiteboard sketch, or an idea with my team.

Designer News did an AMA with Chris a few weeks ago.

I did a short research before to find alternatives to this one and found some which may not be as "smooth" or are different in some aspects, but might be useful for someone:

• https://redpen.io/
• https://hightailspaces.com/
• http://www.codesign.io/
• https://kivo.com/
• http://feedbackplease.co/

For anyone else looking for a URL: https://wake.io/

Honestly though, to me it doesn't improve on DropBox enough to justify the expense. But I work a small design team, so maybe it just isn't mean for me.

We use it at FogCreek to keep our small team of 3 designers - who all work on separate projects - passively in the loop with each other. One of my favorite things about Wake is that we can critique early work casually in a lightweight, asynchronous way. So when we do have an actual team design review (about once a week), the process goes smoother and people who are generally quieter face-to-face still feel like they're able to effectively contribute.

What I hate about Wake is the pricing. I totally disagree that using Wake should be limited to the design team only. I think it's important to designers and the work to enable anyone on the team to peek in and comment, but having to buy full accounts for non-designers gets insane quickly.

My #1/only feature request is to have comment-only users.

We use it.

If you're looking to explore options other than Wake, one resource I'd recommend is 10,000ft Insights. For teams who take a design thinking approach, 10kft Insights can be a really helpful design and collaboration tool for organizing ideas, pitching new projects, and planning and documenting client workshops: https://www.10000ft.com/insights/overview

What is wake really about ?

Not anymore.

We used wake for a design team of 4 and really enjoyed it. We used it almost exclusively with Slack, and found that the ease of use meant we shared MUCH more openly & regularly. We also had a few developers sign up to 'lurk' and keep up with what we were working on — I loved that.

However, the trial period ended and I just couldn't justify the expense. It feels 50% too much right now

I've looked at it, but I genuinely don't understand how a company can justify $12/mo/user if they're using something like slack as well.