Microsoft Teams Pricing: Plans, Features and Alternatives

Professionals in pretty much any industry know the value of Microsoft Teams. It makes workplace communication easy. And since it caters to small businesses and large enterprises, it offers various pricing structures. 

But how do these plans compare? Is the price worth the features you’re getting? Are there better Microsoft Teams alternatives? Let’s break it down.

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What is Microsoft Teams?

Think of Microsoft Teams as your digital office space. It combines team communication tools—chat, video meetings, file sharing, and app integration—into one. 

You can highlight important updates, share files in the conversation, and split discussions into focused team channels. This file-sharing software automatically stores documents from chat to SharePoint and OneDrive, keeping everything organized. 

Microsoft Teams also has a built-in audio and video call system to make remote meetings more human. You can use its AI-powered noise cancellation to block out background noise and enjoy crystal-clear conversations. 

After scheduling meetings, you can track them on your Teams calendar and sync with Outlook. Its AI-powered Microsoft Copilot helps you summarize meetings, generate action items, and draft responses within chat. 

If you use multiple tools, Microsoft Teams integrates with other Microsoft apps, such as Word and Excel, and third-party tools. 

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Microsoft Teams Pricing Plans

The Microsoft Teams pricing structure can be a little complicated. But don’t worry. We’ll tell you precisely what each tier offers and help you make smart budget decisions. Here’s an overview of each MS pricing plan to pick a plan with features that match your needs.

Free plan

The Microsoft Teams free plan suits small teams and personal projects with basic requirements. 

Key features

• Run meetings with up to 100 participants
• Hold unlimited one-on-one calls for up to 30 hours
• Join group meetings lasting up to 60 minutes
• Share files and use built-in search tools

Limitations

• Only 5 GB of cloud storage per user
• Group meetings stop after 60 minutes
• No business email addresses
• Limited Microsoft 365 app integration

Microsoft Teams Essentials plan

This plan combines Teams with web versions of popular Microsoft Office apps.

Key features

• Host group meetings for up to 30 hours with a maximum of 300 participants 
• Store 10 GB of files per person
• Access transcripts and record meetings
• Turn on live captions in English

Limitations

• No advanced user controls
• Missing desktop Office apps
• Limited reporting options
• Microsoft 365 Copilot is available as an add-on

Bonus: Learn how to keep your Teams status green!

Pricing

• $4/per month, per user

Microsoft 365 Business Basic plan

This plan combines Teams with web versions of popular Office apps.

Key features

• Set up custom business emails
• Get 1 TB storage per person
• Manage up to 300 users
• Use all Microsoft Teams meeting features
• One month free trial available

Limitations

• Missing video editing tools
• No shared workspaces
• Limited Office apps available online and on phones
• Microsoft 365 Copilot is available as an add-on

Pricing

• $6/per month, per user

Microsoft 365 Business Standard plan

Teams needing all the features and advanced tools should consider this plan.

Key features

• Run webinars with registration and reporting
• Use Microsoft Loop for teamwork in collaborative workspaces
• Edit videos with Clipchamp
• Get advanced security tools
• One month free trial available

Limitations

• Higher monthly costs compared to the other plan
• Includes a learning curve
• Some tools may go unused
• Microsoft 365 Copilot is available as an add-on

Pricing

• $12.50/per month, per user

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Pros and Cons of Microsoft Teams Pricing

Microsoft Teams has multiple pricing plans, but does its cost match your needs? Let’s discuss the pros and cons of its pricing strategy.

👍 Pros of Microsoft Teams pricing

The Microsoft Teams plans have compelling benefits, making it an attractive choice. You can:

• Begin with a free plan to gauge its potential
• Get Microsoft 365 apps like OneDrive, Outlook, and Office when you pick Microsoft 365 Business Basic or Microsoft 365 Business Standard plans
• Get 1TB of cloud storage on the Business Basic and Standard plans—plenty of room for documents and media
• Host unlimited group meetings and organize day-long workshops or training sessions
• Enjoy Business Premium features like advanced security and access controls to protect sensitive communications

👎 Cons of Microsoft Teams pricing

Unfortunately, MS Teams has quite a few drawbacks when it comes to its cost structure.

• There is a significant price difference between the Microsoft 365 Business Basic and Microsoft 365 Business Standard plans
• In the Microsoft Teams free version, group calls max out at 60 minutes and 100 participants. This restricts casual users from experiencing Microsoft Teams’ core calling features 
• Features like webinar hosting and video editing need pricier Business Standard or Microsoft Teams Premium subscriptions
• Microsoft 365 Copilot requires extra spending beyond base plan prices
• With so many options and tools, the higher the costs, the more time you spend learning about them 

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Why Consider Alternatives to Microsoft Teams?

While Teams integrates smoothly with Microsoft products, connecting it with non-Microsoft tools can be tricky. This could limit your growth.

Here are four key reasons to consider Microsoft Teams alternatives:

1. Multi-tiered pricing structure

Microsoft Teams pricing plans vary from free to premium paid plans like Microsoft 365 Business Standard. However, some users might find that the required features are only available in higher-tier plans, which can be prohibitive. 

If your organization doesn’t need all the bundled services, you’d still have to pay for more than you use.

2. User interface challenges

Microsoft Teams’ interface packs many features, which can overwhelm users, particularly those new to the ecosystem. Setting it up can be very time-consuming, as no pre-existing structure exists.

You must create channels, determine their names, and align them with relevant teams from scratch. Creating a copy of these channels is also a manual task.

3. Task management limitations

MS Project (a Microsoft Teams project management software product) is a task management integration system. However, you must purchase a separate license to use MS Teams for project management. 

This can challenge smaller teams or those working within a budget. The learning curve is also steep, requiring you to learn multiple applications to fulfill task requirements.

4. Scale and growth bottlenecks

MS Teams caps private channels at 30. For user management, a maximum of 250 members are allowed, with a 200 standard channel limit per team. 

This might seem like a lot at first, but imagine a consulting firm where each client project needs its own standalone channel—they might reach this limit faster than expected.

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ClickUp: A Comprehensive Alternative to Microsoft Teams

Workers toggle between apps 1,200 times a day—nearly 4 hours a week in attention resetting.

Projects, knowledge, and communication scattered across disconnected tools can slow you down. In fact, teams using multiple tools experience higher collaboration challenges, such as a lack of alignment, miscommunication, and trust issues, on top of feeling overwhelmed.

ClickUp can quickly and easily fix this for you. ClickUp combines task management, project management, chat, docs, whiteboards, meetings, and automation in a single platform. This means you don’t need to switch between multiple tools for communication, documentation, and task tracking—everything is centralized.

• Automation and Integrations: Automate repetitive work and integrate with tools like Microsoft Teams if needed
• Task and Project Management: Assign tasks, set priorities, track progress, and manage workflows
• Chat and Communication: Built-in chat for real-time team communication, similar to Teams channels.
• Docs and Knowledge Management: Create, share, and collaborate on documents within your workspace.
• Whiteboards: Visual collaboration for brainstorming and planning.
• Meetings and Clips: Schedule meetings, record async video messages, and use AI for meeting notes and transcription.

Why choose ClickUp over Microsoft Teams?

Imagine your deadline is in an hour. Your tasks are in one app, chats in another, and the latest project timeline is buried in an email thread. With ClickUp, you can link tasks, docs, and timelines in one view, find the updates, and submit your project on time.

While Microsoft Teams focuses mainly on communication, ClickUp brings all your operations under one roof. It offers deeper project and task management, built-in docs, and more robust workflow automation. And, if you’re not yet ready to forgo Teams, you can also use the ClickUp Microsoft Teams integration without having to switch.

For teams using MS Teams as their business messaging app, ClickUp handles project updates, tasks, and discussions in one place—no more scattered information—just organized teamwork.

Here’s how Microsoft Teams integration in ClickUp can be useful:

• Share links of ClickUp Tasks in Teams chats so teammates instantly see task status, priority, and due dates without switching apps
• Turn quick discussions into actionable tasks using the Create Task command
• Receive automatic notifications in Teams for new comments, status changes, and file uploads

Key features

1. Real-time Chat to keep communication on track

ClickUp Chat connects conversations to tasks, projects, and documents to brainstorm. 

Unlike MS Teams, which focuses primarily on discussions, ClickUp attaches context to each chat, making it easier to turn conversations into action items and develop effective communication strategies.

Why ClickUp Chat stands out:

• Convert messages into tasks with one click, ensuring important discussions lead to real results
• Link every chat automatically to related tasks, docs, and updates to avoid losing information

• Use ClickUp AI to suggest answers, summarize chat threads, and create and assign tasks to keep teams organized
• Attach messages to specific tasks and projects so discussions stay relevant and structured
• Create dedicated Spaces to structure conversations by teams, projects, or topics for maximum clarity

2. Visual collaboration with Whiteboards

While MS Teams offers Microsoft Whiteboard as an external tool, ClickUp has a native solution. Users can brainstorm and plan with ClickUp Whiteboards. It helps teams map out ideas, workflows, and strategies in real time. 

You can link tasks directly from the whiteboard and convert ideas into actionable tasks within the same interface.

Additionally, Whiteboard is integrated with ClickUp Chat and ClickUp Project Management. This tool’s dynamic nature improves communication by connecting tasks visually across your workspace, giving your team a chance to brainstorm and collaborate in the same place. 

3. Manage meetings with ClickUp

ClickUp Meetings provides a central spot for storing your notes, action items, and follow-ups and helps you stay organized and accountable. ClickUp AI Notetaker automatically transcribes meetings, summarizes key points, and generates actionable meeting notes—saving your team time and ensuring nothing gets missed.

Here’s how you can host effective meetings: 

• Use advanced formatting options  to highlight key points, structure ideas, and organize meeting insights in an intuitive editor
• Convert meeting comments into assignable tasks to maintain a record and have everyone on the same page about deadlines
• Create meeting agendas as checklists and tick off topics as they are discussed so nothing is overlooked
• Save time by setting up recurring tasks for weekly, monthly, or project-based meetings and planning agendas beforehand
• Take immediate action by using slash commands to format notes, assign tasks, or update meeting docs

4. Manage documents and view tasks in one place

Teams never have to switch between multiple tools to manage their work in ClickUp. You can create and assign tasks from chat, link them to relevant discussions, and collaborate with your team members in ClickUp Docs. 

Team members can work together on Docs in real time using features like typing indicators, comments, and revision tracking. ClickUp Docs also comes with ClickUp AI, which can help with content writing, summarizing, and translating.

To view your work and manage your tasks, you can use ClickUp’s Calendar.

The ClickUp Calendar spots scheduling conflicts, tracks project progress, and adjusts timelines within its ecosystem. Unlike Microsoft Teams’ basic calendar integration, ClickUp’s calendar is more intuitive and offers task-focused scheduling.

You can overlay personal, team, and external calendars (Google, Outlook, Apple) in one view to see all commitments in one place. This allows you to instantly identify which tasks are in progress, overdue, or completed using custom color-coded views.

5. Asynchronous video messaging with ClickUp Clips

For teams that rely on video communication, ClickUp Clips represents a holiday from everyday meetings.

With these, you do not have to worry about maintaining virtual meeting etiquette. Record tutorials or instructions using ClickUp Clips and create a library of important discussions for future reference.

6. Collaboration for contextual feedback

In case of a problem, instead of sending a separate email or pinging a colleague in a different chat, you can use ClickUp Assign Comments to direct the query to them.

Additionally, ClickUp Integrations centralize all your conversations and project-related discussions, helping you stay organized. 

For example, the ClickUp Zoom Integration allows you to start a Zoom call right from a ClickUp task. You can also link meeting recordings and summaries to projects.

Meanwhile, the ClickUp Slack Integration lets you create tasks from Slack messages with one click and sync discussions between the two platforms. 

Pricing overview

ClickUp offers flexible pricing plans that cater to teams of all sizes, providing a cost-effective alternative to Microsoft Teams. Here is the detailed breakdown of the plans:

Free forever plan

The free forever plan includes core project management tools that many teams need.

Key features

• Create unlimited tasks and projects
• Set up custom project templates
• Track time spent on tasks
• Use Gantt charts (limited to 100 uses)
• Get 24/7 live support
• Store up to 100MB of files
• Run 100 automation actions monthly

Unlimited plan

This plan has none of the free tier limits, giving teams more flexibility.

Key features

• Remove all limits on Gantt charts and resource management
• Build custom forms and add Custom Fields 
• Run 1,000 automation actions monthly
• Access unlimited storage
• Create custom project templates 
• Get priority support
• Set up unlimited dashboards

Business plan

The Business plan adds advanced features that Microsoft Teams lacks, such as burndown charts for Scrum teams and custom reporting.

Key features

• Build custom charts and widgets
• Create advanced workflow automations
• Run 10,000 automation actions monthly
• Access advanced time tracking and custom permissions
• Create workload charts and get timeline views

Enterprise plan

The Enterprise plan adds corporation-level security and customization with features suitable for large organizations.

Key features

• Get dedicated onboarding help and access Enterprise API
• Set up unlimited custom roles
• Use single sign-on (SSO)
• Run unlimited automations
• Access custom security features and HIPAA compliance

Take a look at all aspects of ClickUp’s pricing here

Lewis Norwood, Head of Client Relations at Pharmacy Mentor, says:

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Collaborate Better with ClickUp

MS Teams is suitable for those already embedded in the Microsoft ecosystem. You can communicate with others using chat and video options and create focused channels to divide workflow. However, its lack of task management features can be a hurdle for many.

Handling task assignments and progress tracking requires additional tools like Planner or Project, whereas ClickUp comes with built-in task lists, Kanban boards, Gantt charts, and workload views.

Investing in multiple tasks and team management tools can increase overhead expenditures and create confusion. Opting for one platform that integrates everything eliminates these roadblocks.

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