Teams

What is Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is a unified communications and collaboration platform included with Microsoft 365 and available as a standalone app. It centralizes persistent group chat, threaded conversations, one-to-one messaging, video and audio meetings, cloud calling, shared file storage and application integrations into a single interface that runs on desktop, web and mobile. Teams is aimed at business, education and enterprise customers that need a single hub for teamwork across document collaboration, scheduling, communications and third-party services.

The platform integrates tightly with Microsoft 365 services such as SharePoint, OneDrive, Exchange (Outlook) and Office apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) so files and calendars work seamlessly inside conversations and channels. Administrators control security and compliance through Microsoft 365 and Azure Active Directory, which supports single sign-on (SSO), conditional access and device management.

Microsoft maintains both a free version for small teams and multiple paid tiers bundled with Microsoft 365 plans for businesses and enterprises. The product is also extensible: organizations can add apps, bots and automation through the Microsoft Teams developer platform and the Microsoft Graph API.

Microsoft Teams features

Microsoft Teams bundles several core feature areas designed for team productivity, communication and governance.

What does Microsoft Teams do?

Microsoft Teams provides persistent chat organized by teams and channels, enabling subject-focused conversations and threaded replies. It supports one-to-one and group messaging with rich text, @mentions, message reactions and message pinning.

Teams supports scheduled and ad-hoc video meetings with features such as screen sharing, meeting recording, live captions, background effects and breakout rooms. Meetings integrate with Outlook for scheduling and with OneDrive/SharePoint for meeting recordings and file attachments.

Calling capabilities include PSTN calling (with add-on or carrier integration), call queues, auto attendants, voicemail and direct routing for integrating on-premises telephony. This makes Teams usable as a full cloud PBX replacement for organizations migrating from legacy phone systems.

File collaboration is built-in: files shared in channels are stored in SharePoint, one-to-one chat files are stored in OneDrive, and Office apps are available inline for co-authoring documents without leaving Teams. The platform also includes task and project apps such as Planner and To Do for basic task management.

Extensibility and integrations are a major part of Teams. The platform supports third-party apps, custom tabs, connectors, inbound/outbound webhooks, Microsoft Power Platform (Power Automate, Power Apps), adaptive cards, and bots built on the Microsoft Bot Framework. Developers use the Microsoft Teams developer platform and Microsoft Graph to automate workflows and extend Teams with custom solutions.

Security and compliance features include data encryption at rest and in transit, retention policies, eDiscovery, legal hold, audit logs and support for regulatory standards depending on Microsoft 365 plan level. Administrator controls let IT manage guest access, meeting policies, app permissions and device policies.

Microsoft Teams pricing

Microsoft Teams offers these pricing plans:

• Free: $0 with limitations for small teams and basic chat, meetings and limited storage
• Microsoft Teams Essentials: $4.00/month per user billed monthly for a standalone Teams plan focused on meetings and chat
• Microsoft 365 Business Basic: $6.00/month per user (billed annually) includes Teams plus Exchange email and Microsoft 365 web apps
• Microsoft 365 Business Standard: $12.50/month per user (billed annually) includes desktop Office apps, Teams, and business services
• Microsoft 365 E3: $36.00/month per user (billed annually) adds advanced security, compliance and analytics
• Microsoft 365 E5: $57.00/month per user (billed annually) includes advanced threat protection, phone system and advanced compliance

Check Microsoft Teams' current pricing on the Microsoft comparison and purchase pages: https://www.microsoft.com/en/microsoft-teams/compare-microsoft-teams for the latest rates and enterprise options.

How much is Microsoft Teams per month

Microsoft Teams starts at $4.00/month per user when you choose the standalone Microsoft Teams Essentials plan billed monthly. The free tier remains available at $0, while Microsoft 365-based plans are commonly offered on an annual billing cadence (for example $6.00/month per user for Microsoft 365 Business Basic when billed annually).

Monthly billing and available plan names can vary by region and reseller; for businesses buying Microsoft 365 bundles you will typically see monthly equivalent rates and annual billing options presented during purchase. Check Microsoft Teams' current pricing for localized plans and billing terms at the Microsoft pricing comparison page: https://www.microsoft.com/en/microsoft-teams/compare-microsoft-teams.

How much is Microsoft Teams per year

Microsoft Teams costs $72.00/year per user for Microsoft 365 Business Basic at the standard $6.00/month annual rate, and $150.00/year per user for Microsoft 365 Business Standard at $12.50/month. For enterprise tiers, Microsoft 365 E3 amounts to $432.00/year per user at $36.00/month, and Microsoft 365 E5 is $684.00/year per user at $57.00/month. The standalone Microsoft Teams Essentials plan at $4.00/month equates to $48.00/year if you calculate an annual cost from the monthly rate.

Official billing terms, annual discounts and reseller pricing can change, so check Microsoft Teams' current pricing comparison for exact yearly billing and volume discounts: https://www.microsoft.com/en/microsoft-teams/compare-microsoft-teams.

How much is Microsoft Teams in general

Microsoft Teams pricing ranges from $0 (free) to $57+/month per user. The free version supports small groups with basic chat, meetings and limited file storage. Paid tiers scale from low-cost standalone Teams plans for small businesses ($4.00/month) to Microsoft 365 business bundles that include Exchange email and Office apps ($6.00–$12.50/month for Business Basic and Business Standard), up to enterprise suites with advanced security and telephony ($36–$57+/month). Add-ons such as phone system licensing, audio conferencing, premium compliance and additional storage can increase total cost depending on organization needs.

What is Microsoft Teams used for

Microsoft Teams is used for internal and external communication, hybrid meetings, remote collaboration and replacing or augmenting traditional phone systems. Organizations use Teams to centralize project conversations and files into channel spaces so cross-functional teams have a single contextual place for collaboration. Meetings scheduled through Teams or Outlook join directly in Teams with built-in screen sharing and recording, which reduces friction for both internal and external participants.

Teams is also used as a platform for integrating other business systems into conversational workflows: notifications from CI/CD systems, CRM alerts, ticket updates and document approval flows can be surfaced in channels and acted upon directly. Education customers use Teams for class collaboration, assignment management and virtual classrooms via integrated Teams for Education features.

From a telephony and contact center perspective, Teams can be used as a phone system with PSTN connectivity, enabling desk phone replacements, call routing, auto attendants and voicemail under a consolidated communications policy. This makes it useful for organizations looking to simplify vendor sprawl by keeping messaging, meetings and calling in the Microsoft 365 ecosystem.

Operational teams also rely on Teams for incident response and on-call coordination because it allows rapid group chat, file sharing and threaded discussion along with integrations to monitoring and alerting tools for immediate context.

Pros and cons of Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams offers a rich feature set and deep integration with Microsoft 365, which is an advantage for organizations already invested in the Microsoft ecosystem. Co-authoring Office documents inline, Teams meeting recordings saved to OneDrive/SharePoint, and centralized identity through Azure Active Directory simplify administration and user experience. For large enterprises, the advanced compliance, DLP, eDiscovery and information protection features available in higher-tier Microsoft 365 plans are major benefits.

Teams delivers robust meeting and calling features — background blur, large gallery, live captions, and meeting recordings — and can scale to large company-wide meetings with view-only broadcast modes. The Microsoft Teams developer platform and Microsoft Graph provide extensive extension points for bots, tabs and automation that are useful for internal tools and workflows.

On the downside, Teams can be resource intensive on client machines and mobile devices, and some users report a steep learning curve because it consolidates many different capabilities in one product. Organizations that are not already on Microsoft 365 may face migration effort and licensing complexity when choosing Teams, because the best administrative and compliance features require higher-tier Microsoft 365 plans.

Teams' interface and notification model can also be noisy for users if channel governance and notification settings are not carefully managed. Finally, while integration with third-party apps is strong, some niche or legacy systems require custom development work to integrate equivalently to native Microsoft 365 services.

Microsoft Teams free trial

Microsoft offers a free tier of Teams alongside trial periods for Microsoft 365 subscriptions that include Teams. The free tier provides basic chat, conferencing, file sharing and limited storage, which is often sufficient for small teams and pilot projects. For organizations evaluating paid Microsoft 365 plans, Microsoft provides time-limited trials of Business Basic or Business Standard that unlock features such as Exchange email, additional storage and desktop Office apps.

Trials of Microsoft 365 business plans typically run 1 month and can be initiated from the Microsoft 365 purchase pages; these trials allow administrators to test security, compliance and management capabilities such as conditional access and device management. Trials also give IT teams an opportunity to pilot Teams telephony add-ons and audio conferencing.

Because some advanced features (for example, phone system licensing, Advanced eDiscovery, or certain compliance controls) require additional licensing, it’s important to plan trial scenarios to cover telephony or compliance features you intend to evaluate. Check Microsoft Teams' current trial and evaluation options at Microsoft's subscription and trial pages: https://www.microsoft.com/en/microsoft-teams/compare-microsoft-teams.

Is Microsoft Teams free

Yes, Microsoft Teams offers a free plan that includes unlimited chat, built-in online meetings, 2 GB per user and 10 GB of shared storage, and access to web versions of Office apps. The free plan excludes advanced admin controls, PSTN calling, and some compliance features found in paid Microsoft 365 plans. Organizations can start with the free plan for small teams and upgrade to paid Microsoft 365 subscriptions when they need larger storage, email integration, desktop Office apps or enterprise-class security.

Microsoft Teams API

Microsoft Teams exposes programmatic capabilities primarily through Microsoft Graph and the Microsoft Teams developer platform. The Graph API surfaces REST endpoints for creating and managing teams, channels, messages, meetings, online presence, calls and recordings. Developers can use both delegated and application permissions, set up webhooks for message and channel change notifications, and manage Teams lifecycle and membership programmatically.

The Microsoft Teams developer platform supports building bots (via the Microsoft Bot Framework), custom tabs (web content embedded in Teams), message extensions, adaptive cards and apps that show up inside the Teams app store. Power Platform integration (Power Automate flows, Power Apps) allows citizen developers to automate workflows and build lightweight apps without full-stack development.

Supported SDKs include Microsoft Graph SDKs for multiple languages and Teams client SDKs for JavaScript and mobile platforms. Authentication uses Azure Active Directory with OAuth2, and permissions must be consented by administrators for tenant-wide app usage. For telephony and PSTN integration, the Cloud Communications APIs in Graph provide call control, participant management and media session capabilities for advanced voice scenarios.

Detailed developer documentation, API reference, SDK downloads and sample code are available on the Microsoft Teams developer platform and Microsoft Graph documentation sites: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/platform and https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/graph/teams-concept-overview.

10 Microsoft Teams alternatives

• Slack — Focused on persistent chat and third-party integrations with a simple app-centric interface geared toward engineering and product teams.
• Zoom — Primarily focused on video conferencing and webinars but now offering chat and phone capabilities as well.
• Google Workspace — Integrated email, Drive, Meet and Chat within Google’s ecosystem; strong collaboration on Docs and Drive.
• Cisco Webex — Enterprise-grade meetings, calling and team messaging with strong PSTN and contact-center integrations.
• RingCentral — Cloud communications platform with strong telephony, contact center and messaging features.
• Workplace from Meta — Social collaboration model using company-wide feeds and groups; integrates with Meta tools for enterprise social networking.
• BlueJeans — Video meeting platform with Dolby audio and interoperability with room systems.
• Zoom Phone — Zoom’s cloud PBX offering for organizations focused on telephony.
• GoToConnect — Unified communications with meetings, phone system and messaging aimed at SMBs.
• Flock — Team messaging and collaboration tool aimed at small teams with built-in productivity apps.

Paid alternatives to Microsoft Teams

• Slack: Paid plans provide increased message history, larger file storage and enterprise features like SAML-based SSO and SCIM provisioning.
• Zoom: Paid tiers add larger meeting capacities, webinar hosting, cloud recording storage and phone system features.
• Google Workspace: Paid tiers add business email, additional Drive storage, advanced admin controls and enterprise meet features.
• Cisco Webex: Paid plans include advanced security, PSTN connectors and enterprise device management for hybrid meeting rooms.
• RingCentral: Paid tiers combine cloud PBX, contact center, SMS and team messaging for robust telephony-first deployments.

Open source alternatives to Microsoft Teams

• Mattermost: Open source team messaging system with self-hosting options, extensive integrations and enterprise-grade security controls.
• Rocket.Chat: Community-driven chat platform that can be self-hosted, supports voice/video integrations and strong customization.
• Zulip: Open source threaded team chat optimized for asynchronous communication and long-lived conversations.
• Jitsi: Open source video conferencing focused on meetings and webinars with the option to self-host Jitsi Meet.
• Nextcloud Talk: Part of the Nextcloud suite offering self-hosted audio/video calls and chat tightly coupled with file storage and collaboration.

Frequently asked questions about Microsoft Teams

What is Microsoft Teams used for?

Microsoft Teams is used for project communication, meetings, calling and file collaboration. Teams centralizes chat, video meetings, calling and file sharing in context-specific channels and integrates with Microsoft 365 apps so teams can co-author documents, schedule meetings and manage tasks within the same workspace.

Does Microsoft Teams have a free plan?

Yes, Microsoft Teams offers a free plan that includes basic chat, unlimited one-to-one and group voice/video calls, 2 GB per user and 10 GB of shared storage, and access to web versions of Office apps. The free plan lacks many admin, security and telephony features found in paid Microsoft 365 plans.

How much does Microsoft Teams cost per user per month?

Microsoft Teams starts at $4.00/month per user for the standalone Microsoft Teams Essentials plan billed monthly; Microsoft 365 bundles that include Teams typically start at $6.00/month per user when billed annually for Microsoft 365 Business Basic. Enterprise suites with advanced security and phone capabilities range up to $57.00/month per user for Microsoft 365 E5.

Can Microsoft Teams replace a traditional phone system?

Yes, Microsoft Teams can function as a cloud phone system with appropriate licensing and PSTN connectivity. Organizations add Phone System licenses and either Microsoft Calling Plans, Direct Routing or operator connect options to enable inbound/outbound calling and advanced call routing features.

Does Microsoft Teams integrate with Outlook and SharePoint?

Yes, Microsoft Teams integrates deeply with Outlook and SharePoint. Calendar events created in Outlook can include Teams meeting links, and files shared in Teams channels are stored in SharePoint document libraries with OneDrive used for one-to-one chat files, enabling seamless co-authoring and file management.

Can I build custom apps for Microsoft Teams?

Yes, Microsoft Teams supports custom apps via the Microsoft Teams developer platform. Developers use Microsoft Graph, the Bot Framework, tabs, message extensions and adaptive cards to create bots, custom tabs and workflow integrations that run inside Teams. The platform supports SDKs for JavaScript, .NET and other languages.

Is Microsoft Teams secure for enterprise use?

Yes, Microsoft Teams meets enterprise security and compliance requirements when used with the appropriate Microsoft 365 plan. Features include Azure Active Directory authentication, conditional access, encryption in transit and at rest, DLP, eDiscovery and audit logging; higher-tier plans add advanced threat protection and compliance capabilities.

Can external guests join Microsoft Teams meetings and channels?

Yes, Microsoft Teams supports guest access and external meeting participants. Administrators can allow guest users from other organizations in teams and channels or permit external meeting attendees via meeting invitations; guest permissions and sharing settings can be controlled centrally by IT.

Does Microsoft Teams work on mobile and web?

Yes, Microsoft Teams is available on Windows, macOS, web browsers and mobile apps for iOS and Android. The web client covers most collaboration scenarios, while native apps provide richer capabilities such as background effects in meetings and better offline caching for messages and files.

How do I get admin controls and reporting for Microsoft Teams?

Microsoft Teams administration and reporting are handled through the Microsoft 365 admin center and Teams admin center. Administrators use those consoles to manage user settings, policies, app permissions, device configurations, compliance settings and activity reports; audit logs and advanced analytics are available depending on the Microsoft 365 subscription level.

microsoft.teams careers

Microsoft maintains a broad set of engineering, product, customer success and sales roles focused on Teams and the broader Microsoft 365 family. Career opportunities range from client and services engineering to reliability and operations roles that ensure large-scale real-time services run with high availability. Positions often highlight experience with distributed systems, real-time media (VoIP), security, identity (Azure AD) and large-scale web services. Candidates can find openings through Microsoft’s careers portal and should review role-specific qualifications and relocation/remote work options.

microsoft.teams affiliate

Microsoft offers partner and reseller programs that include incentives and co-selling opportunities for Microsoft Teams and Microsoft 365. Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) partners, Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and independent software vendors can integrate Teams into managed offerings or build and distribute Teams apps through the Microsoft AppSource and Teams store. Affiliates and partners must follow Microsoft’s partner program terms and can access technical enablement, marketing resources and commercial incentives.

Where to find Microsoft Teams reviews

User reviews and product comparisons for Microsoft Teams are available on technology review sites such as G2, Gartner Peer Insights and TrustRadius, as well as general tech press coverage. For hands-on evaluation, many organizations pilot the free Teams plan or trial Microsoft 365 subscriptions. Vendor-provided case studies and third-party benchmark reports can help assess performance, adoption and total cost of ownership for different deployment scenarios.

For official feature, pricing and developer documentation consult Microsoft’s Teams pages and developer docs: https://www.microsoft.com/en/microsoft-teams/compare-microsoft-teams and https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/platform.