Compare Microsoft Teams’ Three Versions

Multiple companies shifted to remote work over the last two years, realigning their digital tools by necessity.  Modern meetings default to video conference instead of in person. Working from home offices and collaborating over large distances are now commonplace. 

Over seventy percent of remote workers claim higher productivity at their home offices, largely due to less distractions.  85% of managers who answered the survey believe that remote workers on their teams is the new normal.

Remote working presents challenges, though.  Employees can feel disconnected and customers can feel shut out. To prevent this deep disconnect, businesses need to use cloud communication tools.  Microsoft Teams has skyrocketed in popularity since the deep shifts in work began.

Microsoft Teams daily active users rose from 75 million to 145 million between April 2020 and April 2021

Microsoft Teams presents an all in one communication platform, combining multiple channels for collaboration instead of just video conferencing or just chat.  It functions as a hub for several different capabilities

Some of the key features of MS Teams include:

  • Audio and video calls
  • Webinar registration & attendance reporting
  • Team chat divisible into channels
  • File sharing and storage
  • In-app collaboration in Word, Excel, PPT, and other MS apps
  • In-app collaboration in multiple 3rd party applications
  • Tabs that allow teams to link apps and websites within a channel
  • Status notification and alerts
  • Compatible with all devices

Evolution of MS Teams

Once, anyone using Microsoft Teams had to get it through a Microsoft 365 subscription.  Microsoft wanted to improve Teams’ popularity so it could compete with other video conferencing apps, like Zoom. To accomplish that, Microsoft offered a free version with stripped down features in 2018.

The free version increased the service’s total user base. Users grew frustrated, though, with the gap between the features of the free and the paid subscription version.  Of course, the free version offered less flexibility and much less support.

Microsoft noticed that it had completely overlooked an important market segment, small businesses.  Entrepreneurs of small businesses had too much load to rely on the free model that didn’t offer much time for group meetings. Nor could they often afford the full M365 subscription.

Anxious to provide for every market segment, the third plan for MS Teams hit in December 2021.  Microsoft hoped that it would be the just right solution for smaller companies that still needed the same collaboration tools needed to compete effectively.  The small business plan goes by the name Teams Essentials and nobody needs to pay for Microsoft 365 to get it.

Comparison: Free vs Teams Essentials vs M365

You’ll need to know the differences between these three MS Teams plans in order to pick the right one for your company and situation.

Free Microsoft Teams Version

The free MS Teams version was really meant for the residential and home user market segment. These people were completely missing from the Teams userbase prior to the free version, so it was designed to get them into the system.

This version features:

  • Unlimited participant 60 min group meetings
  • 100 participants per meeting available
  • 5GB of cloud storage per user
  • Unlimited chat
  • File sharing, tasks, and polling
  • Data encryption for all files, calls, meetings, and chats
  • Co-authoring capabilities
  • Ability to add tabs inside group channels

The major problem with the free version for most businesses is the 60-minute limit on group video meetings. The 5GB cloud storage is also pretty puny for business use of Teams.

Microsoft Teams Essentials

Teams Essentials costs $4/user/month for a product designed specifically for small businesses who don’t want to pay big business price.

Teams Essentials offers everything in the free version, plus:

  • 30 hours for each unlimited group meeting
  • Up to 300 participants per meeting
  • 10GB of cloud storage per user
  • Anytime phone and web support

30 hours per meeting is sufficient for even all day meetings. Each user gets twice the storage cloud space, and this one actually comes with both phone and web support.

Microsoft 365 Teams

Microsoft 365’s basic version comes in at $6.00 per user per month, which is two dollars more than Essentials per user.  However, that’s only for the Basic package featuring web only Office apps instead of allowing their download.

The next tier is Microsoft 365 Business Standard, coming in at $12.50 per user per month, which can get expensive quick.  However, that one does include the full downloadable Office suite.

These plans offer the following features:

  • Everything in the Essentials version
  • Office applications (either web or web & downloadable)
  • All the many M365 cloud apps (OneDrive, Forms, SharePoint, OneNote, and many others)
  • 1TB of cloud storage per user
  • Webinar hosting
  • Customer appointment management
  • Premium security features

If you are planning to use Microsoft Office software and other applications, then it makes sense to get Teams along with an M365 subscription. However, if your business already owns the offline version of the Office suite or does not need it, then Teams Essentials offers a lot of capabilities with a lower price tag.

Why Is This Published By A Business Phone Company?

Here at NoContractVoIP, we believe that your success creates our success. And, since we specialize in business communication, we work to help you communicate better while staying safe. We create the cutting edge communication systems that modern companies need. And we geek out on tech stuff, so we study it for you.

To talk to a business phone system specialist and never worry about any of this again, call 866-550-0005 or contact us today.

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