Microsoft Team Plan Comparison: Free vs M365 Business vs Team Essentials 

Microsoft Team Plan Comparison: Free vs M365 Business vs Team Essentials

The shift to remote work has forced companies to realign digital tools used in their daily work. Face-to-face meetings are replaced with video conferencing as working from home becomes commonplace.

Seventy-seven remote workers say that they are more productive working from home compared to the office. There are fewer distractions at home and there is also significant time saved from commuting, resulting in more productive working hours. 85% of surveyed managers expect that remote working will be the new normal.

Remote working has its fair share of challenges, among them is the feeling of disconnection between employees and customers. To prevent this, companies use cloud-based communication tools such as Microsoft Teams.

The number of Microsoft Teams active users has risen significantly from 75 million to 145 million, from April 2020 to April 2021.

Teams is a complete communication platform, offering conversational interactions, teleconferencing, and more. It combines several features into an online work hub for effective collaboration and communication.

Key features of Microsoft Teams:

• Video and audio calls
• Team chat
• Webinar registration and attendance reporting
• File storage and sharing
• In-app collaboration in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more
• In-app collaboration with third-party apps
• Link to apps and websites inside a channel
• Status notification and alerts
• Supports multi-device

Microsoft Teams Evolution

Microsoft Teams was originally restricted to Microsoft 365 subscribers. To compete with similar video conferencing apps, Microsoft introduced a free version of MS Teams in 2018 with fewer features.

The introduction of MS Teams’ free version helped attract more MS Teams users. However, there was an enormous difference between the paid version and the free version.

Microsoft discovered an important target audience that it was lacking, small business users. These small businesses generally were using the free version of Teams. The free version had extremely limited group meeting timing, lack of support, and fewer features. An alternative would be to subscribe to the full version, which requires a Microsoft 365 subscription.

In December 2021, Teams Essentials was introduced for smaller companies that needed similar collaboration and networking tools. This plan does not require a Microsoft 365 subscription and can be purchased standalone.

Team Essentials vs Teams Free vs M365 Business Plan

We’ll explain the differences between the Microsoft Teams plans so you can tell which one would make the most sense for your company.

Microsoft Teams Free Version

The free version of Microsoft Teams was created for personal users. As Microsoft Teams was initially meant for business users, personal users have never been the audience for this tool. With the free version, personal users can now use this tool for basic collaboration and communication.

Features of MS Teams Free Version:

• Unlimited group meetings for up to 60 minutes
• Up to 100 participants per meeting
• 5GB of cloud storage per user
• Unlimited chat
• Fire sharing, task and poll
• Data encryption for calls, files, meetings, chats
• Co-authoring capabilities
• Ability to add tabs inside group channels

The limitation of the free version is the 60-minute time limit for on-record video conferences. The 5GB data storage limit is also a big limitation for business use of Teams. The free version is perfect for personal use or very light business usage.

Microsoft Teams Essential

Teams Essentials is designed specifically for companies that do not subscribe to Microsoft 365 but need a sound collaboration tool to keep their teams connected and productive. Teams Essential is priced at $4 per user per month. Features of Teams Essentials:

• Everything in the free version plus:
• Unlimited group meetings for up to 30 hours
• Up to 300 participants per meeting
• 10GB cloud storage per user
• Phone and web support

The 30-hour meeting duration will be sufficient to fulfil the needs of any online meeting or discussion. There is higher cloud storage space and support assistance when required. This plan is perfect for small business users requiring basic collaboration tools with a higher meeting limit.

Teams with Microsoft 365

This version of Teams with Microsoft 365 is available with any business plan. The lowest cost of the plan is $6 per user per month. It comes with downloadable Office apps on the web. There is another version which would be the Microsoft 365 Business Standard at $12.50 per user per month, which includes downloadable Office apps. Features of Teams with Microsoft 365:

• Everything in Teams Essential plus:
• Office applications (web or download version)
• All M365 cloud apps (OneDrive, Forms, SharePoint, OneNote etc)
• 1TB cloud storage per user
• Webinar hosting
• Customer appointment management
• Premium security features

If you are using Microsoft Office software and other applications, it may be worth getting Teams along with Microsoft 365 subscription. However, if you already own the offline version of the Office suite, you can opt for Teams Essential with a lower price tag.

Get Help to set up MS Teams and Other Cloud Tools

Today’s hybrid offices and remote teams require a powerful and robust collaboration tool to facilitate their work. Reach out if you would like help with setting up MS Teams or another cloud tool. We can assist you to get started right away with the tools of your choice.