With over 320 million monthly active users, Microsoft Teams is one of the world’s biggest video conferencing software available. It caters to a wide range of businesses and, as a result, offers different pricing plans to suit multiple types of businesses.
In this article, we’ll discuss how Microsoft Teams pricing works, their different plans, and how to save money on the plans. We also discuss other video conferencing alternatives that may be better suited for your business.
For teams on a budget, Microsoft offers a freemium plan that comes with basic collaboration and productivity tools. The higher-tiered plans offer more advanced, premium features for organizations that need more than the basics.
Here are different Microsoft Teams Plans we’ll cover:
Microsoft Teams Free
Microsoft Teams Essential
Microsoft 365: Business Basic
Microsoft 365: Business Standard
Microsoft 365: Business Premium
Microsoft Teams Free: What’s included and should you choose it?
What users can do for free
Hour-long meetings for up to 100 users per month
Unlimited chats with friends and family
5 GB of cloud storage
What users can’t do vs. paid plans
Limited meeting duration
Limited storage limits
No advanced administrative controls
Can businesses use it?
Suitable for small businesses with basic collaboration needs
How does it compare to Lark’s free plan?
With Lark, you get automatic language translation in real time to allow users from all over the world to communicate easily
100 GB storage, compared to Microsoft Teams’ 5 GB of storage
Meeting recordings and transcriptions
Unlimited chats and complete message history
Hour-long meetings for up to 50 users per month
Custom and secure business email address
Access to Lark’s entire suite of collaboration features for free
Microsoft Teams Essentials: What’s included and should you choose it?
What users can do
Unlimited group meetings for up to 30 hours
10 GB of cloud storage per user
Data encryption for meetings, chats, and calls
What users can’t do vs. other paid plans
Lack of additional features present in higher-tiered plans
Limited storage limits
No access to Office 365 applications
No custom business email address
What sort of business may benefit from using this plan?
Appropriate for small businesses requiring essential collaboration tools
Microsoft 365 Business Basic: What’s included and should you choose it?
What users can do
All features available in Microsoft Teams Essentials
Access to web and mobile versions of Office 365 software (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook)
1 TB of cloud storage per user
Custom business email address
What users can’t do vs. other paid plans
No desktop version of Office 365 software
No webinars with attendee registration
What sort of business may benefit from using this plan?
Suitable for mid-sized businesses needing essential collaboration and productivity tools
How does it compare to Lark’s Pro plan?
All features present in Lark’s free plan
You get access to Lark’s unlimited Wiki base, which allows you to write and edit rich content and key information for your team in different formats on a single searchable source
1 TB of storage
Up to 500 participants
24-hour meeting duration
Advanced video conferencing features
Advanced permission control
Microsoft 365 Business Standard: What’s included and should you choose it?
What users can do
All features available in Microsoft 365 Business Basic
Desktop version of Office 365 software for offline use
Collaborative workspaces to co-create using Microsoft Loom
Additional features for video editing and design with Clipchamp
What users can’t do vs. Business Premium
No cyber threat protection
Standard security compared to Business Premium's advanced security features
No access and data control
What sort of business may benefit from using this plan?
Suitable for large businesses requiring advanced productivity and collaboration features
Microsoft 365 Business Premium: What’s included and should you choose it?
What users can do
All features available in Business Standard
Online and desktop versions of Office 365 applications
Basic video editing
Advanced security features
Cyberthreat protection
What users can’t do at this level
Doesn't include full access to Dynamic 365 applications
Doesn't include full access to the Power Platform
Doesn’t include unlimited cloud storage
Is it worthwhile for businesses?
Microsoft 365 Business Premium is Ideal for companies that need top-tier collaboration, productivity, and security features. While it could work for smaller businesses and startups, the Premium plan might be a bit more than they really need. Mid-sized and large enterprises stand to gain the most from the advanced collaboration, safety, and administrative tools it offers.
How does it compare to Lark’s Enterprise plan?
All features present in Lark’s Pro plan
Lark Enterprise allows up to 50,000 users, compared with Microsoft Teams Premium’s 20,000 users
10 TB of storage
Unlimited email storage
Single Sign-on
Advanced security
5 ways to save money on Microsoft Teams pricing
Working with Microsoft Teams can be expensive, especially for larger organizations. Here are five ways to save money on Microsoft Teams pricing plans:
1. Downgrade plans or remove add-ons
A great way to save money on Microsoft Teams pricing is by downgrading your Teams plans to use only the features your team needs. While it can be tempting to get all available features, paying for features your team rarely uses is a waste of money.
For example, if your team contains seven members and uses Microsoft Teams to make 30-minute video calls, you may be better off using the Free plan rather than paying $28 monthly for all seven members for Microsoft Teams Essential. Picking the right plan based on the features you need is vital.
2. Pay annually
Paying for your Microsoft Teams subscription annually comes with significant discounts compared to paying monthly. In general, the longer the subscription duration, the cheaper it is. Take advantage of the annual subscription discounts to save more money.
3. Limit the number of users
As Microsoft Teams subscriptions are based on the number of users, limiting the number of users to only key members can help your business save a lot of money.
Also, you can mix and match different Microsoft Teams subscriptions for your team. Not every member requires the full suite of features; therefore, you can use a lower-tiered plan for those who don’t and a higher-tiered plan for core members.
4. Utilize Microsoft 365 bundles
If your team already uses Microsoft 365 software such as Word and Excel, you can bundle your Teams subscription with a Microsoft 365 plan. As a joint bundle, it may be more cost-effective and can help your team save money rather than getting stand-alone licenses.
5. Switch to Lark and unsubscribe from Teams
Lark offers a suite of collaborative tools for video conferencing, task management, calendar integration, and more under a single payment plan. These advanced features help your team complete more work without switching from one software to another.
It is estimated that Lark Pro can help your business save up to $25,200 by replacing three of your existing business tools, such as Microsoft Teams, GSuite, and Zoom.
Lark: Better features at a better price
Software subscriptions can get expensive, with the total market size expected to exceed $1 billion in 2024. A major contributor is that businesses often end up using several different tools. This often results in inefficiency and security risks, as team members need to switch from one software to another multiple times.
Microsoft Teams is a good video conferencing software; however, there’s little else it can do.
Alternatively, Lark is an all-in-one collaborative platform designed to help your team meet ALL its collaboration needs under a single ecosystem and payment plan. For video conferencing, task management, document collaboration, calendar scheduling, transcriptions, and more, Lark is the only software you need.
Lark helps turn meetings into collaborative experiences, allowing you to share live docs, which team members can scroll and edit at their own pace in real time. Lark automatically transcribes your meetings into meeting notes, which can be downloaded and accessed later. You can also make team meeting recordings with transcripts. This helps your team stay focused on collaborating and not just taking notes during meetings.
Lark also offers real-time language translations, allowing team members who speak different languages to easily communicate in their native language. Hosting large teams? No problem. With Lark, you can hold video calls with up to 1,000 participants and 50 breakout sessions for closed-door discussions.
These features, alongside the expansive suite of Lark creative tools, help your business save money, become more efficient, and get more work done.
Common FAQs for Microsoft Teams pricing
Which is better: Zoom, Google Meets, Microsoft Teams, or Lark?
The software you choose depends on what your key goals are. In general, Zoom, Google Meets, and Microsoft Teams offer very similar features for video conferencing.
In addition to video conferencing, Lark offers a comprehensive suite of productivity and collaboration tools under a single plan. These tools help your business with video conferencing, calendar management, task management, chats and messaging, document collaboration, and more.
In addition, Lark offers superior video conferencing tools, such as real-time language translations, automated transcriptions, and real-time document sharing for collaborative planning.
What support is included in the Free, Essentials, Business Basic, Business Standard, and Business Premium plans?
With the Free plan, you only get community-based support
For the Essentials plan, you get phone and web support
For the Business Basic and Business Standard plans, you get a 99.99% financially-backed uptime guarantee
For the Business Premium plan, you get phone and web support and a 99.99% financially-backed uptime guarantee
Can I add or remove users during the subscription period?
All you need to do is sign up to your Microsoft 365 admin center, navigate to the user management section, and add or remove the user you’d like.
Which Microsoft Teams plan is best for small businesses?
The free plan is a good option for small businesses. If your business needs more collaboration and security features, it may be best to opt for one of the paid plans.
Video conferencing made easy with Lark
Deciding on which of the Microsoft Teams Plans will serve your business the best can be a hassle. With the number of plans and their respective features, it’s easy to get overwhelmed.
Another common problem facing businesses is the need for different software for team collaboration. Multiple subscriptions can increase security risks, inefficiency, and wasted money.
All-in-one collaboration software such as Lark helps solve this issue by offering a suite of business tools under single and affordable payment plans. Covering everything from scheduling tasks to holding video conferences, Lark is your best bet.
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