Microsoft Teams and Zoom are two of the most popular video conferencing solutions available today. These top providers offer robust, reliable remote meeting solutions for team collaboration and communication. Both Zoom and Microsoft Teams are also excellent platforms for conducting virtual events.
The right video conferencing solution for you will depend on your specific business needs. This review offers a head-to-head comparison of Microsoft Teams vs. Zoom so you can make an informed choice for your business.
Microsoft Teams vs. Zoom: At a Glance
Microsoft Teams
Free plan
Available
Paid plans range
$4 to $12.50
per month per user
Participant capacity
Up to 1,000 active participants
Available
$4 to $12.50
per month per user
Up to 1,000 active participants
- Free plan available
- More affordable paid plans than Zoom
- Its free plan has a higher time limit than Zoom
- 30-day free trial for paid plans
- Strong reputation for security
- Annual subscription required
- Can be glitchy
- Non-Microsoft app integrations limited
Zoom
Free plan
Available
Paid plans range
$100 to $125
per year per user (plus $159.90 per year per license for Zoom Workplace)
Participant capacity
Up to 1,000
Available
$100 to $125
per year per user (plus $159.90 per year per license for Zoom Workplace)
Up to 1,000
- Excellent video and audio quality
- Easy to set up and use
- 1,000+ app integrations available
- Paid plans are pricey
- Free version limits group meetings to 40 minutes
How Microsoft Teams and Zoom Stack Up
| Microsoft Teams | Zoom Meetings | |
|---|---|---|
|
Price
|
$0 to $12.50 per month, per user
|
$100 to $125 per year per user (plus $159.90 per year per license for Zoom Workplace)
|
|
Participant Capacity
|
Up to 1,000 (or 19,000 in view only)
|
Up to 1,000
|
|
Meeting Time Limits
|
Up to 60 minutes on free plan; 24 hours on paid plans
|
Up to 40 minutes on free plan; 30 hours on paid plans
|
|
Voice Calling
|
✔
|
✔
|
|
Screen, App and Document Sharing
|
✔
|
✔
|
|
Whiteboard
|
✔
|
✔
|
|
Breakout Rooms
|
✔
|
✔
|
|
Customized Backgrounds
|
✔
|
✔
|
|
Chat
|
✔
|
✔
|
|
Meeting Filters
|
Filters available for appearance and lighting
|
Filters available for appearance and lighting
|
|
Record Meetings
|
On paid plans
|
On all plans
|
|
Meeting Transcripts
|
Available for scheduled meetings with paid plans
|
Available on Business and Enterprise plans
|
|
Host Webinars
|
Available with Microsoft 365 Business Standard plan
|
Available with Zoom Events and Webinar plans
|
|
Cloud File Storage
|
10 GB per license on all plans; paid plans offer 1 TB per organization
|
1 GB to unlimited
|
|
Integrations
|
250+
|
1,000+
|
|
User Reporting and Analytics
|
On paid plans
|
On paid plans
|
Microsoft Teams and Zoom share many of the same features. Both providers offer screen and app sharing, whiteboards, chat, voice calling, customized backgrounds, breakout rooms, meeting recordings and the ability to record sessions. Microsoft Teams and Zoom both offer free plans and paid plans that cost $20 or less per license.
Featured Partners
1
RingCentral
$20 per user, per month (paid annually)
Yes
Yes
2
Zoom Phone
Starts at $10 per user, per month
Yes
Yes
3
Nextiva
$18.95 per user, per month
Yes
Yes
In Zoom’s paid plans, meetings can last up to 30 hours, which is the same limit with Microsoft Teams. However, Microsoft Team users on the free plan are limited to 60-minute meetings. Whereas Zoom gives its free users just 40 minutes for group meetings but up to 30 hours for one-to-one sessions.
File storage varies by provider plan; Zoom’s top plan offers unlimited file storage, while Microsoft Team caps storage at 1 TB per organization and 10 GB per license.
Zoom offers filters for appearance and lighting adjustments, and Microsoft Teams recently added a similar feature. While neither module can make up for terrible lighting and a bad webcam, they can be useful in at least softening up unflattering images.
Pricing
The chart below breaks down what you get with each Microsoft Teams plan. The main differences are meeting duration limits, participant capacity, file storage and the Microsoft apps you gain access to with each plan. Note that Office 365 E3 is the only plan that allows you to host large-capacity events.
| Microsoft Teams | Microsoft 365 Business Essentials | Microsoft 365 Business Basic | Microsoft 365 Business Standard | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Price*
|
$0
|
$4 per month, per user
|
$6 per month, per user
|
$12.50 per month, per user
|
|
Group Meeting Max Duration
|
60 minutes
|
30 hours
|
30 hours
|
30 hours
|
|
Max Meeting Participant Capacity
|
100 | 300 | 300 | 300 |
|
Office Apps and Services Included (in Addition to Teams)
|
None
|
None
|
Exchange, OneDrive, SharePoint, Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint
|
Exchange, OneDrive, SharePoint, Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher (PC only), and Access (PC only)
|
|
Personal File Storage and Sharing with OneDrive
|
–
|
10 GB per user
|
1 TB per user
|
1 TB per user
|
|
Host Online Events
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
Yes
|
*All Microsoft paid plans require an annual subscription.
What’s unusual about Microsoft Teams is that paid plans start at $5 per month, which is quite low for a premium video conferencing solution. This makes Microsoft the winner in the Microsoft Teams vs. Zoom category of “lowest price” for premium plans.
With Microsoft Teams premium plans, you get the virtual meeting app plus access to other Microsoft software, which only adds to the value you receive. The one catch is that paid plans require an annual subscription. Microsoft offers a 30-day trial on all paid plans, though, so you can try premium plans before you commit.
In addition to its free plan, Zoom offers three paid plans. The chart below details the key differences among the plans.
| Zoom Basic | Zoom Pro | Zoom Business | Zoom Business Plus | Zoom Enterprise | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Price
|
$0
|
$159.84 per year, per user
|
$219.84 per year, per user
|
$269.88 per year, per user
|
Custom quote
|
|
Group Meeting Max Duration
|
40 minutes
|
30 hours
|
30 hours
|
30 hours
|
30 hours
|
|
One-to-One Meeting Max Duration
|
30 hours
|
30 hours
|
30 hours
|
30 hours
|
30 hours
|
|
Max Participant Capacity
|
100 | 100 | 300 | 300 | 500 |
|
Min Number of Licenses Required
|
1 | 1 | 10 | 10 | 50 |
|
Large Meeting Add-On
|
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Zoom’s Large Meeting Add-On starts at $50 per month and allows you to expand meeting capacity to up to 1,000 participants. Zoom offers a separate plan called Zoom Events and Webinars that allows you to host programs with up to 10,000 event participants. Zoom’s large-event plans start at $79 per month per license.
Set Up and Ease of Use
If your team already has a Microsoft Office 365 Business or Business Standard subscription, you already have access to Microsoft Teams. You must have a Teams account to set up, schedule and invite participants to a meeting. You can schedule a meeting via chat or through your Outlook calendar.
You don’t need a Microsoft Teams account to attend meetings. How you’ll connect to sessions depends on whether you plan to access the meeting with a desktop or a mobile device.
When participating in a Teams meeting via a mobile device, you first need to download the Teams app to your phone or tablet. If you’re connecting to a meeting on your desktop, simply click on the meeting invite link and you’ll be given two options: download the Windows app or join on the web instead. As long as you use either Microsoft Edge or Google Chrome, you can join on the web without downloading anything.
Setting up a Microsoft Teams meeting is relatively straightforward but interacting with different Office 365 applications along with Teams meetings may involve a short learning curve. Some non-Teams account holders find the premeeting app download a bit confusing. Also, there have been complaints about Microsoft Teams’ reliability—especially from Mac users. The Microsoft Team’s app can be buggy, and there’s not sufficient support from Microsoft to correct issues in real time, especially if you’re using the free plan.
Zoom has a reputation for being easy to use, which is one reason it’s skyrocketed in popularity. You need a Zoom account to set up and schedule meetings, but not to attend them. Every meeting invite includes a prompt to download the Zoom Meetings app, though users can connect via a web app if they prefer. Browsers supported include Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Chromium Edge 80 or higher, Firefox 76 or Higher and Microsoft Edge.
Connecting to Zoom meetings through the Zoom app is highly recommended, as it provides a better overall user experience. The Zoom Meeting app is available for Android, Apple iOS, Linux, Microsoft Windows and Apple’s macOS.
While the process for joining a Zoom meeting is similar to Microsoft Teams, many users find the process with Zoom a bit more straightforward and the overall meeting experience relatively glitch-free.
Integrations
All Microsoft Team plans come with web versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Both Microsoft 365 Business Basic and Business Standard come with desktop versions of Microsoft Teams, Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access and Publisher. With Microsoft Business Standard, you also get access to SharePoint Online, Yammer, Planner, Stream and Microsoft Bookings.
Microsoft Teams integrates with 250+ apps, including Salesforce, Asana, Trello, MindMeister, Smartsheet, Poll Everywhere, SurveyMonkey and Priority Matrix, which all offer a Teams-specific integration option.
Zoom integrates with over 1,000 apps. The Zoom App Marketplace features apps in various business categories such as PeopleOps, Marketing, Collaboration, CRM, Finance, Sales, Scheduling, Transcriptions, Telehealth and more. Popular apps include Pardot, Marketo, Calendly, InterviewPlanner, Stripe, TeamUp, Eventbrite, Salesforce, Vimeo and Miro.
Security
Microsoft has a stellar reputation for data and user security, and the Microsoft Team’s app is no exception. Microsoft Teams uses multi-factor authentication plus rest and in-transit encrypted data to protect its users.
Zoom features 256-bit TLS and AES-256 encryption. Optional end-to-end encryption is also available and is highly recommended.
In 2020, the Zoom platform incurred several highly publicized security breaches referred to as Zoombombing. Intruders were breaking into Zoom meetings and causing disruptions. Zoom was proactive in addressing security risks and has implemented several new security features. New layers of verification are now in place, as are improvements to the waiting room, which allows hosts to screen would-be participants and block those who don’t belong.
Customer Support
The free Microsoft Teams plan offers customer support through the online help center. Paid plan members can also receive 24/7 support via email or chat. Phone support is available for all paid plan members between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. Pacific time.
The free Zoom plan also only offers support through its online help center. Zoom Pro plan members can receive support via email tickets or live chat, while Zoom Business and Enterprise plan members can access support via phone.
Bottom Line
Zoom is our top video conferencing platform recommendation for several reasons. Zoom offers exceptional online video conference quality, robust business features, extensive integrations and is widely considered the most user-friendly virtual meeting solution on the market today. Zoom also lets hosts scale their meetings to up to 1,000 participants.
Microsoft Teams is best for those who are already Office 365 users and those needing a lower-cost alternative to Zoom’s basic premium plan.
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Frequently Asked Questions
How do I set up video conferencing with Zoom?
To join a video conference using Zoom, you need a webcam, microphone and speakers. While you don’t need a Zoom account, you do need to download its software before joining or hosting a call. To set up a conference room in your office, contact a rep with the video conference service.
What is the best video conferencing software?
There are a wealth of video conferencing options on the market that offer unique features at affordable prices. Forbes Advisor breaks down the best video conferencing apps and found that Zoom, Google Meet, and TeamViewer as strong options for businesses that need to stay connected.
What is video conferencing?
Video conferencing is a type of virtual, online meeting where two or more people talk through a video and audio call in real time.
Do you need a Zoom account to join a meeting?
No. While the person who starts a meeting and invites you will need an account, participants aren’t required to sign up for Zoom.
What are some essential features to consider when choosing a video conferencing platform?
When choosing between video conferencing platforms, such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams, the first consideration will often be pricing. Since both providers offer free plans, you need to consider how much those free plans meet your needs and if the added costs are worth it to you. Some of the features you need or may want to have include in-meeting collaboration tools, such as screen sharing, as well as video and audio conferencing limits, cloud storage, ease of use, access to whiteboards, scheduling, mobile app access, and more.
