Slack
slack.com
Work chat that became infrastructure
from $8.75/moFree plan
Microsoft Teams
Chat and meetings inside Microsoft 365
Free plan availableCommunicationSince 2017
from $4/moVisit microsoft.com
What Microsoft Teams is
Chat, meetings, calling and file collaboration bundled with Microsoft 365 — usually adopted because it is already paid for.
What Microsoft Teams has cost
We have read this pricing page 10 times since Aug 2023, including archived copies of it. Each figure below was pulled from the page itself, not from a summary of it.
- $4/mo*Aug 2023 – Jan 2025 · Microsoft Teams Essentials · 4 readings · archived page
- $4.8/moJul 2025 · Microsoft Teams Essentials · 1 reading · archived page
- $4/mo*Jan 2026 – Sept 2026 · Microsoft Teams Essentials · 5 readings · archived page
* That reading is the effective monthly cost when paying for a year up front, which is what the page published at the time.
Gaps are ours, not the vendor's: where a capture was unreadable, or the price could not be tied to a plan at all, no reading was recorded rather than a guess. See every price change we can stand behind.
People use it to
Current offers
Free plan
Free plan, no card required
Ongoing free tier published by the vendor. Limits vary by plan.
Microsoft Teams alternatives
Other tools in communication that cover similar ground. Full comparison.
Where Microsoft Teams sits on price
Entry prices across Communication, cheapest first.
- Discord$2.99
- Microsoft Teams$4
- Twist$6
- Google Meet$7
- Slack$8.75
- Zoom$14.16
- Krisp$16
- CosVoice$29
8 of these 8 prices were read from the vendor's own pricing page. The median is taken across the 8 verified prices in Communication.
Microsoft Teams pricing questions
- How much does Microsoft Teams cost?
- Microsoft Teams starts at $4 a month on its Microsoft Teams Essentials plan, billed annually. That figure was read from microsoft.com's own pricing page on 21 September 2026.
- Does Microsoft Teams have a free plan?
- Yes. Microsoft Teams publishes an ongoing free tier — not a countdown trial. Limits vary by plan, so check what the free tier covers before you commit.
- What is Microsoft Teams used for?
- Chat, meetings, calling and file collaboration bundled with Microsoft 365 — usually adopted because it is already paid for. People mainly use it to chat with a team, run video meetings, share files.
- What are the best alternatives to Microsoft Teams?
- The closest alternatives in the same category are Slack, Zoom, Discord, Google Meet. Discord starts lower at $2.99 a month. Slack, Zoom, Discord and Google Meet publish a free plan.