Microsoft Teams Free vs Paid [2024]

Microsoft Teams Free vs Paid – Microsoft Teams, like many other teleconferencing systems, comes in both a free and premium edition. However, in response to the Coronavirus pandemic, the organization recently announced a free six-month trial of its paying Teams plans. As a consequence, you can ask what the difference is between free and premium plans in the first place. We will go over the basics of Office 365 in this guide.

Microsoft Teams Free vs Paid: Let's begin!

Maximum Number of Participants

Is there a limit on how many people will join Microsoft Teams?

Before choosing which remote communication app to use, an admin's first thought is likely to be the maximum participant cap. Let us take a peek at open and paying Teams.

• Free

If you have a big business, MS Teams' paying plan would suffice. The number of users that can be introduced is unlimited. Overall, the business plan's cumulative customers are theoretically unrestricted.

• Paid

For free teams, the maximum number of members was 300, but Microsoft recently expanded it to 500,000 users per company.

Microsoft announced that Teams will now have up to 5,000 employees per team. Big organisations like Accenture (the biggest consumer of Teams) would benefit from the new limit.

File Storage: Microsoft Teams Free vs Paid

Is Microsoft teams providing unrestricted file Storage?

Files exchanged in a channel are saved in a team's SharePoint folder in Microsoft Teams. After that, these files can be found in the fi

The OneDrive folder is where files exchanged in community or private chat are saved. On a chat, this can be found in the files tab.

• Free

MS Teams offers 1 TB of storage per user to its paying customers.

• Paid

MS Teams has 2 GB of disk space per user for free users. Aside from that, they would get an extra 10 GB of shared storage. 

Microsoft Teams Free vs Paid Video Conferencing

What is the duration of a Microsoft Team free meeting?

You will take your meetings to the next level with Microsoft Teams by using email, audio, and video conferencing on every computer.

You will make these meetings more successful by exchanging meaning, information, and enlisting AI's help — all while maintaining Microsoft 365's compliance and security.

• Free

Paying users get additional tools such as note-taking, screen sharing, instant messaging, and meeting scheduling in addition to hosting video, audio, and online conferences. They will host big gatherings and give presentations.

The most often used video conferencing feature has an 8-hour time limit.Microsoft Teams Free:

There are some drawbacks for Microsoft Teams free users when it comes to video conferencing. The free plan, for example, is missing essential functionality like meeting recording and phone calls. In addition, if you are organizing a meeting using a free account, you are limited to 250 guests.

Microsoft Teams vs. Google Docs for Meeting Recording

What are the recording limits for Microsoft Teams meetings?

You will capture interactions with Microsoft Teams by recording them using screen sharing, audio, and video features. The captured videos are saved to Microsoft Stream and therefore are stored in the cloud.

Paid by Microsoft Teams:

In Microsoft Team, recording meetings is simple. All you have to do is host or attend a meeting. Once the session begins, you can go to:

• Meeting controls > More options > Start recording

Users of Microsoft Teams will monitor group calls and meetings. The one-on-one calls, however, cannot be registered at this time.

Another drawback of Microsoft's team tracking function is that joint notes and whiteboards are not registered.

• Free

Meeting documentation, unlike other key features, is only open to Microsoft Teams paying customers. Meetings cannot be recorded by free users. The time of the free meeting with the Microsoft team is 0 minutes.

• Microsoft Teams Free vs Paid SLA Uptime

Microsoft Teams, which is operated by Microsoft, claims to provide clients with a Service Level Agreement. However, this is not the case with all apps.

• Paid

Microsoft Teams gives a service credit SLA against a 99.9% uptime per month SLA to its paying customers. The bulk of Office 365 providers, which also provide a 99.9% SLA, are the same.

• Free

The 99.9% SLA is not guaranteed for free MS Team users. There is no indication of uptime for free users, but it is clear that paying users are prioritized in terms of uptime.

Take a peek at the down detector's list of the most common issues with MS Teams — serve link is at 45 percent.

Microsoft Teams Free vs Paid user Setting Configuration

You can use Microsoft Teams' team policy feature to monitor what each member in your company can do in channels if you are a paying Microsoft Teams user. Overall, you have the ability to monitor and limit their access.

Microsoft Teams Paying: Only Microsoft Teams paid users have access to the user setting configuration tool.

An administrator, for example, may decide if a user is able to find private teams or connections in search results. They may also limit a member's right to build private channels and monitor content display in the team gallery.

MS Teams admin center> Teams policy in Microsoft Teams can be used to control team policies.

• Free

The user setting setup function, like other essential features, is not included in the free plan. To demonstrate this degree of control, you will need to upgrade to the paid package.

Microsoft Teams Free vs Paid Use Reporting

The MS Teams admin centre's usage summary capabilities provide administrators with a summary of user and usage behavior in Teams. A list of active channels, active users, visitors, comments, and more are included in the reports.

It allows administrators to easily see how many users are using the platform to interact, interact, and coordinate around their enterprise.

• Paid

Admins with a paying membership can use a variety of reviews and learn more about how their workers use Teams.

These reports and data can be used to get a clearer understanding of user habits, advise preparation efforts, bridge connectivity holes, and aid in business decisions. You will get the consumption report through:

MS Teams Admin Centre > Analytics & Reports > Usage Reports > Teams Usage

• Microsoft Teams Free

Free users do not have access to the consumption monitoring functionality.

Final thoughts: Microsoft Teams Free vs Paid

In a nutshell, the differences between the free and paid versions of Microsoft Teams boil down to two factors. The highest possible number of members, file storage sizes, and extra features for recording meetings and phone calls are all on the list. You can also find that paying plans come with a slew of additional administrative features.