Microsoft Teams combines video conferencing software with team collaboration tools. The communications platform allows MS Office users to conduct conference calls and share files via SharePoint, and join or initiate a group chat.
$4.80
per month per user
Whereby
Score 9.8 out of 10
N/A
Norwegian company appear.in offers their flagship video conferencing platform to small teams, both in a free edition hosting up to 4 guests simultaneously in a session or a paid edition that supports up to 12 simultaneous meeting guests, among other features.
$0
per user
Pricing
Microsoft Teams
Whereby
Editions & Modules
Microsoft Teams Essentials
$4.80
per month per user
Microsoft Teams Enterprise
$5.25
per month (paid yearly) per user
Microsoft Teams Enterprise
$5.25
per month per user
Microsoft 365 Business Basic
$7.20
per month per user
Microsoft 365 Business Standard
$15
per month per user
Free
$0
per user
Pro
$9.99
per user
Business
$59.99 and up
per user/room
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Microsoft Teams
Whereby
Free Trial
Yes
Yes
Free/Freemium Version
Yes
Yes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No
No
Entry-level Setup Fee
No setup fee
No setup fee
Additional Details
Discounts are available for non profit organizations.
When compared to the other VC platforms, we found Whereby the easiest to use for users and invitees. The only install from a recipient's point-of-view is a Chrome extension. Zoom requires a download and an account to sign into. Microsoft Teams is only for other members on the …
It is a very simple tool. It can be accessed by all very fast. Sometimes we do more than one videoconference simultaneously and Whereby helps a lot as a second option, especially with few participants.
Nicer layout than any other competitor by far, reactions for emojis pop up on your video (have not seen this anywhere else), easier to access (no downloads). Also, useful internally to always use the same URL, so if you have an ad hoc meeting everyone knows where to go. This …
Teams is inferior to other platforms like Slack for messaging or Zoom. If it were up to me, I'd use Zoom for video conferencing as it's better for large groups and online training, and cleaner. Slack would be my preferred tool for chat as it's much easier to create channels, push notifications for teams, and integrations with other tools like Seismic.
If you cannot use another more common solution on the market or are looking for an alternative to the known solutions, it is a great alternative. If you have other tools already, and just want to test [them], that's fine, but I think the better-known ones have a better chance of using, knowing, and the learning curve will be shorter.
Microsoft Teams does rely on internet quality, so If you are needing information on found in Teams and your internet is down or choppy, you wont be able to access those files unlike if they were stored directly on your computer or network.
Some of the user interface of Microsoft Teams is not user friendly, it can take a long time to figure out how to use some tool even if you are using the help or troubleshooting.
Some of the Microsoft Teams features are limited to anyone using the free version vs. paid. With the paid, you have more storage, more video time, more tools. It would be nice to see the free version have the same features and ability.
The paid version may have dial-in. But I have always used the free version. Dial-in is typically required for an "official" multi-purpose teleconference platform.
I did have some trouble with larger groups (5+) when it was Appear.in but almost always use it for small 1-on-1 or 3 person meetings.
Microsoft Teams is included with our Office 365 subscription and we have no intention of migrating off of Office 365 and Microsoft products. Since Microsoft Teams is included for free with our Office 365 subscription, and since we enjoy all the features, benefits, and functionality, there is no question that our team will continue to use the product
We are using a larger tool suite that already includes video conferencing instead of our older approach of using different apps from different vendors. appear.in has a simple but great set of features but its pricing scheme is not as scalable as we really need in a 500+ employee company.
I personally have not come across a comparable platform that does what Microsoft Teams does and I believe there are very few competitors that offer the integration and user-friendly features that Microsoft Teams provides. You don't need to have special training to successfully benefit from Microsoft Teams features. If you can text, you can Microsoft Teams chat. If you can make a phone call, you can make a Microsoft Teams call - I think that in itself grants the platform a 10/10 rating for me.
The overall support provided by Microsoft for Microsoft Teams has been quite good but there is still some room for improvements. Microsoft needs to proactively work on fixing the open bugs in order to provide a seamless experience to the users. But over the service and experience provided by the Microsoft team have been quite satisfactory.
Never had to contact support, so we cannot give a rating for their overall support. When we noticed the audio was not always great quality, we simply educated our users to mute the mic and use the in-room conference phone which is connected via a dedicated VOIP link and had much better voice quality. The video performance varied by locations network speed and found it got much worse when the room size increased to over 4 connections.
We chose primarily because of the promised integration with the Microsoft Business Suite - which it mostly delivers on. That does give Teams an obvious advantage over competitors. IMHO Teams has a richer, more mature feature set, and the experience is more reliable and stable. Although like any of there there is room for imporvement.
I find Zoom more complicated to use and harder to use because a lot of people do not like having to download things to their computers or devices and Whereby is so easy to get connected with . I like that Zoom offers larger rooms, but at this point the cost is not worth the extra expense.
Honestly, this tool is worth every penny. Yes, it's not free and you pay for the quality of services and the license. But the ROI and the benefits are all there. Also, the renewal, negotiation, and contract terms are all very well explained by our Microsoft account manager, and she's a charm.
I used Skype for Business to take calls, hold conferences, and provide remote assistance to users. Microsoft Teams, on the other hand, is superior to Skype for Business in my opinion. My job entails a lot of screen sharing.