Alternatives to Microsoft Teams

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The pandemic, as we know, has changed the habits of many. Even from a work point of view, everything and more happened. Many companies have discovered online collaboration and, unfortunately, many (often due to convenience and laziness) have chosen the products of Microsoft and of Google. Let's see which ones today alternatives to Microsoft Teams exist!

What it offers Microsoft Teams It's actually a lot and many don't want to give up the comforts of this platform. However, we have tried to select ethical alternatives that offer more or less the same services. The proposed alternatives are not always the same in every way Microsoft Teams. Sometimes, however, huge programs are used to do only small things, so don't take it for granted that there is an alternative to Microsoft Teams doesn't exist or isn't right for you. Take a look at the ones we propose below, some of them might definitely surprise you!

Alternatives to Microsoft Teams

Element

Open source

Let's start this list of alternatives with a provocation. Element and the protocol Matrix they cannot perhaps replace everything and for everything Microsoft Teams. However, it can also be used in a professional context and the University of Innsbruck has also demonstrated this ¹.

Twake

Open source

This is an application still in beta. If you remember well we have some already talked about in a dedicated article. It is one of the most interesting alternatives because it is an application Open source ². The price is attractive although perhaps not the cheapest (€4.19 per month per user) ³ and there is also a limited free version. The policy is decent and they don't live off advertising or profiling.

Rocket.Chat

Open source

Good alternative Open source ⁴ to Microsoft Teams. Full of features, you can also host it on your own server or use their "all included" service for a fee 2$ or 4$ per month per user according to their needs ⁵. An interesting solution worth trying.

Lark

Thanks to @dav9597 for the review

I immediately liked the typical feature of the program, namely the division between private chats and the team, allowing the user to independently manage his directives; in fact, upon first opening, the user could create a new team, and invite all participants to sign up to the suite, and be able to use the software as they wish, obviously governed by the rules of the group administrator. Another thing I loved is the integration of some company services within the chats, perhaps difficult to explain verbatim, but I'll try to give some examples: the program allowed you to create memos for company situations, such as holiday requests, company reimbursement requests, requests to purchase company assets, and other complementary requests. Another part I loved was the live creation, editing and collaboration of work documents online, whether spreadsheets, text documents, etc. I haven't actually tested whether the 200GB of usable cloud is effective, using the Telegram as my personal cloud.

Let's get to the part video meeting; when I was using it, the video call limit was set at 100, while now it has increased to 350, not bad. They can be done both between team members and separately with other users using the appropriate program Lark Meetings; the thing that immediately irritated me was that the program was only accessible by downloading the program, there was no web version. The painful part, however, is the "host controls", because, in my opinion, they are very lacking compared to other competitors, you can practically either change all the participants (but they can reactivate it), or reactivate the microphone for everyone. The last thing that comes to mind now is the live function, from which through a meeting between users, the host can start a live recording session, obviously after having received permission from other users. A link is then generated, and a limited number of users can view the live broadcast, without actually participating in the meeting (I like to see it as a sort of webinar).

Twist

Twist it doesn't have all the features of Microsoft Teams and it looks more like it an alternative to Slack. However some may not need all the features within Microsoft Teams. In this case you could also take a look at Twist. It is not a company that is totally focused on privacy but their free plan offers it up to 5GB of space and unlimited guests is quite interesting, the version Unlimited instead it costs €5 per month per user. ⁶

Other alternatives

These alternatives are no less valid than the previous ones but are simply more difficult to use for the average user. They are rarely “one-click” products and when they are they have prohibitive prices. However they are everyone free software so if you are able to manage a server yourself you may be interested.

• Mattermost, we also point out the existence of Mattermost. Unfortunately, the cloud version is absolutely not in line with market prices: 10$ per month per user ⁷. In fact, almost everyone uses and recommends the self-hostable version. It means that you must be able to install it yourself on your server. It can therefore be suitable for a company with a well-organized IT team. If you are able to do it and manage it it is perhaps one of the best alternatives to try.

• Zulip, another one alternative to Microsoft Teams which we have often heard good things about. AND Open source ⁸ and it has a very active community on its side ⁹. AND multi-platform and you can also use it Street Browsers. Free in limited version and its cost in the Standard version is unfortunately quite high (8$ per month per user) ¹⁰. Since it is also free software, however, if you are able, you can install it yourself at the sole cost of server maintenance.

• Among the various alternatives to Microsoft Teams it exists, if desired, too BigBlueButton even if it is designed more for schools than for companies. Again it is free software and you must be able to install it yourself.

Obviously there are more mainstream alternatives such as Slack which however we generally avoid suggesting to you if they do not have truly unique characteristics, our goal is in fact always to be able to introduce you to something new and possibly Open source.

1. Safe, inclusive communications for the University of Innsbruck[↩]
2. Twake on GitHub[↩]
3. Twake prices[↩]
4. Rocket.Chat[↩]
5. Rocket.Chat prices[↩]
6. Twist prices[↩]
7. Mattermost cloud cost[↩]
8. source code of Zulip[↩]
9. Zulip on GitHub[↩]
10. Zulip prices[↩]

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