Compare video meeting apps
Zoom vs Microsoft Teams
Zoom and Microsoft Teams compared on what their own pages say, row by row — nothing about either in our words except a plain reading at the end.
Zoom and Microsoft Teams, row by row
| Zoom | Microsoft Teams | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan: longest meeting | “Meetings up to 40 minutes” — Basic, the free plan source | “Maximum meeting duration 60 minutes” — Microsoft Teams (free) source |
| Free plan: how much is kept | Not stated on the pages we read | “5 GB of cloud storage” — Microsoft Teams (free) source |
| Free plan: people in a meeting | “Participant capacity 100” — Basic, the free plan, and Pro source | “Group calling for up to 60 minutes and 100 participants” — Microsoft Teams (free) source |
| Accounts | Not stated on the pages we read | “Create a quick meeting with a meeting link for others to join, even without a Teams account, free up to 60 minutes.” source |
| Cheapest paid plan | “$14.16” — Pro, a user a month billed yearly source | “$4.00” — Teams Essentials, a user a month paid yearly source |
| Paid plan: longest meeting | “Meetings up to 30 hours” — Pro source | “Maximum meeting duration 30 hours” — the business plans source |
| Most people in a meeting | “Meet with up to 300 participants” — Business; more with the Large Meeting add-on source | “Participant capacity 300” — the business plans source |
| Languages | “Translated Captions” — named in the plan comparison, without saying which plans source | “Live captions are available in the English language with Microsoft account identities and more than 30 additional languages with Microsoft Entra identities.” source |
| Video recording | “Local & 10 GB cloud (per license)” — Pro; the free plan's row reads "Local", to the computer source | “Team meeting recordings with transcripts and live captions (English)” — Teams Essentials source |
| AI notes and summaries | “AI notes, summary, and chat” — Basic, the free plan, marked limited source | Not stated on the pages we read |
| Single sign-on | “Custom branding for URLs, SSO, and more” — Business source | Not stated on the pages we read |
Every cell is the company's own words, linked. Prices change — this is what each page said on 10 November 2026. Something changed? Tell us.
What the two pages add up to
- Free Zoom meetings last up to 40 minutes and free Teams group calls up to 60; both allow 100 people.
- Teams Essentials is $4 a user a month paid yearly; Zoom Pro is $14.16 billed yearly.
- Both allow meetings up to 30 hours on their paid plans.
Which matters for your meetings
The free plans are close: 100 people on both, 40 minutes on Zoom and 60 on Teams. The difference shows on the paid side, where Teams Essentials costs well under a third of Zoom Pro and records with transcripts, though its captions are English. Teams also says people can join a meeting link without a Teams account.
What that comes to, worked out
A team of ten paying for a year: Teams Essentials comes to $480, Zoom Pro to $1,699.20, both billed yearly, and both let meetings run 30 hours on those plans. On the free plans, a 50-minute weekly meeting fits on Teams, with its 60 minutes, and not on Zoom, with its 40; both let 100 people in. A client without an account can join a Teams meeting link, in Microsoft's own words; Zoom's pricing page does not say either way. If those ten people also need recordings with transcripts, Teams Essentials includes them, with captions in English, and Zoom Pro adds 10 GB of cloud recording to each licence.
The sums use only the numbers quoted above. Yearly prices are the monthly figure times twelve.
Where Meetful is different from both
Meetful is a video meeting app too, but the notes are part of the meeting rather than an extra. Each person is transcribed from their own microphone, so every line carries the name of whoever said it without guessing, and nobody has to invite a bot. People join from a link in their browser. The notes, the recording and the transcript are free, and anybody in the meeting can leave themselves out of the notes.
Other comparisons
Try Meetful
Meetings that take their own notes
Free video meetings in the browser: every line of the transcript under the name of who said it, and the summary and action items when you hang up. Nothing to install — guests just open the link.