{
  "@context": [
    "https://schema.org",
    {
      "nuanyue": "https://www.nuanyue.com/ns#"
    }
  ],
  "@type": "SoftwareApplication",
  "@id": "https://www.nuanyue.com/software/teams/#software",
  "name": "Microsoft Teams",
  "description": "Chat, meetings and collaboration application for macOS, Windows, iOS and Android, free for personal use and sold to businesses from $4 per user per month.",
  "url": "https://www.nuanyue.com/software/teams/",
  "mainEntityOfPage": "https://www.nuanyue.com/software/teams/",
  "operatingSystem": "macOS",
  "applicationCategory": "BusinessApplication",
  "publisher": {
    "name": "Microsoft",
    "url": "https://www.microsoft.com/"
  },
  "sameAs": [
    "https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-teams/"
  ],
  "nuanyue:record": {
    "schemaVersion": 1,
    "id": "software:teams",
    "slug": "teams",
    "name": "Microsoft Teams",
    "type": "SoftwareApplication",
    "entityType": "team collaboration app",
    "description": "Chat, meetings and collaboration application for macOS, Windows, iOS and Android, free for personal use and sold to businesses from $4 per user per month.",
    "shortDescription": "Chat, meetings and collaboration, free for personal use.",
    "answer": "Microsoft Teams is a chat and meetings application that works as a standalone product or as part of Microsoft 365. The free version covers personal use generously: one-to-one calls up to 30 hours, group meetings up to 60 minutes with up to 100 participants, 5 GB of cloud storage, chat with anyone who has an email address or phone number, communities, file sharing, tasks and polling, and encryption for meetings, chats, calls and files. Meeting links can be shared with people who do not have a Teams account at all. Business use requires a paid plan: Teams Essentials is $4 per user per month, Microsoft 365 Business Basic $7, and Business Standard $14. It suits both families and organisations.",
    "page": "https://www.nuanyue.com/software/teams/",
    "dataUrl": "https://www.nuanyue.com/data/software/teams.json",
    "categories": [
      "productivity"
    ],
    "tags": [],
    "platform": [
      "macOS"
    ],
    "architecture": [],
    "featured": false,
    "pricing": "freemium",
    "pricingDescription": "Free for personal and home use, with a separate set of paid business plans. Teams Essentials is a standalone business plan at $4.00 per user per month, Microsoft 365 Business Basic is $7.00 and Business Standard is $14.00, all billed per user per month paid yearly. Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscriptions add features to Teams for home, including unlimited group meetings up to 30 hours, up to 300 participants and 1 TB of storage per user.",
    "openSource": false,
    "website": "https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-teams/",
    "developer": {
      "name": "Microsoft",
      "website": "https://www.microsoft.com/"
    },
    "features": [
      "Chat with anyone who has an email address or phone number",
      "One-to-one calls up to 30 hours on the free version",
      "Group meetings up to 60 minutes with up to 100 participants on the free version",
      "Meeting links that people can join without a Teams account",
      "Communities for collaborating with contacts or engaging an audience",
      "File sharing, tasks and polling",
      "Data encryption for meetings, chats, calls and files",
      "5 GB of cloud storage per user on the free version, 1 TB on Microsoft 365 plans",
      "Meeting recordings with transcripts and live captions on paid plans",
      "Identity and access management for up to 300 users on Business Basic",
      "Web and mobile Office apps on Business Basic, desktop apps on Business Standard",
      "Custom business email on Microsoft 365 business plans"
    ],
    "useCases": [
      "Meeting family or friends over video without a subscription",
      "Sharing a meeting link with someone who does not use Teams",
      "Running a small business's chat, calls and file sharing on one plan",
      "Recording a meeting with transcripts and captions for a team"
    ],
    "formats": [],
    "integrations": [],
    "pros": [
      {
        "text": "The free version includes one-to-one calls up to 30 hours, group meetings up to 60 minutes with up to 100 participants, and 5 GB of cloud storage per user.",
        "status": "developer-stated",
        "source": "official",
        "verifiedAt": "2026-10-05T00:00:00.000Z"
      },
      {
        "text": "Meeting links can be shared with people who do not have a Teams account, so guests can join without signing up.",
        "status": "developer-stated",
        "source": "official",
        "verifiedAt": "2026-10-05T00:00:00.000Z"
      },
      {
        "text": "Chat works with anyone who has an email address or a phone number.",
        "status": "developer-stated",
        "source": "official",
        "verifiedAt": "2026-10-05T00:00:00.000Z"
      },
      {
        "text": "Meetings, chats, calls and files are encrypted, and the free version includes this rather than reserving it for paid plans.",
        "status": "developer-stated",
        "source": "official",
        "verifiedAt": "2026-10-05T00:00:00.000Z"
      },
      {
        "text": "Teams Essentials is a standalone business plan at $4.00 per user per month that does not require a Microsoft 365 subscription.",
        "status": "verified",
        "source": "official",
        "verifiedAt": "2026-10-05T00:00:00.000Z"
      },
      {
        "text": "Microsoft 365 Business Basic at $7.00 per user per month adds web and mobile Office apps, custom business email and 1 TB of storage per user.",
        "status": "verified",
        "source": "official",
        "verifiedAt": "2026-10-05T00:00:00.000Z"
      }
    ],
    "cons": [
      {
        "text": "The free version is explicitly for home and personal use; the vendor states that business use requires a paid option.",
        "status": "verified",
        "source": "official",
        "verifiedAt": "2026-10-05T00:00:00.000Z"
      },
      {
        "text": "The free tier caps group meetings at 60 minutes and 100 participants, which is restrictive for anything beyond a small call.",
        "status": "verified",
        "source": "official",
        "verifiedAt": "2026-10-05T00:00:00.000Z"
      },
      {
        "text": "Meeting recordings with transcripts and live captions are not available on the free version.",
        "status": "verified",
        "source": "official",
        "verifiedAt": "2026-10-05T00:00:00.000Z"
      },
      {
        "text": "It is a hosted service with no self-hosted option, so the conversation and its data live on Microsoft's infrastructure.",
        "status": "derived",
        "source": "official",
        "verifiedAt": "2026-10-05T00:00:00.000Z"
      },
      {
        "text": "Business pricing is per user per month billed yearly, so the headline figure is not what a monthly payer would see.",
        "status": "verified",
        "source": "official",
        "verifiedAt": "2026-10-05T00:00:00.000Z"
      }
    ],
    "whoIsItFor": [
      "Households that want free group calls and chat with a familiar interface",
      "Small and medium businesses that want collaboration bundled with Office apps"
    ],
    "notFor": [
      "Businesses that want to use it for free, since the free version is for home and personal use only",
      "Organisations that need to self-host their chat, which is not an option with Teams"
    ],
    "limitations": [
      "The free version is for home and personal use; the vendor states that business use requires a paid option",
      "The free version caps group meetings at 60 minutes and 100 participants, and provides 5 GB of storage per user",
      "Meeting recordings, transcripts and live captions are paid-plan features",
      "There is no self-hosted deployment; the service runs on Microsoft's infrastructure",
      "The minimum macOS version is not stated in the sources Nuanyue tracks"
    ],
    "firstUse": {
      "installation": {
        "value": "Downloaded from Microsoft for macOS, Windows, iOS and Android, and usable in a browser without installing anything.",
        "status": "developer-stated",
        "source": "official",
        "verifiedAt": "2026-10-05T00:00:00.000Z"
      },
      "firstLaunch": {
        "value": "Sign in with a Microsoft account for the free personal version, or with a work or school account for a business plan; no separate Teams account exists.",
        "status": "derived",
        "source": "official",
        "verifiedAt": "2026-10-05T00:00:00.000Z"
      },
      "systemIntegration": {
        "value": "Integrates with the rest of Microsoft 365 on paid plans, including Outlook, SharePoint, OneDrive and the Office applications.",
        "status": "developer-stated",
        "source": "official",
        "verifiedAt": "2026-10-05T00:00:00.000Z"
      },
      "appleSilicon": {
        "value": null,
        "status": "unknown"
      }
    },
    "updates": [],
    "faq": [
      {
        "question": "Is Microsoft Teams free?",
        "answer": "There is a free version, but it is for home and personal use. It includes 1:1 calls up to 30 hours, group calls and meetings up to 60 minutes with up to 100 participants, 5 GB of cloud storage per user, chat, communities, file sharing, tasks, polling and encryption. The vendor states that business use requires a paid option.",
        "status": "verified",
        "source": "official",
        "verifiedAt": "2026-10-05T00:00:00.000Z"
      },
      {
        "question": "How much do the business plans cost?",
        "answer": "Teams Essentials is $4.00 per user per month, Microsoft 365 Business Basic is $7.00, and Microsoft 365 Business Standard is $14.00. All are billed per user per month, paid yearly, and all three auto-renew.",
        "status": "verified",
        "source": "official",
        "verifiedAt": "2026-10-05T00:00:00.000Z"
      },
      {
        "question": "Can someone join a Teams meeting without an account?",
        "answer": "Yes. The free version lets you create a quick meeting with a meeting link that others can join even without a Teams account.",
        "status": "developer-stated",
        "source": "official",
        "verifiedAt": "2026-10-05T00:00:00.000Z"
      },
      {
        "question": "What do I get if I have Microsoft 365 Personal or Family?",
        "answer": "Extra features in Teams for home: unlimited group calls and meetings up to 30 hours, up to 300 participants per meeting, and 1 TB of cloud storage per user, against 60-minute meetings, 100 participants and 5 GB on the free tier.",
        "status": "developer-stated",
        "source": "official",
        "verifiedAt": "2026-10-05T00:00:00.000Z"
      },
      {
        "question": "Is Teams Essentials a standalone product?",
        "answer": "Yes. Teams Essentials is described as a standalone offering designed for small businesses, so it does not require a Microsoft 365 subscription. It includes unlimited group meetings for up to 30 hours and 300 participants, 10 GB of cloud storage per user, and meeting recordings with transcripts and live captions.",
        "status": "developer-stated",
        "source": "official",
        "verifiedAt": "2026-10-05T00:00:00.000Z"
      }
    ],
    "relationships": [
      {
        "target": "slack",
        "type": "competitor",
        "reason": "Both are team chat platforms, but Slack is a hosted standalone product while Teams is bundled with Microsoft 365 and ties into Office, SharePoint and OneDrive.",
        "verifiedAt": "2026-10-05T00:00:00.000Z"
      },
      {
        "target": "mattermost",
        "type": "competitor",
        "reason": "Both are collaboration platforms aimed at organisations, but Mattermost is self-hosted software sold as its own subscription while Teams runs on Microsoft's infrastructure and has no self-hosted deployment.",
        "verifiedAt": "2026-10-05T00:00:00.000Z"
      },
      {
        "target": "meetingbar",
        "type": "complements",
        "reason": "MeetingBar sits in the menu bar and joins the next meeting from your calendar, so it is often used alongside Teams rather than instead of it — it launches the call that Teams then hosts.",
        "verifiedAt": "2026-10-05T00:00:00.000Z"
      }
    ],
    "sources": [
      {
        "id": "teams:official",
        "type": "official_website",
        "url": "https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-teams/",
        "title": "Microsoft Teams — official website",
        "trustLevel": "B",
        "accessedAt": null
      },
      {
        "id": "teams:developer",
        "type": "developer",
        "url": "https://www.microsoft.com/",
        "title": "Microsoft — developer website",
        "trustLevel": "B",
        "accessedAt": null
      }
    ],
    "claims": [
      {
        "id": "software:teams.isA",
        "subject": "software:teams",
        "predicate": "isA",
        "value": "team collaboration app",
        "status": "editorially-reviewed",
        "sourceIds": [
          "teams:official"
        ],
        "lastVerified": null
      },
      {
        "id": "software:teams.supportsPlatform",
        "subject": "software:teams",
        "predicate": "supportsPlatform",
        "value": [
          "macOS"
        ],
        "status": "verified",
        "sourceIds": [
          "teams:official"
        ],
        "lastVerified": null
      },
      {
        "id": "software:teams.officialWebsite",
        "subject": "software:teams",
        "predicate": "officialWebsite",
        "value": "https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-teams/",
        "status": "verified",
        "sourceIds": [
          "teams:official"
        ],
        "lastVerified": null
      },
      {
        "id": "software:teams.listedInCategory",
        "subject": "software:teams",
        "predicate": "listedInCategory",
        "value": [
          "productivity"
        ],
        "status": "editorially-reviewed",
        "sourceIds": [
          "teams:official"
        ],
        "lastVerified": null
      },
      {
        "id": "software:teams.pricingModel",
        "subject": "software:teams",
        "predicate": "pricingModel",
        "value": "Freemium",
        "status": "developer-stated",
        "sourceIds": [
          "teams:official"
        ],
        "lastVerified": null
      },
      {
        "id": "software:teams.developedBy",
        "subject": "software:teams",
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        "status": "developer-stated",
        "sourceIds": [
          "teams:developer",
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        ],
        "lastVerified": null
      },
      {
        "id": "software:teams.ownership",
        "subject": "software:teams",
        "predicate": "ownership",
        "value": "Third-party product — not published by Nuanyue",
        "status": "editorially-reviewed",
        "sourceIds": [],
        "lastVerified": null
      },
      {
        "id": "software:teams.hasFeature",
        "subject": "software:teams",
        "predicate": "hasFeature",
        "value": [
          "Chat with anyone who has an email address or phone number",
          "One-to-one calls up to 30 hours on the free version",
          "Group meetings up to 60 minutes with up to 100 participants on the free version",
          "Meeting links that people can join without a Teams account",
          "Communities for collaborating with contacts or engaging an audience",
          "File sharing, tasks and polling",
          "Data encryption for meetings, chats, calls and files",
          "5 GB of cloud storage per user on the free version, 1 TB on Microsoft 365 plans",
          "Meeting recordings with transcripts and live captions on paid plans",
          "Identity and access management for up to 300 users on Business Basic",
          "Web and mobile Office apps on Business Basic, desktop apps on Business Standard",
          "Custom business email on Microsoft 365 business plans"
        ],
        "status": "editorially-reviewed",
        "sourceIds": [
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        ],
        "lastVerified": null
      },
      {
        "id": "software:teams.usedFor",
        "subject": "software:teams",
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        "value": [
          "Meeting family or friends over video without a subscription",
          "Sharing a meeting link with someone who does not use Teams",
          "Running a small business's chat, calls and file sharing on one plan",
          "Recording a meeting with transcripts and captions for a team"
        ],
        "status": "editorially-reviewed",
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      },
      {
        "id": "software:teams.audienceFor",
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          "Households that want free group calls and chat with a familiar interface",
          "Small and medium businesses that want collaboration bundled with Office apps"
        ],
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        ],
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      },
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        "id": "software:teams.audienceNotFor",
        "subject": "software:teams",
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        "value": [
          "Businesses that want to use it for free, since the free version is for home and personal use only",
          "Organisations that need to self-host their chat, which is not an option with Teams"
        ],
        "status": "editorially-reviewed",
        "sourceIds": [
          "teams:official"
        ],
        "lastVerified": null
      },
      {
        "id": "software:teams.limitation",
        "subject": "software:teams",
        "predicate": "limitation",
        "value": [
          "The free version is for home and personal use; the vendor states that business use requires a paid option",
          "The free version caps group meetings at 60 minutes and 100 participants, and provides 5 GB of storage per user",
          "Meeting recordings, transcripts and live captions are paid-plan features",
          "There is no self-hosted deployment; the service runs on Microsoft's infrastructure",
          "The minimum macOS version is not stated in the sources Nuanyue tracks"
        ],
        "status": "editorially-reviewed",
        "sourceIds": [],
        "lastVerified": null
      },
      {
        "id": "software:teams.advantage.0",
        "subject": "software:teams",
        "predicate": "advantage",
        "value": "The free version includes one-to-one calls up to 30 hours, group meetings up to 60 minutes with up to 100 participants, and 5 GB of cloud storage per user.",
        "status": "developer-stated",
        "sourceIds": [
          "teams:official"
        ],
        "lastVerified": "2026-10-05"
      },
      {
        "id": "software:teams.advantage.1",
        "subject": "software:teams",
        "predicate": "advantage",
        "value": "Meeting links can be shared with people who do not have a Teams account, so guests can join without signing up.",
        "status": "developer-stated",
        "sourceIds": [
          "teams:official"
        ],
        "lastVerified": "2026-10-05"
      },
      {
        "id": "software:teams.advantage.2",
        "subject": "software:teams",
        "predicate": "advantage",
        "value": "Chat works with anyone who has an email address or a phone number.",
        "status": "developer-stated",
        "sourceIds": [
          "teams:official"
        ],
        "lastVerified": "2026-10-05"
      },
      {
        "id": "software:teams.advantage.3",
        "subject": "software:teams",
        "predicate": "advantage",
        "value": "Meetings, chats, calls and files are encrypted, and the free version includes this rather than reserving it for paid plans.",
        "status": "developer-stated",
        "sourceIds": [
          "teams:official"
        ],
        "lastVerified": "2026-10-05"
      },
      {
        "id": "software:teams.advantage.4",
        "subject": "software:teams",
        "predicate": "advantage",
        "value": "Teams Essentials is a standalone business plan at $4.00 per user per month that does not require a Microsoft 365 subscription.",
        "status": "verified",
        "sourceIds": [
          "teams:official"
        ],
        "lastVerified": "2026-10-05"
      },
      {
        "id": "software:teams.advantage.5",
        "subject": "software:teams",
        "predicate": "advantage",
        "value": "Microsoft 365 Business Basic at $7.00 per user per month adds web and mobile Office apps, custom business email and 1 TB of storage per user.",
        "status": "verified",
        "sourceIds": [
          "teams:official"
        ],
        "lastVerified": "2026-10-05"
      },
      {
        "id": "software:teams.drawback.0",
        "subject": "software:teams",
        "predicate": "drawback",
        "value": "The free version is explicitly for home and personal use; the vendor states that business use requires a paid option.",
        "status": "verified",
        "sourceIds": [
          "teams:official"
        ],
        "lastVerified": "2026-10-05"
      },
      {
        "id": "software:teams.drawback.1",
        "subject": "software:teams",
        "predicate": "drawback",
        "value": "The free tier caps group meetings at 60 minutes and 100 participants, which is restrictive for anything beyond a small call.",
        "status": "verified",
        "sourceIds": [
          "teams:official"
        ],
        "lastVerified": "2026-10-05"
      },
      {
        "id": "software:teams.drawback.2",
        "subject": "software:teams",
        "predicate": "drawback",
        "value": "Meeting recordings with transcripts and live captions are not available on the free version.",
        "status": "verified",
        "sourceIds": [
          "teams:official"
        ],
        "lastVerified": "2026-10-05"
      },
      {
        "id": "software:teams.drawback.3",
        "subject": "software:teams",
        "predicate": "drawback",
        "value": "It is a hosted service with no self-hosted option, so the conversation and its data live on Microsoft's infrastructure.",
        "status": "derived",
        "sourceIds": [
          "teams:official"
        ],
        "lastVerified": "2026-10-05"
      },
      {
        "id": "software:teams.drawback.4",
        "subject": "software:teams",
        "predicate": "drawback",
        "value": "Business pricing is per user per month billed yearly, so the headline figure is not what a monthly payer would see.",
        "status": "verified",
        "sourceIds": [
          "teams:official"
        ],
        "lastVerified": "2026-10-05"
      }
    ],
    "lastUpdated": "2026-10-05T00:00:00.000Z",
    "lastReviewedAt": null
  }
}