Microsoft Teams vs Zoom (A Comparison For Businesses)

As of 2025, Microsoft Teams and Zoom remain two of the most widely used communication platforms for businesses. Microsoft Teams is best known for its deep integration with Microsoft 365, offering a unified space for chat, video meetings, file sharing and collaboration. Zoom, on the other hand, is renowned for its user-friendly video conferencing and continues to excel in webinars, virtual events, and third-party integrations. Choosing between them comes down to whether your organisation needs an all-in-one collaboration hub (Teams) or a streamlined, high-performance video conferencing tool (Zoom).

Overview

Microsoft Teams and Zoom have both established themselves as leading communication tools, but they cater to different needs:

• Microsoft Teams: A comprehensive collaboration platform that integrates chat, video conferencing, file sharing, and app integrations, making it ideal for businesses deeply embedded in the Microsoft ecosystem.

• Zoom: Primarily known for its robust video conferencing capabilities, Zoom offers a user-friendly interface and is widely adopted for virtual meetings, webinars, and online events.

  
  

Key Features Comparison

Pricing

Sources:

• Zoom Features & Pricing
• Microsoft Teams Features & Microsoft

Security and Compliance

Both platforms prioritise security, but there are distinctions:

• Microsoft Teams: Offers end-to-end encryption, multi-factor authentication, and compliance with standards like GDPR, HIPAA, and ISO/IEC 27001.

• Zoom: Provides robust security features, including end-to-end encryption for meetings, waiting rooms, and passcode protection. Zoom has made significant improvements in security protocols over recent years.

Integrations and Ecosystem

• Microsoft Teams: Deep integration with Microsoft 365 suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), making it a seamless choice for businesses already using these tools.

• Zoom: Offers a vast marketplace with over 2,000 integrations, including Slack, Salesforce, and Google Workspace, providing flexibility for diverse business environments.

User Experience

• Microsoft Teams: Provides a unified workspace where users can chat, meet, call, and collaborate on documents within a single platform. The interface may have a steeper learning curve for new users.

• Zoom: Known for its simplicity and ease of use, Zoom allows users to quickly join meetings without extensive setup, making it accessible for users of all technical levels.

Your Needs and Priorities

Just like the purchase of any IT system or software package, the first thing to consider is what you actually need from it. What will its purpose be? Both companies can bombard you with a list of features, many of which have limited value, no value or novelty value (is everyone bored of customisable backgrounds yet?) but knowing exactly what you want from it is vital if you’re going to cut through the marketing gumph that inevitably fills the webpages of each product.

A few things to consider would be:

Video, voice and chat
If you’re reading this article, then this is probably the driving force behind your decision to compare Teams and Zoom. In reality, both do a great job of this. Zoom has now added both voice calls and chat/instant messaging to their packages and Microsoft Teams has always allowed this.

There are some minor differences to how each package works, but nothing too difficult to learn for any user once they get into the swing of it.

Zoom is certainly a quicker and easy option for business who ONLY want to use this feature because Microsoft Teams, as you’ll see shortly, contains much more than just communication tools and therefore require some more thought and time in its configuration.

Collaboration
Zoom’s collaboration tools barely go past the ability to call people, although basics such as screen sharing, sending files and remote device control are available.

Microsoft Teams is built around collaboration. Because Microsoft Teams is part of Microsoft 365 (previously known as Office 365) it can’t be purchased as a standalone piece of software. As part of your subscription, even at the most basic level, you’ll be provided with personal file storage space via OneDrive, shared company storage via SharePoint, web versions of Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel, email hosting and additional collaboration tools, such as Yammer and Planner.

In terms of collaboration tools, the two systems simply don’t compare. Microsoft Teams is streets ahead.

Data management
As part of all Zoom subscriptions, you will receive 1GB of storage for meeting recordings, but beyond that there is no provision provided for storage of any other documents.

Again, Microsoft Teams trumps this level of functionality easily with 1TB (999 times more!) per user, which can be used to store any files, as well as the shared storage available for the company via SharePoint. If required, additional data can be added and at the top level of subscription (Office 365 E3) personal cloud storage is unlimited.

Internal and External Calls
To manage calls between both internal and external members of your organisation, both Microsoft Teams and Zoom work in similar ways. By default, users in your organisation will be available and external users can be invited to a specific call or meeting via email.

Additional, and slightly more advanced, functionality is also available in Microsoft Teams to allow specific domains additional access and privileges, if required. You can also invite external users to more than just video calls. For example, if you are working on a project with a customer then you can invite users into a group (or a ‘Team’ as it’s known in Teams) where they can access shared files, calendar planning tools and group conversations.

Security
Security is often a tricky one to gauge as both companies put up a strong case about the type of security they have in place. Although Microsoft have not been completely distant from cyber hacks in the past, Zoom has certainly stolen the headlines more recently, eventually settling with the Federal Trade Commission after a series of security claims that were questioned (Source).

Whilst Zoom may have had its issues, most of the security criticisms revolve around the security of the video streams and calls themselves which, whilst important, doesn’t necessarily compare with the amount, or sensitivity of data that may be held within Microsoft Teams and Microsoft 365.

Microsoft’s security is certainly at a very high level, but they can also be seen as a target by cyber criminals, potentially causing people to be concerned about its safety.

With both solutions, we’d always advise looking at them in context of your overall cyber security strategy. In terms of Microsoft Teams there are certainly enhancements that can be made to the security settings which come “out-of-the-box” and, in particular, we advise businesses to consider Two-Factor Authentication solutions as part of this strategy.

Usability
If you’d never used Teams or Zoom before, then Zoom is certainly the easier to get your head around quickly. Because it focuses primarily on video calls, Zoom’s interface is uncluttered and easy to navigate and there’s very little to learn, making it perfect for businesses who only need this level of functionality.

The learning curve on Microsoft Teams is a little steeper and, depending on how far you go with it, there can be a lot of functionality to learn outside of video calling. Whilst it was initially a little difficult to navigate, Teams has certainly improved and in many cases mimics the familiar feel of Zoom and other video calling platforms, so the vast majority of users will pick it up in no time whatsoever.

There is also plenty of help guides available to use other elements of Microsoft Teams. Our advice is to plan the implementation of Microsoft Teams thoroughly and include training as part of that so users aren’t overwhelmed and, ultimately, get the most from the software.

Verdict

The choice between Microsoft Teams and Zoom hinges on your organisation's specific needs:

• Choose Microsoft Teams if: Your business relies heavily on Microsoft 365 applications and seeks an all-in-one collaboration platform.

• Choose Zoom if: You prioritise straightforward, high-quality video conferencing with a wide range of third-party integrations.

Both platforms offer robust features to support remote and hybrid work environments. Evaluating your team's workflow, existing tools, and communication needs will guide you to the best choice.