What is Microsoft Teams used for?

Microsoft Teams is Microsoft's workspace for chat, video meetings and file collaboration, closely tied to Microsoft 365. It is a good fit for organizations already using Microsoft 365, and hybrid teams combining chat and meetings.

Is Microsoft Teams open source?

No. Microsoft Teams is proprietary (closed-source) software and can't be self-hosted. Open-source alternatives to Microsoft Teams include Rocket.Chat, Mattermost and Zulip.

What are some alternatives to Microsoft Teams?

Microsoft Teams competes with Slack, Zoom and Google Chat. For open-source options, see Enlisted's ranked list of open-source Microsoft Teams alternatives.

Microsoft Teams: features, pricing and alternatives

About Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is a commercial collaboration application from Microsoft that combines persistent team chat, video meetings, calling and shared files. It is part of the Microsoft 365 suite and works alongside Outlook, SharePoint and the Office applications.

It is a hosted, proprietary service and is not something you self-host. The vendor's website could not be read when this entry was prepared, so current plans, licensing bundles and pricing should be confirmed on the official site.

Key features

Team chat in channels
Video meetings and calling
File sharing and co-editing
Integration with Microsoft 365

Good fit for

→Organizations already using Microsoft 365
→Hybrid teams combining chat and meetings

Tags: team-chat; video-meetings; microsoft-365; collaboration; calling

Microsoft Teams: questions and answers

What is Microsoft Teams used for?: Microsoft Teams is Microsoft's workspace for chat, video meetings and file collaboration, closely tied to Microsoft 365. It is a good fit for organizations already using Microsoft 365, and hybrid teams combining chat and meetings.
Is Microsoft Teams open source?: No. Microsoft Teams is proprietary (closed-source) software and can't be self-hosted. Open-source alternatives to Microsoft Teams include Rocket.Chat, Mattermost and Zulip.
What are some alternatives to Microsoft Teams?: Microsoft Teams competes with Slack, Zoom and Google Chat. For open-source options, see Enlisted's ranked list of open-source Microsoft Teams alternatives.