Top 10 Microsoft Teams Alternatives for Small Businesses

For a small business to truly thrive, it's essential for its teams to be productive, efficient, and collaborative. This is where top-tier collaboration tools and communication platforms, like Microsoft Teams, become invaluable.

However, if you're exploring alternatives to Microsoft Teams for any reason, you've landed on the right article. We'll provide you with a list of the top 10 substitutes and delve into why each might be a good fit based on your requirements, team size, and budget. By the end, you'll have a clear idea of the best option for your business. So, grab a pen and paper, and let's dive in!

FAQs

Enhance your team performance with the best Microsoft Teams alternatives

With the continuous advancements in technology, businesses of all sizes have a plethora of Microsoft Teams alternatives to choose from. Whether your needs revolve around remote work, business communication, or team collaboration, there's a suitable option for you. If you seek more than just high-quality audio and video for online meetings, various alternatives on the market cater to those needs.

You might be uncertain about your choices or unsure of what to consider based on your requirements, budget, or company size, but we're here to guide you. Before delving in, list down your specific needs. As you continue reading, this list will aid in your decision-making, ensuring you pick the best fit for your business. Let's jump right into the top 10 Microsoft Teams alternatives for small businesses.

1. Bitrix24

Leading our list is Bitrix24, a powerhouse among Microsoft Teams alternatives. This all-in-one platform offers everything a company might need – business communication, team collaboration, and project management tools, as well as CRM, cloud storage, and a website builder. Bitrix24 is designed to serve businesses of all sizes with a commitment to providing top-tier software solutions.

Rally your teams together with communication tools that bridge the gap between onsite and remote workers. Eliminate roadblocks and silos with crisp and clear audio and video calls. Avoid misunderstandings and miscommunication with features like screen sharing, instant messaging, call recording, and file sharing during calls. Lastly, get everyone in the team organized with online calendars that you can sync together, best for scheduling meetings and events and making certain that no task or meeting is missed.

Provide oversight on projects and deliverables with the use of time trackers, Gantt chartsGantt charts, and Kanban boardsKanban boards, to name a few, to help the team visualize where there are and the overall scope of the project. Manage workloads more evenly by assigning tasks and subtasks, keeping your team productive. Additionally, you can offer extranet access for external collaborators like freelancers and clients.

Businesses can also control customer relations more appropriately with Bitrix24 CRM. Leaders have one place where they can organize leads and create more focused and target-specific sales campaigns that yield more desirable results. Bitrix24 also provides you with a main hub for all things social media – your very own contact center. You won’t have to switch from one platform to another. All of your social media accounts are available for you to access in one interface.  

2. Zoho Meeting

Touted as the online meeting software for all your video conferencing and webinar needs, Zoho Meeting is the one for you if you’re looking for Microsoft Team alternatives that will enable you to effectively and efficiently communicate with all of your team members anytime, anywhere they may be. You can bring your team together to calibrate and realign them towards the main goal. 

Zoho Meeting is available for a variety of industries for freelancers, startups, small businesses, and enterprises. The software can be downloaded onto and used on both computers and mobile devices, making it perfect for companies that have remote workers and salespeople out on the field. It comes with all the necessary meeting tools for exceptional digital communication, but it’s also easy to use and affordable. 

3. Slack

Slack is included in the list of Microsoft Teams alternatives that are trusted by some of the major companies around. Slack connects you to the rest of your team along with clients, customers, and suppliers for seamless workflows and meaningful collaboration. You can integrate Slack with other apps and tools that you need to complete your arsenal of collaboration tools. 

With Slack, you can not only make voice and video calls. You can also share files, record videos and share them, create channels based on projects, fields of expertise, or departments, and send instant messages – all using any computer or mobile device. One will also need to be allowed into the dedicated Slack workspace with an invite link via email, making it extremely secure for a lot of small businesses. 

4. Signal

Light the beacons and prepare to get to work! While this might not be the official tagline for this notable alternative to Microsoft Teams, it certainly could be. Signal is primarily known as a messaging app, but it offers robust security features that go beyond standard communication. The standout Signal Protocol ensures that not even the app’s developers can access users' messages; only the intended recipients can decrypt and read them, providing an exceptional level of confidentiality for every exchange. With Signal, you can make video and audio calls, send instant messages to individuals and groups alike, and share files like audio and video clips.

This solution allows users to add a layer of fun to their daily conversations by letting them send and receive text messages, photos, gifs, stickers, and voice notes. It’s free to download on mobile devices using both Android and iOS, making it perfect for startups and small businesses where teams communicate amongst themselves and are not customer-facing. Signal can also be used on Macs as well as Windows and Linux computers. You can choose to donate to Signal to help its developers scale the features offered in the service. 

5. Rocket.Chat

If you want one of the Microsoft Teams alternatives so secure, easy to use, and affordable, Rocket.Chat is exactly the one you should invest in. That’s how much they trust in what they can provide users. Enhance team collaboration and communication with Rocket.Chat, where you can send instant messages and set up video and audio calls across the company between teams and channels. 

Rocket.Chat has the capability to enable businesses, regardless of size, to share and exchange information with customers while maintaining the strictest compliance with customer security and safety standards. Channels are safe and secure while providing users with the facility to create tickets from chat transcripts, and export chat transcripts and histories. With Rocket.Chat, you can provide omnichannel support so customers have the ultimate choice for how they want to contact you. There are also integrations available, making Rocket.Chat highly scalable and invaluable. 

6. Whereby

If you’re in the healthcare or education industry and looking for an affordable and fuss-free option in the catalog of Microsoft Teams alternatives, you should check out Whereby. Developed and offered by the same creators of Notion, Whereby is focused mainly on collaboration and communication by aiding teams in audio and video calls. Users are also in a position to record these video calls and embed them in the company website with the use of simple and minimal lines of code. 

Attendees can make good use of the instant messaging feature within calls so further discussions can be carried out in the backend. Whereby is user-friendly and uncomplicated, so professionals can allot a bulk of their time on the important aspects of the job instead of trying to figure out how Whereby works. Integrations with Notion and a lot of other collaboration tools are also available to make Whereby an integral part of a fleet of essential business software. 

7. Google Workspace

Powerhouse Google has introduced Google Workspace, a robust assembly of collaboration, communication, and project management tools, which stands out as a notable alternative to Microsoft Teams. With Google Workspace, you have more than enough room to accomplish all of the things a small business can hope to do and more. You can communicate via email and chats, make audio and video calls, send and receive files as well as edit them online, and save those files in an online receptacle. All of these files can also be virtually shared with the whole team. 

Google Workspace is available for individuals and businesses of any size, regardless of the industry they belong to, covering departments such as Sales, Marketing, Human Resources, and more. Leaders, managers, and administrators can lock access to files and folders, keeping everything contained therein safe. Google Workspace also has affordable plans that offer a host of features and functions for businesses to utilize in their day-to-day. You can start with a free trial before committing to a contract. 

8. Monday

If you’re looking for a cloud-based business communication and team collaboration software that’s also considered a great Microsoft Teams alternative, take a closer look at Monday.com. It offers everything leaders may need to manage their teams responsibly and completely, whether it’s project, task, or resource management they need to accomplish, among other things. Monday.com comes with a variety of templates and workflows ready to be used by anyone who may need them to streamline the work that’s being done and improve the quality of the results. 

Monday.com also offers businesses access to a CRM where they can track lead captures and manage them, create sales funnels and plans, and email pipelines – all of which are aimed at making the overall conversion rate better than ever. What’s more, Monday.com has a special platform for R&D (Research and Development) teams that allows them to track projects from conception to development until their release with options for scalability with the possibility to submit and review feature requests and manage feedback. 

With Monday.com, users can get a comprehensive view of ongoing campaigns with charts and grafts, along with Kanban boards and Gantt charts. These visualizations help managers coach for better performance and oversee the team’s adherence to the respective project timelines, deadlines, and goals. Integrations are also available for users to make Monday.com even more holistic for the business. The software is available for free for up to 2 users, with tiered pricing available for bigger teams and more requirements. 

9. ClickUp

Included in our roster of Microsoft Teams alternatives is ClickUp, a project management software that also comes loaded with remote work tools and CRM. Keep better track of deliverables, deadlines, and project goals with insightful dashboards that give you the big picture in one go. Users can also generate actionable forms and documents like surveys, feedback, and meeting notes. ClickUp also has a time tracker that teams can use to quantify the time it takes them to complete a task or specific stage of a project. Team members can make good use of the Instant Messaging function as well so they can operate as a group more efficiently and make brainstorming sessions more productive with the use of the Whiteboard. 

ClickUp is available for personal use for free, which makes it great for freelancers. Their pricing is reasonable for small teams, and even the lowest-tiered subscription allows users to enjoy the best of what ClickUp has to offer. For an additional fee, members can try their hands at AI with ClickUp AI to help with creative pursuits like writing or project management tasks like putting together more comprehensive workflows, action items, and campaign summaries. 

10. Lark

Last but definitely not least on our list of the most sought-after Microsoft Teams alternatives is Lark. It helps businesses eliminate the need for spreadsheets and replace them with online forms, task charts, and automated workflows for more congruous team performance. With Lark, you have Base, where managers and leaders can create their own workflows and project dashboards even without ample knowledge of coding. OKR (Objectives and Key Results) helps maintain focus on particular goals and not just numbers, everything from inventory-keeping to employee well-being through reports and analytics. 

Lark also provides messaging capabilities so workers, even remote staff, remain tethered to the team and the company. They also have a safe and secure email server to keep your team ahead of the pack. With Lark, you can enjoy the use of online calendars that you can maintain online and sync with those of your teammates. Lastly, there’s AnyCross, where users can further push the boundaries of what Lark can provide and allow them to do so through the power of integrations. 

Collaborate, communicate and create in a superior way

Elevating your team's performance requires the right tools—outdated or inflexible ones can hold you back. Empower your team to reach new heights with tools that foster success without overextending your budget. With the 10 options outlined in this article, you have a broad spectrum of Microsoft Teams alternatives to consider for your business needs.

While Microsoft Teams is a powerful player in the collaboration space, the question remains—is it the best fit for you? This roundup aims to broaden your horizons, shedding light on other viable solutions. We encourage you to explore these alternatives to find the one that seamlessly integrates with your workflow. The right software can significantly enhance your team's engagement, collaboration, productivity, and efficiency.