Quick Verdict

If your organization runs Microsoft 365, Teams is the obvious choice — the integration depth is unmatched and you're already paying for it. For everyone else, Zoom Workplace offers a more polished meeting experience, a vastly larger integration marketplace, and AI features included at no extra cost. Both score 9.2 overall, but they serve different ecosystems.

Head-to-Head Comparison

AI Features

Zoom's AI Companion 3.0 and Microsoft's Copilot both deliver meeting summaries, action items, and intelligent search. The decisive difference is pricing: AI Companion is included on all paid Zoom plans, while Teams Copilot requires a $30/user/month add-on. For a 100-person company, that's $36,000/year extra for Microsoft's AI.

In terms of capability, Copilot has an edge when it comes to cross-application intelligence — it can reference SharePoint documents, Outlook emails, and Teams chat history in its meeting summaries. Zoom's AI Companion is more focused on the meeting itself, producing cleaner, more concise summaries with smart chapters that make long recordings easy to navigate.

For AI value without extra cost, Zoom wins. For AI that spans your entire Microsoft 365 workflow, Copilot is more powerful — if you can justify the price.

Collaboration Tools

Teams takes this category with a 9.5 to Zoom's 9.3. The difference isn't in meeting features (both have breakout rooms, whiteboards, polls, and screen sharing) but in what surrounds the meeting. Teams is a persistent workspace: channels, threaded conversations, shared files, and wiki pages all live alongside your meetings. The meeting is one part of an ongoing collaboration flow.

Zoom's collaboration is meeting-centric. You join, collaborate, and leave. The Team Chat feature has improved significantly, but it doesn't approach the depth of Teams channels. If your team's collaboration happens primarily in meetings with asynchronous work elsewhere, Zoom works well. If you need a persistent team workspace with meetings embedded, Teams is the stronger platform.

Integration Ecosystem

Zoom's marketplace (2,500+ apps) dwarfs Teams' app store. Zoom Apps run inside the meeting window — you can open a Miro board, take notes in Notion, or check a Salesforce record without leaving the call. This in-meeting app experience is something Teams hasn't matched.

Teams' strength is depth rather than breadth. The Microsoft 365 integration is seamless: schedule from Outlook, share from OneDrive, co-edit in Word, pull data from Power BI. If your stack is Microsoft-centric, the integration quality is exceptional. But if you use a diverse set of tools, Zoom connects to more of them.

Ease of Use

Zoom wins on simplicity (9.5 vs 8.5). Click a link, you're in a meeting. The interface is clean and intuitive, and the join-to-speaking latency is the fastest in the category. Teams can feel overwhelming — the sidebar navigation, multiple meeting types, and settings buried in nested menus create a steeper learning curve, especially for users outside the Microsoft ecosystem.

For IT administrators, the story flips. Teams' admin center provides granular policy controls that Zoom's admin portal doesn't match. But for end users, Zoom remains the more accessible experience.

Security & Privacy

Teams edges ahead with a 9.5 in both security and privacy, compared to Zoom's 8.5 security and 9.0 privacy. Microsoft's enterprise security infrastructure — Azure AD integration, Conditional Access policies, DLP, and eDiscovery — provides a level of admin control that Zoom can't match. Both platforms offer E2EE, but Teams' integration with Microsoft's broader security stack (Defender, Sentinel, Purview) gives it an advantage for organizations that need centralized security management.

Zoom has rebuilt trust after its 2020 security issues, and the platform is now SOC 2, HIPAA, and GDPR compliant. But for organizations in regulated industries, Teams' deeper compliance framework and FedRAMP authorization provide stronger credentials.

Pricing & Value

Zoom Pro starts at $13.33/user/month with AI included. Teams Essentials starts at $4/user/month, but meaningful plans start at $6/user/month (Microsoft 365 Business Basic), and adding Copilot AI brings the per-user cost to $36/month.

For organizations already paying for Microsoft 365, Teams is effectively free — it's bundled with your existing licenses. This makes the total cost comparison heavily dependent on your current stack. If you're starting fresh, Zoom offers better AI value per dollar. If you're already Microsoft, Teams is the most economical choice.

Who Should Buy Zoom Workplace?

• Organizations using a diverse tool stack — Zoom's marketplace connects to virtually everything
• Teams that want AI features without extra cost — AI Companion included on all paid plans
• Companies that prioritize meeting simplicity — fastest join experience, cleanest interface
• Businesses scaling beyond Microsoft 365 — Zoom doesn't lock you into an ecosystem

Who Should Buy Microsoft Teams?

• Microsoft 365 organizations — Teams is bundled and deeply integrated with your existing tools
• Enterprises needing centralized security management — Azure AD, DLP, Conditional Access, and eDiscovery integration
• Teams that need a persistent collaboration workspace — channels, threaded chat, and file sharing surrounding meetings
• Regulated industries — FedRAMP authorization and Microsoft's compliance framework provide stronger credentials

The Bottom Line

This comparison ultimately comes down to ecosystem. Microsoft Teams is the superior choice for organizations already invested in Microsoft 365 — the integration depth, bundled pricing, and enterprise security make it hard to beat. Zoom Workplace is the better standalone platform — more polished meetings, broader integrations, and included AI. Neither is a wrong choice at this level, but switching costs are real, so choose based on where the rest of your tools live.