Circle vs Microsoft Teams Pricing (2026)
How do these two stack up on price? Here's what each one costs, what you get, and where the value sits.
| Circle | Microsoft Teams | |
|---|---|---|
| Starts at | $89/mo | $4/mo |
| Number of plans | 3 | 3 |
| Free plan | — | — |
| Free trial | ||
| Pricing model | hybrid | per-seat |
Professional
- Circle AI
- Unlimited members
- Courses
- Discussions
- Events
- Website Builder
- Live streams
- Live rooms
- Custom branding
- Reporting & analytics
- Searchable member directory
- Rich member profiles
- Paid memberships
- Gamification
- Custom domain
- Weekly community digest
- Migration services for payments
Business
Popular- Workflows
- Custom profile fields
- Circle MCP
- Headless Member API
- Admin API
- Branded email notifications
- Content co-pilot
- Automated transcriptions
- Activity scores
- Standard migration services
- Remove Circle branding
Circle Plus
- AI Agents & AI workflows
- Custom single sign-on (SSO)
- Highest limits (Live, Storage, Workflows)
- 10k Email Hub contacts included
- Lower transaction fees
- Sandbox community
Microsoft 365 Business Standard with Copilot
- Work-grounded Copilot in apps such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Microsoft Teams
- Reasoning AI for research and data analysis
- Core identity and access management for up to 300 users
- Desktop, web, and mobile versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook
- Custom business email ([email protected])
- Chat, call, meet, and host webinars with Microsoft Teams
- 1 TB of cloud storage per user
- 10+ additional apps for your business needs (including Microsoft Loop, Clipchamp, Bookings, Planner, and Forms)
- Secure AI built for work, powered by Work IQ, with access to create and use agents
- Automatic spam and malware filtering
- Anytime phone and web support
Microsoft 365 Business Basic
- Core identity and access management for up to 300 users
- Web and mobile versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook
- Custom business email ([email protected])
- Chat, call, and meet with Microsoft Teams
- 1 TB of cloud storage per user
- 10+ additional apps for your business needs (including Microsoft Bookings, Planner, and Forms)
- AI chat experience with web grounding, writing assistance, data analysis, and access to agents
- Automatic spam and malware filtering
- Anytime phone and web support
Microsoft Teams Essentials
Popular- Chat, call, and video conferencing
- Real-time collaboration with file sharing, tasks, and polling
- Team meeting recordings with transcripts and live captions (English)
- 10 GB of cloud storage per user
- Data encryption for meetings, chats, calls, and files
- Anytime phone and web support
Circle vs Microsoft Teams FAQ
- Which one is cheaper?
- Microsoft Teams is the cheaper option, starting at $4/mo vs $89/mo for Circle.
- Can I use either one for free?
- Neither has a free plan. But Circle and Microsoft Teams offer a free trial.
- How do they charge?
- Different approach here. Circle uses hybrid pricing, while Microsoft Teams goes with per-seat. That changes the math depending on your team size and usage.
- Which one is a better deal?
- Depends on what you need. Circle: At $89-199/mo before the custom enterprise tier, Circle sits mid-to-upper market compared to scrappier community tools but undercuts full-blown LMS or membership platforms bundled with marketing suites. They're chasing serious creators and businesses who've outgrown Discord/Slack hacks but aren't ready for a bloated enterprise stack. Microsoft Teams: At $4–$7 for the entry tiers, they're undercutting Slack's paid plans and going toe-to-toe with Google Workspace — this is a volume play to win SMBs already in the Microsoft ecosystem. The $23.50 Copilot tier is a deliberate premium move, betting that AI features justify nearly 3x the cost of Basic.
Still deciding? See the best Circle alternatives or the best Microsoft Teams alternatives, ranked with verified pricing.
Keep tabs on both.
We'll monitor pricing changes for Circle and Microsoft Teams and let you know when something moves.