Microsoft Teams Alternatives 2026: 5 Free Options
Microsoft Teams alternatives: Jitsi Meet, Google Meet, Rocket.Chat, Zulip and 1 more. Prices and licenses checked October 22, 2026.
•3 min read•Team Chat, Meetings & Phone
Verdict:Leave Microsoft Teams when the reason is cost or self-hosting, not when you still live in Microsoft 365 documents. Teams comes bundled with Microsoft 365, so a company already paying for that suite saves nothing by moving only its meetings. For a team that wants free video calls, Google Meet and Jitsi Meet are the obvious picks. Google Meet's free plan allows up to 100 participants and 60 minutes per group meeting. Jitsi Meet is open source, and the hosted meet.jit.si service limits meetings to 95 minutes from October 9, 2026, so plan for that if you use it. Zoom is a meeting-first product whose basic plan caps meetings at 40 minutes, which is short for long team calls. For chat with channels, Rocket.Chat and Zulip are free to run yourself. Zulip organises conversation by topic, which suits engineering teams that read long threads, while Rocket.Chat is the closer like-for-like replacement for Teams channels. The trade-off is that none of these replace Teams' tight integration with Word, Excel and SharePoint. If your daily work sits in those files, a Teams replacement will feel like a downgrade. Pick Jitsi or Rocket.Chat when you want to own the server, and Google Meet when you already run Google Workspace.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Price | Platforms | Best for | Tested |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jitsi Meet | Free (free; meetings on meet.jit.si limited to 95 minutes from October 9, 2026) | Web browser, Self-hosted | Free calls on your own server | Docs only |
| Google Meet | Free (Free plan: up to 100 participants and 60 minutes per group meeting) | Web, iOS, Android | Google Workspace teams doing short calls | Docs only |
| Rocket.Chat | Free (Free self-managed workspace; no user cap stated) | Web, Self-hosted | Self-hosted team chat with channels | Docs only |
| Zulip | Free (Cloud Free: 10,000 messages of search history, 5 GB storage; self-hosted free with all features); paid from $6.67 per user/month, Cloud Standard, billed annually ($8 billed monthly) | Web, Self-hosted | Async chat organised by topic | Docs only |
| Zoom | Free (Basic plan: meetings up to 40 minutes and 100 participants, 3 AI meeting summaries a month, 5 clips of up to 2 minutes); paid from $14.16 per user/month, billed annually (Pro; $16.99 billed monthly) | Web, Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android | Meetings with external guests | Docs only |
| Slack | Free (90 days of message history, 1:1 huddles only, up to 10 apps); paid from $7.25 per user/month, Pro, billed annually ($8.75 billed monthly) | Web, Desktop, Mobile | Team chat | Docs only |
| Webex | Free (Free plan: unlimited meetings up to 40 minutes and 100 attendees, local recording, unlimited whiteboards and messaging) | Web, Windows, macOS, iOS, Android | Video Meetings | Docs only |
Independent comparison. Paid placements are labelled separately; editorial links earn no affiliate commissions. Learn more.
Good fit if
- You want free calls and you own the server (Jitsi Meet is the pick)
- You already run Google Workspace (Google Meet is the pick)
- You want self-hosted chat with channels (Rocket.Chat is the pick)
- Your team works in long topic threads (Zulip is the pick)
Not ideal if
- You rely on Microsoft Teams features or integrations that these tools do not replicate
Microsoft Teams today: Free (Teams Free: group meetings up to 60 minutes and 100 participants) (Microsoft Teams pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Why people look for Microsoft Teams alternatives
Teams limits follow the Microsoft licence you hold. Free Teams meetings are capped at 60 minutes and 100 participants; Teams Essentials and the Microsoft 365 Business plans allow 300, and 1,000 needs an enterprise plan. Calls started from a chat stop at 20 people, chat attachments at 10 files of 100 MB, and a recording ends at 4 hours or 1.5 GB. File sharing in teams and private chats depends on SharePoint and OneDrive for Business.
Jitsi Meet
Compared with Microsoft Teams: Free open-source video meetings; the hosted meet.jit.si service limits meetings to 95 minutes from October 9, 2026. Against Teams you lose Office integration and admin controls, but you can run it on your own server at no licence cost.
Price: Free (free; meetings on meet.jit.si limited to 95 minutes from October 9, 2026) (Jitsi Meet pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web browser, Self-hosted. Apache-2.0 (open source).
Project activity: 30.2k GitHub stars · latest release stable/jitsi-meet_11248 (Sep 14, 2026) · last commit Oct 27, 2026
Best for: Free calls on your own server.
Google Meet
Compared with Microsoft Teams: Free plan allows up to 100 participants and 60 minutes per group meeting. Against Teams you lose chat and file tabs inside one app, but calls and calendar links need no Microsoft tenant.
Price: Free (Free plan: up to 100 participants and 60 minutes per group meeting) (Google Meet pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web, iOS, Android. Proprietary.
Best for: Google Workspace teams doing short calls.
Rocket.Chat
Compared with Microsoft Teams: Free self-managed chat workspace. Against Teams you lose Microsoft 365 document editing and the managed admin center, but you host the server and pay no licence fee.
Price: Free (Free self-managed workspace; no user cap stated) (Rocket.Chat pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web, Self-hosted. MIT core with a separate license for the ee folder (open source).
Project activity: 46.3k GitHub stars · latest release 8.9.0 (Oct 5, 2026) · last commit Oct 28, 2026
Best for: Self-hosted team chat with channels.
Worth knowing: Commercial plan pricing is quote-only.
Zulip
Compared with Microsoft Teams: Zulip organises chat by topic rather than by channel; cloud Free caps search history at 10,000 messages and storage at 5 GB. You lose Microsoft 365 integration, but the core chat costs nothing.
Price: Free (Cloud Free: 10,000 messages of search history, 5 GB storage; self-hosted free with all features); paid from $6.67 per user/month, Cloud Standard, billed annually ($8 billed monthly) (Zulip pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web, Self-hosted. Apache-2.0 (open source).
Project activity: 26.1k GitHub stars · latest release 12.3 (Sep 21, 2026) · last commit Oct 27, 2026
Best for: Async chat organised by topic.
Worth knowing: Self-hosted Basic is $3.50 per user/month billed monthly.
Zoom
Compared with Microsoft Teams: Meeting-first product with a basic plan that caps meetings at 40 minutes and 100 participants. Against Teams you lose persistent team chat and built-in file storage, though meetings are simpler to join from any device.
Price: Free (Basic plan: meetings up to 40 minutes and 100 participants, 3 AI meeting summaries a month, 5 clips of up to 2 minutes); paid from $14.16 per user/month, billed annually (Pro; $16.99 billed monthly) (Zoom pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web, Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android. Proprietary.
Best for: Meetings with external guests.
Other popular options (paid)
Slack
Compared with Microsoft Teams: Pro is $7.25 per user per month billed annually ($8.75 monthly), and a free plan exists. Roundups name it first; it is a channel-based messaging tool built as Teams' direct rival.
Price: Free (90 days of message history, 1:1 huddles only, up to 10 apps); paid from $7.25 per user/month, Pro, billed annually ($8.75 billed monthly) (Slack pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Webex
Compared with Microsoft Teams: The free plan allows unlimited meetings up to 40 minutes and 100 attendees, with local recording and unlimited whiteboards and messaging. That is a shorter meeting cap than Teams Free's 60 minutes.
Price: Free (Free plan: unlimited meetings up to 40 minutes and 100 attendees, local recording, unlimited whiteboards and messaging) (Webex pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Which one to pick
- You want free calls and you own the server: Jitsi Meet
- You already run Google Workspace: Google Meet
- You want self-hosted chat with channels: Rocket.Chat
- Your team works in long topic threads: Zulip
Limits of this review
Docs-only for Jitsi Meet, Google Meet, Rocket.Chat, Zulip, Zoom: we did not install or run them, so feature claims come from vendor pages and we did not test import from Microsoft Teams. Vendor prices and free limits change; confirm on the linked pricing page before you buy or migrate.
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Kevin Fan
Kevin Fan is a SaaS founder. He runs Free Instead Of, which tracks free and open-source alternatives to paid software and checks each price and free-plan limit against the vendor's own pages.
Methodology
Based on official pricing and product pages checked 2026-10-22: Microsoft Teams, Jitsi Meet, Google Meet, Rocket.Chat, Zulip, Zoom, Slack, Webex. Prices, free limits and licenses are the figures shown on those pages on those dates. No tool on this page was installed or run. No accounts were created.