Is Teams Phone or Google Voice still cheap once you count the license underneath?
Summary
Only if you already pay for the base product. Every Teams Phone plan on Microsoft's pricing page says a separate Microsoft Teams license is required, so the cheapest working setup with a US Calling Plan is Teams Essentials at $4 plus Teams Phone at $17, or $21 per user per month on annual billing. Google Voice's team plans are sold as an add-on to a paid Google Workspace plan, which carries its own price.
The Teams Phone math
Microsoft lists four Teams Phone options, all per user per month, paid yearly:
- Teams Phone Standard, $10. No calling to outside numbers until you add a Calling Plan, Operator Connect, or Direct Routing.
- Teams Phone with pay-as-you-go calling (US), $13. A phone number with metered outbound minutes; the price includes communication taxes and fees.
- Teams Phone with Calling Plan (US), $17. In the US, UK, and Canada that means 3,000 outbound domestic minutes; elsewhere it's 1,200.
- Teams Phone with domestic and international calling, $34. In the US, UK, and Canada, 3,000 domestic or 600 international minutes.
Operator Connect brings in numbers from a participating carrier, and Direct Routing connects your own session border controllers to your own carrier. Microsoft's licensing documentation says both still require a Teams Phone license, and the carrier bills its side separately.
The base license became its own purchase in two steps. Microsoft began selling Microsoft 365 and Office 365 suites without Teams in the European Economic Area and Switzerland on October 1, 2023, and on April 1, 2024 the versions of Office 365 E1, E3, and E5 and Microsoft 365 E3 and E5 that include Teams stopped being available to net new subscribers worldwide.
On the business side, Microsoft's license table lists "Teams Essentials with Microsoft Entra ID" and Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Standard, and Premium as the subscriptions Teams Phone can be added to.
Zoom folds the base product into the price
Each of Zoom Phone's three plans comes attached to a Zoom Workplace tier. US & CA Unlimited adds calling to Workplace Basic for $16 per user per month billed annually ($18 monthly). Pro Plus bundles Workplace Pro with phone for $20.50 annually ($24 monthly), and Business Plus bundles Workplace Business for $24.50 ($29). Set against the $21 Teams pair, Pro Plus comes in 50 cents lower with no second license involved.
Google Voice
As a Workspace add-on, Google Voice Starter is $10 per user per month for up to 10 users, Standard is $20 with no user cap and on-demand recording, and Premier is $30 with automatic recording. The add-on version works in 14 countries. There's also a "Get Voice Only" Starter plan at $10 for one user, US only, which doesn't fit a shared business line.
We couldn't read Workspace's own prices from Google's pricing page during this review, so they aren't listed here. A company that would sign up for Workspace only to get Voice has to add that subscription to the $10 to $30 per user.
Sources
- microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-teams/microsoft-teams-phone
- microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-teams/essentials
- learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/teams-add-on-licensing/microsoft-teams-add-on-licensing
- microsoft.com/en-us/licensing/news/Microsoft365-Teams-EEA
- microsoft.com/en-us/licensing/news/Microsoft365-Teams-WW
- workspace.google.com/products/voice
- zoom.us/pricing/zoom-phone
Related on this site
- Is the $10 Microsoft Teams Phone license enough to call regular phone numbers?
- Can a small business use Google Voice without paying for Google Workspace?
- Which Zoom Phone plan do you need if all three include the same calling?
- What does a year of business phone service cost for a 10-person team?
- How much do call recording, texting, and AI features add to a business phone plan?
Written by Kaz (pen name). Figures are copied from providers' published pricing pages on the dates shown. We have not used these products. Corrections: contact form.