Seat-priced phone system · United States

Grasshopper vs Microsoft Teams Phone Pricing (2026): $5.50 vs $13 per Seat

At ten seats over three years, Grasshopper costs $5.50 per seat per month and the other costs $13.00 — a difference of $2,700 across the term for a ten-seat business.

The published prices are $55.00 a month flat and $13.00, which is not always the same ranking.

Microsoft Teams Phone's figure is the phone license only: it requires Microsoft Teams Essentials license ($4.00 per user per month, paid yearly) or another eligible Microsoft Teams license, billed separately; with it the minimum usable stack is $17.00 per seat at ten seats.

Side by side

The cheapest plan on each side that covers ten seats, United States pricing. Where a plan's user cap is passed at a larger size, the row names the plan the provider moves you to and prices that instead. Sources: Grasshopper checked 2026-09-05 and Microsoft Teams Phone checked 2026-09-05.
	Grasshopper	Microsoft Teams Phone
Cheapest plan that covers 10 seats	Small Business	Teams Phone with Pay-as-you-go Calling (Zone 1 - US)
Published price	$55.00 a month flat	$13.00
On	flat monthly	annual billing
Monthly billing	not published	not published
Minimum seats	1	none stated
Requires first	nothing stated	Microsoft Teams Essentials license ($4.00 per user per month, paid yearly) or another eligible Microsoft Teams license, billed separately
Effective / seat at 1 seat	$14.00 True Solo	$13.00
Effective / seat at 3 seats	$8.33 Solo Plus	$13.00
Effective / seat at 5 seats	$11.00	$13.00
Effective / seat at 10 seats	$5.50	$13.00
Effective / seat at 25 seats	$2.20	$13.00
Effective / seat at 50 seats	$1.10	$13.00
Three-year cost at 10 seats	$1,980	$4,680
Minimum usable stack / seat at 10 seats	$5.50 (nothing required first)	$17.00
Taxes and fees	says nothing about taxes or regulatory fees on its pricing page	states that the price includes communication taxes and fees
Owner	not confirmed	not confirmed

How that is worked out

seats billed = max(seats you have, minimum seats the plan requires) plan per month = published seat price x seats billed three-year cost = plan per month x 36 + setup fee effective per seat = three-year cost / (36 x seats you have) monthly-billing gap = monthly-billing price / annual-billing price flat package = flat monthly price + (seats billed - users included) x additional-user price add-on plans = shown on the provider's page, never ranked (they are not a phone system on their own) calls not included = shown on the provider's page, never ranked (calls are billed per minute, or sold as separate call packages, on top of the seat price) plan at each size = the cheapest plan that covers that seat count; a plan with a user cap hands over to the next one

Nothing else is added. Taxes, regulatory recovery fees, USF and e911 charges are not added to any figure on this site. On taxes and regulatory fees, 2 of the 37 providers state that the price already carries them on at least one plan, 0 publish what they come to, 14 say they are extra without an amount, and 21 say nothing. Where a provider says the price is all-inclusive or includes them, the page says so beside the figure; everywhere else the invoice will be higher than the figure. Where a plan needs another subscription first (a Google Workspace or Microsoft Teams license), that subscription is not in the figure and the page says so. Handset purchases, number porting, international calling and overage are excluded. Every figure here is a floor. The full method is at Method.

Where the answer changes

The answer flips on size. At 1 seat Microsoft Teams Phone is cheaper per seat; at 50 seats Grasshopper is. Minimum seat counts, user allowances and the plan each provider makes you move to are why.
The plan changes as the team grows. Grasshopper moves to True Solo at 1 seat, then Solo Plus at 3 seats. The figures above already price the plan you would actually be on at each size, not the entry plan stretched past its cap.
Only one side's price carries taxes and fees. Microsoft Teams Phone states that the price includes communication taxes and fees; Grasshopper says nothing about taxes or regulatory fees on its pricing page. So the gap on the invoice is wider than the gap above if Microsoft Teams Phone is the cheaper one, and narrower if it is not.
Add the prerequisite before you compare. Microsoft Teams Phone needs Microsoft Teams Essentials license first. If you already pay for it, the figures above are the incremental cost; if not, the total is higher by that subscription.

What is not confirmed on either side

Figures on this page come from each provider's published pages only. These points were not stated there, so the comparison does not include them:

Grasshopper (6 open items)

Taxes and regulatory fees: not stated in the provider's published documentation (checked 2026-09-05).

Ownership: not stated in the provider's published documentation (checked 2026-09-05).

Not confirmed: monthly-billing prices (only "billed annually" and "annual savings over 20%" are published in text).

Not confirmed: whether the $25 and $55 figures are annual-billing or monthly-billing prices (blog table does not say).

Microsoft Teams Phone (8 open items)

Free trial: not stated in the provider's published documentation (checked 2026-09-05).

Max seats: not stated in the provider's published documentation (checked 2026-09-05).

Minimum seats: not stated in the provider's published documentation (checked 2026-09-05).

Ownership: not stated in the provider's published documentation (checked 2026-09-05).

The full list for each provider is on its own page: Grasshopper, Microsoft Teams Phone.

What changed on either side

8 recorded changes across the two providers: 0 on a provider's own page, 8 correcting a figure this site held. The most recent six:

2026-09-05 — Microsoft Teams Phone: correction to our data Teams Phone Standard: pricing model per_seat → add_on. Teams Phone Standard is the phone-system add-on only: it needs a separate Teams license and a calling plan or carrier (Calling Plan, Operator Connect or Direct Routing) before it can place outside calls. It is now shown as a license-only floor and no longer ranked against complete phone systems.
2026-09-05 — Microsoft Teams Phone: correction to our data the three calling plans: tax and fee treatment not held → included. Page states "Price includes communication taxes and fees." for the $13, $17 and $34 calling plans; the page text previously said Microsoft was silent on fees.
2026-09-05 — Microsoft Teams Phone: correction to our data required licence price not held → 7. Microsoft's add-on licensing table names Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Standard or Premium (and Teams Essentials with Microsoft Entra ID) as base licenses for Teams Phone and the Calling Plan bundle. Business Basic is published at $7.00 per user per month paid yearly, so the minimum usable stack is now shown beside the phone price. Whether the $4.00 Teams Essentials offer is the eligible Entra ID edition could not be read, so it is not used.
2026-09-05 — Microsoft Teams Phone: correction to our data required licence price 7 → 4. Microsoft's add-on licensing table lists "Teams Essentials with Microsoft Entra ID" beside Microsoft 365 Business Basic/Standard/Premium as a base license for the Calling Plan bundle and for Teams Phone with separate PSTN connectivity; the Teams Essentials quick-start guide states that Teams Essentials uses Microsoft Entra identity and is the edition sold on Microsoft's website, and the Teams Phone FAQ says Calling Plan "can be added onto Microsoft Teams Essentials". Teams Essentials is published at $4.00 per user per month paid yearly, so the minimum usable stack falls by $3 a seat (Business Basic $7 was used until the eligibility of the $4 edition was confirmed). Teams Essentials is capped at 300 users.
2026-09-05 — Grasshopper: correction to our data plan line-up unknown → True Solo, Solo Plus, Small Business. Three plans read from the vendor's own 2026 blog graphic; the pricing page is geo-blocked outside the US and its table did not render in earlier fetches.
2026-09-05 — Grasshopper: correction to our data True Solo: flat monthly price not held → 14. Read from the blog graphic "Price Per Month (2026)".

Every entry, by month, with an RSS feed: What changed.

Who this is not for

This compares published prices and nothing else. It is not a judgment about call quality, support or reliability, and neither product has been used by us. If the two prices are close, this page will not decide it for you and should not.

Sources

Grasshopper pricing page. checked 2026-09-05
Microsoft Teams Phone pricing page. checked 2026-09-05

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.