Microsoft Teams and Zoom Workplace are two of the most prominent solutions within the UCaaS space.
Yet, in recent years, both tech giants have made big moves to extend into CCaaS and are enjoying early success.
As this success builds, both brands will likely go further to unify their enterprise communications solutions.
Indeed, Zoom has brought Workplace and its Contact Center onto one unified platform, which includes conversational AI, workforce engagement management (WEM), and much more.
Meanwhile, Microsoft has extended Teams Phone across the Dynamics 365 Contact Center, so the solutions share a unified voice platform.
In pushing further into the CCaaS space with UCaaS-adjacent solutions, Microsoft and Zoom strive to disrupt the market.
However, they may also steal food off one another’s plates.
Given this, let’s see how they stack up on UCaaS and CCaaS.
Microsoft vs. Zoom: UCaaS Offerings
Zoom and Microsoft are leaders in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS).
Interestingly, while Microsoft Teams ranks slightly higher in the report, Zoom Workspace has a slightly better score on Gartner Peer Insights and G2, the verified customer review sites.
On both, Zoom scores 4.6 out of 5 stars compared to Microsoft’s 4.4 (as per June 2025).
Microsoft Teams has a larger install base, with over 320 million monthly active users.
Most organizations have stuck with the platform thanks to Microsoft’s familiar interface and alignment with Office 365.
Zoom Workplace, by contrast, is the up-and-coming challenger. After dominating pandemic-era video, Zoom needed a reinvention.
Recognizing this, Zoom launched Workplace in 2024, including persistent chat, whiteboards, collaborative documents, task apps, and a free AI assistant.
Microsoft Teams: Strengths and Cautions
One of the biggest benefits of Microsoft Teams is how deeply it’s integrated with the rest of the Microsoft ecosystem.
For companies already investing in Microsoft 365, Teams feels like home. Everything from Word docs to Outlook calendars lives inside the same pane of glass.
Teams is reliable, with 99.999 percent uptime guarantees, and it offers a range of PSTN connectivity options (with Direct Routing and Operator Connect).
Plus, Copilot is embedded into everything, ready to summarize meetings, draft replies, surface data from connected apps, and more.
Microsoft also offers businesses deep security and compliance features, alongside modular add-ons like the “Queues” app for smaller contact centers.
However, there are some downsides. The PSTN connectivity options can be confusing, particularly for small organizations.
Companies with advanced telephony needs, such as requirements for SMS or advanced call recording, often find themselves needing to rely on external integrations.
On its own, Teams also lacks the functionality to perform as a full contact center for SMBs. Plus, accessing advanced features can be expensive. For instance, Copilot costs $30 per user per month.
Zoom Workplace: Strengths and Cautions
Zoom Workplace excels in its ease of use, as evidenced by its best-in-class UI.
From the UI, meetings, chat, and collaboration feel like part of the same product, not bolted together. Plus, there are plenty of specialist options available for companies in specific industries.
Zoom also prioritizes customer support. The organization has a robust reputation for addressing problems quickly and efficiently.
Beyond that, Zoom’s AI innovation catches the eye. For example, its AI Companion can now do much more than summarize meetings. It can generate follow-ups and tasks, assign action items to team members, and translate content in real-time.
The company is even experimenting with a federated approach to AI, which allows its models to rank models by use case to maximize the performance of AI.
Still, Zoom lacks the enterprise suite depth offered by Microsoft. Although it has solutions for task management and online Docs, it doesn’t have broader options like the Power Platform or Microsoft Dynamics (though it does have its contact center suite).
While Zoom is now a leader in UCaaS, some larger enterprises question its long-term roadmap. Is it trying to replace Microsoft, or coexist with it?
Microsoft vs. Zoom: Which Is Best for UCaaS?
From a UCaaS perspective, both companies have a lot to offer.
For the most part, many companies will still choose Teams if they’re already deeply embedded in the Microsoft ecosystem, and they’re looking for intuitive ways to build workflows across systems like Teams, Power BI, and SharePoint.
Zoom is more likely to appeal to companies in search of a simpler, lightweight experience that works well out of the box and offers access to intuitive AI capabilities. It can also position itself as the leading alternative, which will appeal to Microsoft-averse buyers.
Microsoft vs. Zoom: The CCaaS Showdown
Zoom and Microsoft are relatively new to the CCaaS space, with the latter only entering the market in July 2024.
However, Microsoft wants to differentiate with its Copilot-first approach and embedded AI agents, with three already packaged as part of the Dynamics 365 Contact Center.
The company also uses its broad Dynamics 365 ecosystem to align CCaaS with other CRM apps and enable that often-touted 360-degree view of the customer.
Zoom is also AI-first. Yet, like with its UCaaS offering, it prioritizes ease of use. That’s valuable in a market usually defined by complexity.
Additionally, Zoom Contact Center customers can leverage WEM and the Zoom Virtual Agent as part of the same platform, extending its capabilities significantly.
Microsoft Contact Centers: Strengths and Cautions
The Microsoft Dynamics 365 Contact Center benefits from the company’s close relationship with OpenAI, enabling fast and relatively cost-efficient AI innovation.
Copilot assists agents in real-time, offering suggestions, automating routine tasks, and providing real-time support during customer interactions.
In addition to embedded AI agents, Microsoft customers can create and customize their own via the Copilot Studio.
The close connections with Microsoft’s broader product portfolio, including Microsoft Teams, Power, and the broader Dynamics 365 platform, are also noteworthy.
Alongside the Dynamics 365 Contact Center, Microsoft also presents alternative CCaaS options to smaller customers.
For instance, the Microsoft Teams Queues app is perfect for smaller organizations that want to add basic voice-based service solutions to their existing UCaaS system.
With the Unify model (replacing Microsoft’s previous Power model for contact center integrations), companies can also choose to align Microsoft Teams with a third-party contact center solution.
Microsoft’s focus on flexibility is quickly helping it to earn a real place in the contact center market, although it’s still lacking in a few areas.
For instance, Microsoft doesn’t have a robust WEM solution (unlike Zoom). That means companies still need to rely on integrations for certain tools.
Plus, Microsoft is still very new to the CCaaS market. The Dynamics 365 Contact Center only launched last year, and many companies are choosing competitive CCaaS integrations for Teams over Microsoft’s own native solution.
Zoom Contact Center: Strengths and Considerations
Zoom’s biggest strength is its simplicity, driven by its team’s drive to create consumer-grade technology for the enterprise.
As such, companies can get their system up and running quickly, often without worrying about third-party support and partnerships.
For businesses investing in UCaaS and CCaaS, Zoom also makes it easy to experiment with swarming features.
While Microsoft offers a similar capability, contact centers can push contacts to external subject matter experts (SMEs) on the same platform without losing customer context.
Plus, like Microsoft, Zoom is heavily invested in AI, empowering companies to take advantage of its AI Companion without extra fees.
Additionally, organizations have the freedom to connect Zoom with their existing apps and workflows, as well as external telephony options.
They may also turn on adjacent technologies that work as one with the Zoom Contact Center. Zoom Virtual Agent and WEM are two excellent examples here.
Plus, Zoom is its own customer. It resolves about 97 percent of customer queries with its own virtual agents, which helps to generate trust among customers.
It also gained around 1,250 contact center customers with its contact center, within two years of launching in CCaaS. That’s impressive in such a crowded market.
But just as companies have questioned Zoom’s approach to UCaaS, many enterprises also remain uncertain about how the company will continue in the CCaaS space. The UCaaS + CCaaS offering still doesn’t attract a lot of larger enterprises.
Presenting a compelling vision for the contact center of the future will be key to sustaining its CCaaS growth over the long term.
Microsoft vs Zoom: Which Is Best for CCaaS?
Both Microsoft and Zoom are adopting a similar approach to contact center solutions, ensuring they’re deeply integrated with their existing systems, flexible enough to support a range of businesses, and powered by AI capabilities.
Microsoft’s contact center offerings through Dynamics, integrations, and the Teams Queues app, however, do present a lot of options to prospective customers.
Meanwhile, Zoom is better established in the space and can boast a strong list of reference customers.
Microsoft vs Zoom: The Case for a Unified Enterprise Communications Strategy
Realistically, companies don’t actually need to choose between Zoom and Microsoft. Zoom has its own contact center integration option for Microsoft Teams. Both companies support companies looking to mix and match various offerings and tools.
However, it makes sense for businesses to consider using the same vendor for UCaaS and CCaaS. Aligning unified communications and contact center capabilities with the same vendor streamlines technology management. It also enhances collaboration and ensures businesses drive consistent user experiences across systems.
For businesses that decide to take a unified approach, choosing between Microsoft and Zoom is all about priorities. Microsoft will appeal to companies looking for a deeply integrated ecosystem. It also has the “no one ever got fired for choosing Microsoft advantage.”
Zoom grabs the attention of organizations looking for flexible, user-friendly platforms, straightforward pricing, and rapid deployment options.
Learn more about the top benefits of aligning UCaaS and CCaaS platforms here.
