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Microsoft Teams vs RocketChat: What are the differences?
Introduction
Microsoft Teams and RocketChat are both popular communication and collaboration tools used by teams and organizations. While they share some similarities, there are key differences that set them apart in terms of features, functionality, and integrations.
Integration with Microsoft ecosystem: The main advantage of Microsoft Teams is its seamless integration with other Microsoft tools and services such as Office 365, SharePoint, and Outlook. This allows users to access and collaborate on files, documents, and appointments directly within the Teams platform. On the other hand, RocketChat offers a wide range of integrations with various third-party services, making it a flexible option for teams using different software tools.
License and cost: Microsoft Teams is available as part of the Office 365 suite, with different plans and pricing options depending on the organization's needs. RocketChat, on the other hand, is an open-source platform that can be downloaded and installed for free, making it a more cost-effective solution for smaller teams or organizations on a tight budget.
Customization and extensibility: RocketChat provides a highly customizable and extensible platform with access to the source code, allowing teams to modify and tailor the software to their specific requirements. Microsoft Teams, while offering some customization options, has more limited extensibility compared to RocketChat.
User interface and user experience: Microsoft Teams has a sleek and user-friendly interface, with an emphasis on simplicity and intuitive navigation. It offers a polished user experience, especially for users already familiar with the Microsoft Office suite. RocketChat, on the other hand, has a slightly less refined user interface but offers a more flexible layout and customization options for individuals who prefer a more personalized experience.
Video conferencing and calling features: Both Microsoft Teams and RocketChat offer video conferencing and calling capabilities, but Microsoft Teams has the advantage of natively integrating with other Microsoft tools such as Skype for Business. This integration provides a more seamless and familiar experience for users already using Skype.
Security and compliance: Microsoft Teams has robust security measures in place, including data encryption, multi-factor authentication, and compliance with industry standards such as ISO 27001 and HIPAA. RocketChat also offers security features like two-factor authentication, GDPR compliance, and end-to-end encryption but may require additional configuration and customization depending on the deployment environment.
In summary, Microsoft Teams stands out for its tight integration with the Microsoft ecosystem, user-friendly interface, and video conferencing capabilities, while RocketChat offers more customization options, cost-effectiveness, and a wide range of integrations with third-party services. Ultimately, the choice between the two platforms depends on the specific needs and preferences of the team or organization.
Mattermost sports higher performance, uses Postgres, is a pure server side application not using up too much of system resources on the client side, and gives an overall enterprise grade impression in general.
Updates go smooth without a hassle, everything is organised logically, and the integration with the OS is absolutely stable. Apart from that, the underlying runtimes and code are mature, proven and stable.
The developers are maybe a bit more cautious in regard to introducing new features, but they maintain a stable experience, not breaking the codebase in order to hastily implement bells and whistles, which are not yet ready for production. Documentation and debugging are fantastic, so running this in enterprise production environment is absolutely approved of.
As it is the communication tool chosen for the course, our team will be using Slack to monitor the course announcements from our instructor as well as to communicate with the instructor and industry partners. The tool for communicating within the team will be Microsoft Teams. Microsoft Teams enables the team to share documents and edit them synchronously(Google Drive is not an option due to one team member's location). Since it also provides a group chat feature, we chose to use it as our communication tool to avoid using too many softwares.
Communication We have chosen two tools for our team communication.
- Slack
We choose Slack since all of us are familiar with this communication tool. We have a private channel for our team Sphinx for text messages. We added Github apps inside our private channel for repo update notifications. Furthermore, we could contact the subject matter experts within the workspace DCSIL directly for the issues we meet.
- Microsoft Teams
We use Microsoft Teams for virtual meetings for its fast connection speed. In addition, the call feature in Slack is a paid feature, and we could have virtual meetings and share screens for free in Microsoft Teams.
We chose RocketChat over other communications suites like Cliq or Slack mainly because we can self-host it on our own infrastructure. Since we have quite some projects going on which demand that we stay in touch with a lot of different stakeholders, pricing was an issue, too. With RocketChat, we have a huge set of features basically for free, RC offers apps for all major devices and systems and overall, we're very happy with it. The only downside is the limited amount of apps and integrations, but we can make due with what we have available.
we were using slack
and at the same time we had a subscription with office 365. after a while we hit the slack free limitation quota. and it got annoying. the search ability was useless in free tier. and more annoying whenever you search, it opens a webpage and doesn't do it in the app.
on mobile there were many cases that I didn't get notification of important discussions. rooms was the way to separate a talk. but it become tedious. each time for a new subject that you wanted to discuss, you needed to add all the team members into a new room. and after a while the room goes silent. you will end up with a tons of not-in-use rooms that you don't want to clean up them for history purposes. also the slack UI for sub discussion is very stupid. if someone forget to check the checkbox to post the subdiscussion in the main discussion thread, other team members even won't notice such discussion is in progress.
we was paying for office 365 and thought why not give the teams a shot. we won't be in worth situation than we are. we moved to teams and we loved it instantly, we had a separate tab aggregated all the files upload. we could reply on other talk. no need of creating a new room. this way room belongs to a team and not a certain topic. our sub discussion was visible to the whole team. enjoyed integration with azure and unlimited history. the best part was integration with outlook. it was a full suit solution. our stats become busy on outlook meeting events. we get weekly analyse. we didn't need to host our wiki seperated. we've created wiki per team. the communication was much more fun.
Pros of Microsoft Teams
- Work well with the rest of Office 365 work flow29
- Mobile friendly24
- Free19
- Great integrations12
- Well-thought Design12
- Channels10
- Easy setup9
- Unlimited users6
- Strong search and data archiving5
- Easy to integrate with5
- Web interface4
- Multi domain switching support4
- Same interface on multiple platforms3
- Great voice quality2
Pros of RocketChat
- Open source72
- Can be deployed on premise38
- Byos (bring your own server)32
- Faster than Slack30
- Mobile app for iphone, ipad, and ipod touch21
- Built using meteor19
- Desktop client for mac and windows19
- Easily deployed on Cloud Services (Heroku, etc)13
- Screen Sharing10
- Excellent support & service, bar-none9
- Video and audio9
- Web client6
- Mobile app for android phone, tablet, and tv stick5
- Docker Image for easy setup5
- Open source5
- Multiple Security integrations - LDAP etc5
- Amazing product, fast moving development, and BYOS5
- Great development team4
- Free4
- Datacontrol4
- Love it - running on R Pi 22
- Open source server2
- Slack bridge1
- Broadcast & Readonly channels1
- Linux Client Support1
- Flexible Integrations1
- Ldap integration1
- 0
- Threading model0
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Cons of Microsoft Teams
- Confusing UI17
- Bad performance on init and after quite a use12
- Bad Usermanagement10
- No desktop client (only fat and slow electron app)6
- Can't see all members in a video meeting6
- Unable to Mute users5
- No Markdown Support5
- You don't really own your messages4
- MIssing public channels4
- Forced WYSIWYG4
- Stubborn, unused friendly3
- Challenging Onboarding3
- No linux support3
- Audio support problems1
Cons of RocketChat
- No full markdown support1
- Mobile app in Enterprise version only1
- Many basic features require plugins1
- Visioconference support is external1
- No screen recorder1
- Few options for user customization1
- Limited message history on SaaS1
- Poor user customization1
- Hard to upgrade1
- Not as well-known as others like it1