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Comparison

Enclessa vs Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is a proprietary collaboration suite bundled with Microsoft 365 and operated by Microsoft, with an enormous application ecosystem and deep integration into Office. Enclessa is a commercial hosted platform run in the European Union by a German company, whose direct messages are end-to-end encrypted with MLS. The decision is usually not about features: it is about whether you want an ecosystem you buy into or a platform whose architecture is published and whose export is a button, and where the data sits when the question is asked.

Open betaThe platform is being built in the open, so parts of it are not there yet, behaviour changes between releases, and no availability figure is committed while it is in beta. What is still being built.

Side by side

Enclessa compared with Microsoft Teams
DimensionEnclessaMicrosoft Teams
What is published for reviewArchitecture, data model, OpenAPI surface and encryption designProduct documentation and a trust centre
End-to-end encryption of messagesDirect and group direct messages, MLS per RFC 9420, always onMicrosoft documents end-to-end encryption for one-to-one calls as an opt-in setting; channel and chat messages are encrypted in transit and at rest rather than end to end
Who operates itHosted in the EU by us; a dedicated deployment on Enterprise, also run by usOperated by Microsoft, with regional data-boundary commitments
Office suiteNone. Files are stored and displayed, not co-authoredDeep Word, Excel, PowerPoint and SharePoint integration
Application ecosystemFirst-party modules only; no third-party code runsAn established third-party app store
TelephonyNot offered — no PSTN, queues or attendantsFull telephone system available as an add-on
Included modulesTask boards, GitHub sync, time tracking and HR recordsAvailable through separate Microsoft products and third-party apps
LeavingFull organisation export; documented data model and OpenAPIExport tooling exists; the surrounding ecosystem is the switching cost

Statements about other products come from their own public documentation and describe the position as last checked on 18 August 2026. Vendors change what they offer; check the current documentation before making a decision on the strength of this page.

Why teams pick Enclessa

The encryption question has one answer

In Enclessa a direct message is end-to-end encrypted with MLS and there is no administrator override, no key escrow and no setting that quietly turns it off. That is a property of the room, not a policy somebody has to maintain.

Sovereignty without a paperwork exercise

The hosted service runs in the European Union under a German seller, and where a mandate goes further than that, Enterprise buys a dedicated deployment in a region you name, still operated by us — which is an answer Teams does not have at all.

The parts a reviewer needs are published

The architecture, the data model and the OpenAPI surface are documented, and the confidentiality guarantee rests on MLS per RFC 9420 through OpenMLS — an IETF standard and an audited open-source implementation — rather than on a scheme of ours. For a security review that is a specification to check instead of a trust centre page to believe.

The adjacent work is included

Task boards, GitHub sync, time tracking and personnel records are modules of the same platform on one permission model, rather than four products with four invitation lists.

When Microsoft Teams is the better choice

This section is here because a comparison page without one is an advertisement. If any of these describe you, buy the other product.

You live in Office

If your organisation’s day is Word, Excel, PowerPoint and SharePoint, Teams sits inside that in a way nothing else can. Enclessa does not edit documents and never will.

You need a phone system

PSTN calling, call queues and auto attendants are explicitly out of scope for Enclessa. If Teams is replacing your telephony, this is not a comparison you should be reading.

You depend on a specific third-party app

Enclessa runs no third-party code. If a vendor’s Teams app is load-bearing for your process, that is a hard requirement Enclessa does not meet.

You already pay for it

Teams is bundled with Microsoft 365. If you hold those licences anyway, the marginal cost of Teams is zero and Enclessa has to be worth its price on its own merits.

Where to next

Questions

vs Microsoft Teams: common questions

Is Enclessa a Microsoft Teams alternative?

Yes, for messaging, video calls and the work around them. Enclessa does not replace the Office document suite or Teams telephony, so it is a Teams alternative for organisations whose priority is confidentiality, European hosting and a published architecture rather than Office integration.

Does Microsoft Teams have end-to-end encryption?

Microsoft documents end-to-end encryption for one-to-one Teams calls as a feature an administrator enables; channel and chat messages are documented as encrypted in transit and at rest rather than end to end. In Enclessa, direct and group direct messages are end-to-end encrypted with MLS by default and cannot be switched off.

Can Enclessa replace Teams for a public authority?

For collaboration, often yes — that is the case the public sector page is written for. It cannot replace the Office document suite or a Teams-based phone system, so a migration usually keeps those and moves the conversation.

Encrypted collaboration, hosted in Europe.

Create a workspace in a couple of minutes. It is yours at your-team.enclessa.app, hosted in the European Union, with encrypted direct messages from the first one you send.

Open beta. Free plan, no payment card to start.