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 an open-source collaboration platform, licensed AGPL-3.0 and hosted in the European Union, 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 an architecture you can read, and where the data sits when the question is asked.
| Dimension | Enclessa | Microsoft Teams |
|---|---|---|
| Source code | Open source, AGPL-3.0, reviewable in full | Proprietary |
| End-to-end encryption of messages | Direct and group direct messages, MLS per RFC 9420, always on | Microsoft 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 it | Hosted in the EU by us; self-hosting available on Enterprise | Operated by Microsoft, with regional data-boundary commitments |
| Office suite | None. Files are stored and displayed, not co-authored | Deep Word, Excel, PowerPoint and SharePoint integration |
| Application ecosystem | First-party modules only; no third-party code runs | A very large third-party app store |
| Telephony | Not offered — no PSTN, queues or attendants | Full telephone system available as an add-on |
| Included modules | Task boards, GitHub sync, time tracking and HR records | Available through separate Microsoft products and third-party apps |
| Leaving | Full organisation export; documented data model and OpenAPI | Export tooling exists; the surrounding ecosystem is the switching cost |
Statements about other products come from their own public documentation and describe the position at the time of writing. Vendors change what they offer; check the current documentation before making a decision on the strength of this page.
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.
The hosted service runs in the European Union under a German seller, and where a mandate goes further than that, the same release can be licensed to run on your own infrastructure — which is an answer Teams does not have at all.
AGPL-3.0 means the claims on this site are checkable against source rather than against a trust centre page. For a security review that is the difference between evidence and assurance.
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.
This section is here because a comparison page without one is an advertisement. If any of these describe you, buy the other product.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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