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Coding Cords vs Microsoft 365

Microsoft 365 is Outlook, Teams, OneDrive, Word, Excel and Planner on one Microsoft sign-in, with Copilot as a paid add-on. Coding Cords covers mail, chat, files and projects too, and adds CRM, invoices, e-signing, a client portal and AI in the same workspace.

Try Coding Cords

14 days, up to 10 people, no card

Prices and features last checked 14 October 2026. Products change; tell us if something is out of date.

Choose Coding Cords if

You want mail, chat, files, projects, sales and invoices in one workspace, with AI included for everyone and one admin area in place of several admin centres.

Stay with Microsoft 365 if

Your team works in Excel and PowerPoint all day★, you need single sign-on through Microsoft Entra★, or you manage laptops and phones centrally.

Use both if

Keep Microsoft 365 for the Office apps and move the rest. Outlook can read your Coding Cords mail, and your Word and Excel files open in Files.

We run Coding Cords on Coding Cords: our own mail, projects, sales and invoices live in it.

Side by side

Each Microsoft 365 job, and where it lives in Coding Cords

Microsoft prices are list prices from Microsoft's own page, with the day we read them. Where a part of ours isn't built yet, it carries a star.

Microsoft 365Coding Cords

Mail and calendar

Mail on your own domainOutlook mail comes with Microsoft 365 Business plans. Business Standard with Copilot is $23.50 a person a month billed yearly.Checked 14 Oct 2026 · sourceMailboxes on your domains, shared mailboxes, server-side rules, send later and undo send. Outlook and Apple Mail can read it too.
CalendarOutlook calendar.Your calendar is your timesheet: drag a task onto it and the block is the time record. Meeting types, public booking links, and with a Coding Cords mailbox your task time shows in your phone's calendar app. Outlook calendar sync is on the way.★

Documents and files

DocumentsWord, with files kept in OneDrive and SharePoint.Word documents on real A4 or Letter pages, with headers, footers and page numbers. Several people type at once. Download as .docx or PDF, or upload a .docx and keep editing it. If a file holds something the editor can't keep, such as tracked changes, it tells you which before you edit.
SpreadsheetsExcel.Real .xlsx files open in a grid with sheet tabs, formulas across sheets and number formats, and save back as .xlsx. One person edits at a time. Excel goes much further than this.
PDFsWe haven't compared Microsoft's PDF editing.Highlight, underline, strike out, draw, type text, add notes, arrows and pictures right on the PDF, fill the fields it has, and place a signature from a photo of your own. Versions are kept and any can be restored.
FilesOneDrive for personal files, SharePoint for team sites.Company files and a Files tab in every project, as a list or a grid with real thumbnails. Open a file and the list narrows beside it. Right-click, drag and drop, whole folders at once.

Work

Projects and tasksPlanner.Boards, subtasks, dependencies, repeating tasks, templates and workload. A timeline view lays tasks out as bars by person: drop one on another and the rest shift along, and a bar dragged past its due date turns red.
Chat and meetingsTeams.Channels and threads, voice messages with transcripts, and any message turned into a task. Video meetings with screen share and a live English transcript, then notes, decisions and suggested tasks. Guests join from a link. Recording is on the way.★
Time trackingA timesheet tool beside Microsoft 365.Press Start on a task and its block runs on your calendar. Reports by person, client and day, with a billable switch on each entry.

Sales

CRM and dealsDynamics 365 or another CRM, bought separately. We haven't priced either.People, organisations, pipelines, deal health flags such as "No next step", a call list for the morning, forecast and win rates. A won deal becomes a project. Company plan.
Proposals and signingA signing tool beside Microsoft 365.Proposals with a link the client opens, where optional items switch on and off and the total follows. Send any document for signature in an order you set. Signers confirm with an email code and the sealed PDF ends with a certificate of signing. Simple e-signature: no SMS or ID check.
Cold emailA sending tool beside Microsoft 365.Sequences with branches, sales mailboxes with warm-up, and sending that pauses itself when a domain's health drops. Company plan.
FormsMicrosoft Forms.Forms with conditional questions. An answer can become a lead, a task or a document, and be emailed to teammates.
Client portalA portal tool beside Microsoft 365.Clients sign in and see what needs them: an invoice to pay, a contract to sign, a message to answer. Per project you choose the progress and folders they see. Their messages arrive in your Chat.

Money

InvoicesAn invoicing or accounting tool beside Microsoft 365.Invoices with tax, recurring invoices and credit notes. Tracked time turns into a draft invoice, by project or by person. The client's pay page shows your bank details and a QR code. No card payments yet.★
Expenses and payroll recordsSeparate tools.A receipt photo fills in the expense, claims wait in an approval queue, and pay runs and payslips are kept monthly. No tax calculation or filing.
BookkeepingQuickBooks, Xero or similar.Not something we do. Keep your accounting tool.

Calling and AI

Phone numbers and callsCalling numbers from Teams takes a separate Microsoft phone licence. We haven't priced it.Numbers from 8 countries, calls, and texts that live in Chat. Voicemail and call recording are on the way.★
AICopilot Business is an add-on that needs a Microsoft 365 licence. $18 a person a month billed yearly for the first year (regular price $21), or $25.20 billed monthly.Checked 14 Oct 2026 · sourceCord is built in, with an AI allowance for every person on every plan. Your own AI tools can work in Coding Cords too, through MCP.

Admin and security

Passwords and secretsA password manager beside Microsoft 365.A Vault encrypted in your browser, with shared collections, secret sets by environment and one-time codes. We can't read what is in it. Names and labels are not encrypted.
Admin centresThe Microsoft 365 admin center, with separate admin centres for Teams, SharePoint, Microsoft Entra and Microsoft Intune.Checked 14 Oct 2026 · sourceOne Settings area for people, access, billing and AI.
Sign-inA Microsoft work account for each person, managed in Microsoft Entra.One sign-in for everything, with passkeys and two-step. Single sign-on is on the way.★
Try Coding Cords

14 days, up to 10 people, no card

Why people switch

What the day looks like with separate tools

Four moments that change when mail, files, work, sales and money share one workspace. Each is something Coding Cords does today.

The hours, then the invoice

Your team plans the week by dragging tasks onto their calendars. Those blocks are the time record, so there is no timer to start and no timesheet to fill in on Friday. Team › Time shows what each client is owed, and Bill turns it into a draft invoice with the lines already written.

The client's Word file

A client sends a contract as a .docx. It opens in Files on a real page and saves back as a .docx. If it holds something the editor can't keep, such as tracked changes or footnotes, an amber note names what editing would drop, and the original stays in Versions. Then one click sends it for signature.

From enquiry to signed

A web form answer becomes a lead and a task. The lead becomes a deal, the deal gets a proposal the client accepts on a phone, and the contract goes out for signature. The client follows it all in their portal, and their messages land in your Chat. Nothing is copied between tools.

Who is doing what, and when

A project's timeline shows every task as a bar, one lane for each person. Drop a bar on another and the later ones move along, so a gap or a pile-up is easy to fix. Move a task to someone else and it warns you first if they already have time booked on it.

AI

Cord is built in. Copilot is an add-on.

Microsoft sells Copilot Business on top of a Microsoft 365 licence. In Coding Cords the AI is part of the plan: every person gets a monthly allowance, and Cord works across the whole workspace.

AI on its own, dollars a month, list prices before tax. The table shows what each side charges, not what each does.
5 people12 people
Copilot Business add-on, $18 a person, billed yearly, first-year promotionChecked 14 Oct 2026 · source$90$216
Copilot Business add-on, regular $21 a person, billed yearlyChecked 14 Oct 2026 · source$105$252
Copilot Business add-on, $25.20 a person, billed monthlyChecked 14 Oct 2026 · source$126$302.40
Coding Cords Starter: AI allowance included in the planOur pricing$25 of AI use$60 of AI use

  • It sees what you are looking at

    Press ⌘J on any screen. Cord knows the page, the rows you selected and the document you have open, so "remind the selected clients" works on those three invoices.

  • It asks before what can't be undone

    A small change you plainly asked for happens at once, with Undo. Sending an invoice, for example, waits until you hold a button.

  • It edits like a colleague

    In a document, Cord proposes tracked changes word by word. Each one has Accept and Reject, and nothing changes until you choose.

  • It listens in meetings

    With the transcript on, Cord catches a task when someone says it and asks you to keep it, with the name and the date.

  • It finds things by meaning

    Search "hotel receipt from Lisbon" and the photo of the till slip comes up, with the expense and the chat thread that go with it.

  • The AI bill is readable

    Settings › AI shows spending for each person and model, with monthly limits for each feature.

Cord can read a spreadsheet you attach. Editing its cells is on the way★. More AI than the plan includes starts at $8 a person a month.

Your own AI tools can work in it too

Coding Cords runs an MCP server, so any AI tool that supports MCP, such as Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and Antigravity, can read and change your tasks, projects, files, CRM, invoices, calendar and more, with over 150 tools. Each person makes their own key in Profile › AI, so the tool has that person's permissions and nothing more, and every change shows in the audit log under the key's name. Copy-paste setup is there for Claude Code, Codex and Antigravity. The Vault is left out on purpose.

The whole cost

What it costs, in money and in time

Money is one part of the cost. The other is the time it takes to run Microsoft 365: licences to assign, an admin centre for each part, and a bill that counts each product. Here is the money for 5 and 12 people, then the admin work.

Dollars a month, list prices before tax. The Microsoft lines are the bundles with Copilot, as Microsoft's page lists them. Business Standard without Copilot is not shown: we couldn't read its price on Microsoft's own page that day.
5 people12 people
Microsoft 365 Business Standard with Copilot, $23.50 a person, billed yearlyChecked 14 Oct 2026 · source$117.50$282
Microsoft 365 Business Standard with Copilot, $28.20 a person, billed monthlyChecked 14 Oct 2026 · source$141$338.40
Microsoft 365 Business Premium with Copilot, $32 a person, billed yearlyChecked 14 Oct 2026 · source$160$384
Coding Cords Starter, billed yearlyOur pricing$142$317
Coding Cords Company, billed yearlyOur pricing$325$668

The Microsoft bundles cover mail, Teams, the Office apps and Copilot. They don't include CRM, invoices, e-signing, a client portal or time tracking, and we haven't priced the tools people add for those. Coding Cords includes them on the plans above.

Running it

Adding a person
Microsoft 365In the Microsoft 365 admin center, go to Users, Active users, Add a user. You enter their name, domain and password settings, choose a product licence, and can make them an admin. You need to be a licence or user administrator.Their guide, checked 14 Oct 2026 · source
Coding CordsOne form in Settings › Access: their email and a role. The seat goes on the bill at the same moment. Their mailbox can be made in the same step.
Removing a person
Microsoft 365Delete the account, then choose what happens to their email and OneDrive files. You have 30 days to restore it. The guide says you are still paying for the licence until a billing admin removes it under Billing, Your products, and on an annual plan that waits until the commitment ends.Their guide, checked 14 Oct 2026 · source
Coding CordsRemove them once. They're signed out everywhere and the seat comes off the bill.
Changing what someone can open
Microsoft 365Admin roles such as User, Billing, Exchange, Teams and SharePoint administrator. Microsoft recommends the role with the fewest permissions and as few global administrators as possible.Their guide, checked 14 Oct 2026 · source
Coding CordsSwitch whole parts of the workspace on or off for a person, in the same place. Company plan.
Knowing where a setting lives
Microsoft 365The guide notes that the roles in the Microsoft 365 admin center are a subset of those in the Microsoft Entra admin center and the Microsoft Intune admin center.Their guide, checked 14 Oct 2026 · source
Coding CordsOne company, one Settings area. There is no second place to look.
Seeing what you pay
Microsoft 365Billing, Your products in the admin center, with licences counted for each product.Their guide, checked 14 Oct 2026 · source
Coding CordsOne bill in Settings › Billing, with AI spend shown for each person.

Fair to say

When Microsoft 365 fits better

Microsoft 365 is the better choice for some companies, and we'd rather say so here.

  • Your work is in Excel: pivot tables, charts and heavy models. Our spreadsheets cover formulas, sheet tabs and number formats, and edit real .xlsx files, but Excel goes much further.
  • You present in PowerPoint. Presentations are on our roadmap★.
  • You need single sign-on★ or SCIM★, or you manage laptops and phones centrally. We have no device management.
  • You need apps from the App Store or Google Play★, desktop apps★ or to work offline★. Today Coding Cords runs in the browser, on phones too.
  • You record meetings★ or hold them in languages other than English★. Our transcripts are English only for now.
  • You need a vendor with SOC 2 or ISO 27001 certification of its own. We hold neither yet.

Moving over

How the move works

You can move one part at a time and keep Microsoft 365 running until you're ready.

  1. Keep Microsoft 365 running

    You don't have to cancel anything first. Check the renewal date: Microsoft's own guide says that on an annual plan you can't remove licences until the commitment ends.

  2. Bring your mail

    Move each mailbox in over IMAP, or from an mbox file. Your Microsoft admin may need to allow IMAP for the mailbox first. Your domain stays yours: you point its DNS records at Coding Cords, and Coding Cords shows you the exact records and checks them.

  3. Keep Outlook if you like

    App passwords let people read their Coding Cords mail in Outlook or Apple Mail while they get used to the rest.

  4. Bring your files and contacts

    Upload Word and Excel files, or whole folders, and they open in Files. Import people and organisations from a CSV or vCard file and merge any duplicates.

  5. Leave whenever you want

    Mail exports as mbox, documents as PDF or DOCX, and contacts, invoices and form responses as CSV. If a plan ends, the company turns read-only, so people can still read and export, and the data is kept for 30 days.

Talk to us about moving over

Try Coding Cords

14 days, up to 10 people, no card

Questions

Questions people ask

Can we keep using Outlook?

Yes. Make an app password in Coding Cords and add the mailbox to Outlook or Apple Mail over IMAP and SMTP. Your domain's mail then lives in Coding Cords while people keep the app they know.

Will our Word files open?

Yes. A .docx opens in the same editor as a document made in Coding Cords and saves back as .docx, keeping fonts, tables, pictures, headers and page setup. If a file has something the editor can't keep, such as tracked changes, charts or footnotes, you see which before you choose to edit, and the original stays in Versions.

And Excel files?

A .xlsx opens in a grid with its sheets, formulas and number formats. When you save, only the cells you changed are written into the original workbook. There are no charts or pivot tables here, no font colours or fills, and no conditional formatting, and Excel goes much further than our spreadsheets. Try a real workbook of yours before you rely on it.

Is AI extra?

Every person gets a monthly AI allowance with the plan. If someone needs more, AI tiers start at $8 a person a month. Unused AI doesn't carry over to the next month. Microsoft sells Copilot Business as an add-on on top of a Microsoft 365 licence.

Does Cord do what Copilot does?

They work in different places. Copilot works inside Microsoft's apps. Cord works across everything in Coding Cords: your tasks, clients, invoices, files and meetings. We haven't compared the two feature by feature, so judge on a trial with your own work.

Which Microsoft prices are on this page, and where are the others?

Only prices we read on Microsoft's own Copilot pricing page on 14 October 2026. We couldn't read the price of Business Standard without Copilot on Microsoft's own page that day, so it isn't here. If you pay a different price, your own figure is the one that counts.

What won't Coding Cords replace?

The Office desktop apps: Excel for heavy modelling and PowerPoint for slides. Presentations are on the roadmap. It also doesn't replace your accounting: we send invoices and record expenses, but we don't keep the books.

Can the whole team try it first?

Yes. The trial is 14 days of the Company plan for up to 10 people, with no card. Phone numbers and Outreach are off during the trial.

Try it on your own work

Start with mail and one project, then bring the rest over when you're ready.

Try Coding Cords

14 days, up to 10 people, no card

★ On our roadmap. Released once it's tested.