Koaich vs. Microsoft Teams
The enterprise default.
What Microsoft Teams optimizes for
Microsoft's Customer Key offers at-rest encryption under customer-held keys — but only on the top-tier E5 plan, only at rest, and Microsoft still decrypts at runtime for search, AI, and content delivery.
- ·Customer Key available on M365 E5 only ($57+ per user/month)
- ·At-rest protection only — runtime is still server-readable for Copilot, search, indexing
- ·Customer-run Azure Key Vault HSM required for the property to hold
Where Koaich is different
Customer Key has the same architectural caveats as Google CSE: limited surfaces, enterprise-only licensing, customer KMS required. Day-to-day Teams chat is server-readable by Microsoft. For a 20-person company, the path from 'I want Teams' to 'I want Teams with E2E across all surfaces' is months of enterprise procurement.
Pick Microsoft Teams when
You're paying for E5 + Purview, accepting that Customer Key covers at-rest only (not runtime), and the partial protection is enough for your compliance posture.
Pick Koaich when
You want E2E across every surface as the default, not as a top-tier enterprise add-on.
Questions people ask about Microsoft Teams and Koaich
Is Microsoft Teams end-to-end encrypted?
Microsoft Teams chat and meeting content is encrypted in transit and at rest, but Microsoft holds the keys at runtime. Teams supports optional E2E for one-to-one calls (admin-enabled, both parties opt in) — not for group chats, channels, files, or meeting recordings.
What does Microsoft Customer Key actually protect?
Customer Key encrypts data at rest under customer-supplied keys (via Azure Key Vault HSM). Microsoft still decrypts at runtime to serve features like Copilot, search, and indexing. Available only on the M365 E5 plan.
Can Microsoft read my Teams messages?
On default tiers, yes — Teams stores content in a form Microsoft's services can read to power search, Copilot, and compliance features. On E5 with Customer Key, encryption-at-rest is under your keys, but runtime processing still requires Microsoft to access cleartext.
What's a simpler end-to-end encrypted Teams alternative?
Koaich provides end-to-end encryption across every surface — messages, files, documents, group rooms — by default at small-business pricing, without E5 licensing or a customer-managed KMS.
Switching from Microsoft Teams?
Get on the waitlist. Invites are going out in waves.