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Productivity · head to head

Bluedot vs Microsoft 365

Bluedot logo

Bluedot

Productivity

Bot-free meeting recorder and AI note taker that runs as a browser extension

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Microsoft 365 logo

Microsoft 365

Productivity

Subscription bundle of the Office applications with mail, storage, meetings and organisational identity

From
$7/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Bluedot has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Bluedot cancelling ends access immediately and recordings are permanently deleted after thirty days, so the product is unsuitable as a meeting archive and any record you need to keep must be exported before the subscription lapses.; Microsoft 365 business plans are capped at 300 seats, so an organisation that grows past that must move to Enterprise plans, which changes both the price per user and the feature mix at the moment it can least afford a migration project.
  • They diverge on capability: Bluedot covers Bot-free capture, Microsoft 365 covers Office applications.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Bluedot and Microsoft 365 actually diverge.

Attributes where Bluedot and Microsoft 365 differ
AttributeBluedotMicrosoft 365
Starting priceFree$7/month
Pricing modelPer recording user per monthsubscription
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsWeb, Chrome, macOS, Windows, iOS, AndroidWeb

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated), category (Productivity).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Bluedot

  • Bot-free capture
  • Transcript-based video editing
  • Custom note templates
  • Record-only seat pricing
  • CRM and ATS push
  • Imports
  • Webhooks
  • SSO and SCIM

Only in Microsoft 365

  • Office applications
  • Hosted services
  • Teams
  • Microsoft Entra ID
  • OneDrive storage
  • Device management and endpoint protection
  • Purview compliance
  • Copilot

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Bluedot

  • A sales team where prospects decline to admit recording bots but the manager still needs call notes in the CRMnot Microsoft 365
  • A recruiter conducting interviews who wants a structured summary per candidate without a visible third party in the callnot Microsoft 365
  • A customer success team of thirty where only four people run calls, so per-recorder pricing costs a fraction of a per-seat competitornot Microsoft 365
  • Cutting a short clip from a long call to share internally, done by deleting text from the transcript rather than opening a video editornot Microsoft 365

Microsoft 365

  • Any organisation that wants mail, documents, meetings and identity from one supplier on one bill.not Bluedot
  • A company standardising on single sign-on, where Entra ID becomes the account other services authenticate against.not Bluedot
  • Regulated work that needs retention, legal hold and eDiscovery across mail and documents, provided the tier that includes them is actually bought.not Bluedot
  • A household that needs installed Office applications on several machines rather than browser-only editing.not Bluedot

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Bluedot

  • Cancelling ends access immediately and recordings are permanently deleted after thirty days, so the product is unsuitable as a meeting archive and any record you need to keep must be exported before the subscription lapses.
  • The Basic tier at $14 records audio only and caps recordings at one hour, which excludes most workshops, training sessions and long client calls and pushes anyone with real meetings to Pro.
  • The free tier gives five meetings in total rather than five a month, so it functions as an extended trial and cannot be used as a genuine free option for occasional users.
  • Recording without a visible bot removes the prompt that alerts participants, but not the consent obligation in jurisdictions requiring all parties to agree, and the product design makes that omission easy to overlook.
  • It is a small independent vendor in a category where Zoom, Microsoft and Google now bundle equivalent summarisation into subscriptions customers already hold, which is sustained pressure on both pricing and survival.

Microsoft 365

  • Business plans are capped at 300 seats, so an organisation that grows past that must move to Enterprise plans, which changes both the price per user and the feature mix at the moment it can least afford a migration project.
  • The compliance capabilities most organisations eventually need, including retention, data loss prevention, advanced eDiscovery and insider risk, sit at the top tier or in add-ons, so the real cost surfaces after an audit or a customer questionnaire rather than at purchase.
  • Annual term subscriptions commit you for the year and month-to-month terms cost measurably more per seat, so the flexibility to reduce seats during a quiet period is bought at a permanently higher rate.
  • Entra ID becomes the identity for everything else the organisation uses, which is the hardest kind of lock-in to put a number on, because leaving means re-federating every connected application rather than simply replacing a word processor.
  • The licensing model is complicated enough that most organisations are either over-licensed or quietly non-compliant, and reconciling it usually requires a partner or a specialist, which is a recurring cost that never appears in the advertised per-user figure.

Pricing, plan by plan

Bluedot

Free
  • FreeFree
    • 5 meetings in total, not per month
    • Chrome extension and desktop and mobile apps
    • Basic integrations
  • Basic$14/month
    • Unlimited audio meetings
    • One hour maximum per recording
    • Webhook access
  • Pro$20/month
    • Video meetings as well as audio
    • No recording duration limit
    • Custom templates
  • Business$32/month
    • CRM and applicant tracking integrations
    • SSO and SCIM
    • Admin controls

Microsoft 365

$7/month
  • Microsoft 365 Business Basic$7/month
    • Email and calendar with 50 GB mailbox
    • Web and mobile versions of Office apps
    • Microsoft Teams included
  • Microsoft 365 Business Standard$14/month
    • Desktop versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook
    • Email and Teams
    • 1 TB cloud storage per user
  • Microsoft 365 E5$60/month
    • Comprehensive security and compliance
    • All productivity apps
    • Advanced analytics

Which should you pick?

Choose Bluedot if

  • You need bot-free capture.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, Chrome, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android.
  • You also want transcript-based video editing.
Bluedot review

Choose Microsoft 365 if

  • You need office applications.
  • You also want hosted services.
Microsoft 365 review

Questions people ask

Is Bluedot or Microsoft 365 better?
Neither clearly leads. Bluedot starts at Free and Microsoft 365 at $7/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Bluedot or Microsoft 365?
Bluedot has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Bluedot and $7/month for Microsoft 365.
Does Bluedot or Microsoft 365 run on more platforms?
Bluedot runs on Web, Chrome, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android. Microsoft 365 runs on Web.
Can I use Bluedot for free?
Yes. Bluedot has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Microsoft 365 starts at $7/month.
What is Bluedot best used for?
Bluedot is most often used for a sales team where prospects decline to admit recording bots but the manager still needs call notes in the crm, a recruiter conducting interviews who wants a structured summary per candidate without a visible third party in the call, a customer success team of thirty where only four people run calls, so per-recorder pricing costs a fraction of a per-seat competitor, cutting a short clip from a long call to share internally, done by deleting text from the transcript rather than opening a video editor. Of those, a sales team where prospects decline to admit recording bots but the manager still needs call notes in the crm and a recruiter conducting interviews who wants a structured summary per candidate without a visible third party in the call are not what Microsoft 365 is typically brought in for.
What can Bluedot do that Microsoft 365 cannot?
Bluedot covers Bot-free capture, Transcript-based video editing, Custom note templates, Record-only seat pricing. Microsoft 365 covers Office applications, Hosted services, Teams, Microsoft Entra ID.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Bluedot: Does Bluedot join the meeting as a bot?

No. It captures through the browser extension or desktop app, so no additional participant is visible to anyone in the call.

Microsoft 365: What is the difference between Microsoft 365 and Office?

Office was a one-off licence for a specific version. Microsoft 365 is a subscription covering the applications and the hosted services together, and when payment stops the applications drop to a reduced state rather than continuing as they were.

Bluedot: How is it priced?

Per workspace, with charges only for users who record. Free covers five meetings in total, Basic is $14, Pro is $20 and Business is $32 a month on annual billing.

Microsoft 365: Is Teams included?

Not automatically for newer customers. Microsoft unbundled Teams and now sells it alongside the suite, so check what a given quotation actually covers.

Bluedot: What happens to my recordings if I cancel?

Access ends at cancellation and recordings are permanently deleted after thirty days. Export anything you need to keep before you cancel.

Microsoft 365: What happens to our files if we stop paying?

The documents remain yours and can be downloaded, but access to hosted mailboxes and sites ends after a retention window, so leaving requires a planned export rather than a cancellation.

Bluedot: Can I record video, not just audio?

Only from the Pro tier. Basic is audio only and limits each recording to one hour.

Microsoft 365: Is Copilot part of the subscription?

No. It is a per-user add-on on top of the base licence, generally with its own term commitment, and it is priced per seat regardless of how much any individual uses it.

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