A lot takes place on Microsoft Teams today. Since its launch in March 2017, it has acquired a large user base. As of this year, it boasts 280 million monthly active users. Now, a larger user base means it will need to be a versatile platform to keep its users happy. So, it allows third-party apps and integrations on its platform. One such category of apps is standup bots.
Standup bots, as you must know, are apps that automate the process of daily standup meetings for you. They integrate with a number of collaboration platforms, like Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Webex, among others. If your team communicates on Slack, find out how you can run a daily stand-up on Slack here. But if it is Microsoft Teams that is the medium of exchange for you and your team, you will find a number of Microsoft Teams standup bots too.
So, let's have a look at the 3 best free Microsoft Teams standup bots out there that make daily stand-up meetings smooth and easy.
1. Sup Bot
Sup, the first standup bot that we will be talking about, is a powerful tool that gives you and your team an incredible stand-up meeting experience, even on a free plan. Let's grab a look at the details.
a) Standup participants in the free plan
Sup allows the highest number of users on its free plan.
On its free plan, it allows you to run one asynchronous standup meeting with up to 15 participants on a single follow-up.
Its paid plans allow you to run an unlimited number of standup meetings with an unlimited number of standup participants.
Sup's free plan gives you a number of beneficial stand-up features on Microsoft Teams.
b) No limit on stand-up response history
Sup does not limit you from accessing the standup archives as other standup bots that gatekeep you from doing so on a free plan.
It makes all data available at all times for all users. You can access the history of all previous standups, with all the saved data that is never lost.
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An important feature incorporated into its free plan, Sup offers a mood-tracking feature on its daily stand-ups. After enabling this, your team members will be able to anonymously select their mood for the day, and you will be able to get an understanding of team spirit for the day by viewing the average team mood right on the daily stand-up summary, as shown below.
d) Analytics of your stand-up data
Sup gives you access to stats and analytics derived from your daily stand-up. You can view the members who are consistent with their stand-up submissions and who aren't to understand who feels most accountable for their work, the average response time by which the stand-up is answered by most to get an idea of when you can look at all the blockers on the dashboard, and the total number of responses to understand the daily engagement of your team with the stand-up.
e) Customization of stand-up questions
Even on its free plan, Sup offers customization of its questions. You can:
- Edit/Add questions as per your requirements.
- Make questions mandatory or optional.
- Re-order the questions as you think fit.
- Remove the questions you dislike.
The range of customizations offered allows you to tailor the stand-up questions the way you want.
f) Thread messages
In addition to receiving individual standup responses, Sup also enables you to receive responses in a thread. You can do so by enabling the toggle for the same.
Once your team members submit their standup report, you can view it on Teams and start a conversation about the same in threads, as can be seen below.
g) Stand-up summary
Among other features, Sup also allows you to receive a daily stand-up summary on its free plan. You can do so by enabling the toggle for the same.
Enabling this feature ensures that you receive a daily summary of your team's stand-up responses 2 hours after the scheduled time, as shown below.
This daily summary offers a quick glance at the status of the standup, and for more information, you can select the ‘view insights' button and stay updated with all the details.
h) Download stand-up report
Daily summaries, too, aren't enough. To get an overview of how your team has performed over a month, Sup enables you to check the same on its free plan by allowing you to generate reports for all or individual team members for the last 30 days.
i) Schedule responses at a specific time
Apart from receiving a daily summary, if you also wish to receive standup responses at a scheduled time, you can simply enable the toggle for the same and select your preferred time slot.
This helps you to view all stand-up responses at a time rather than checking on them every time a new response gets posted on the team.
j) Scheduled reminders
This Microsoft Teams standup bot allows you to send periodic reminders for all the times that your team members miss answering the stand-up at the scheduled time. You can choose from a range of frequencies (once, twice, or thrice) and a number of intervals (15 minutes, 30 minutes, or one hour) after which you want the reminders to be sent, as shown below.
When your team members do miss a standup, they receive the first notification from Sup to prompt them to submit responses to the standup questions on Microsoft Teams, ensuring the standup is answered.
k) What do you get after the upgrade?
In case you want to run a standup for a team of more than 15 people and would like more stand-up features, Sup offers two paid options for you and your team. What are these paid plans? Let's have a quick look.
- The Pro Plan
Priced at a flat rate of $29 per month for your entire organization, the Pro Plan of Sup offers the following stand-up features:
An unlimited number of stand-ups.An unlimited number of stand-up members.Multiple scheduling options (weekly, biweekly, and monthly).Follow-up level timezone.Custom question type (text, number, options, date, and user).Pre-submission and post-submission messages.Custom reminders.Mood tracking analytics.An unlimited number of reports.Access control.Google Sheets integration.Public holiday schedule. - The Premium Plan
In addition to the above, the Premium Plan, priced at a flat rate of $49 per month for your entire organization, offers the following stand-up features:
Custom stats.Custom feature requests.User-level timezone.Individual holiday schedule.Forms.
l) What do the users say?
Whether you want to go for the free plan or a paid plan, you must know what users have to say about Sup.
Rated 4.9 on Capterra, most users have highlighted Sup's pricing and customer service as one of the pros of using it.
2. Standuply
Next up on our list of free Microsoft Teams bots for daily stand-ups is Standuply. It offers text-based asynchronous stand-ups and an internal Q&A system.
a) Standup participants in the free plan
Standuply allows text-based daily stand-ups for up to 3 respondents only on its free plan. This means it allows you to run daily stand-ups on its free plan, but it will work for you only if you have teams that are significantly small in number.
b) What does the free plan include?
The free plan of this Microsoft Teams bot offers you the following stand-up features for a team of three:
- Stand-ups at the user timezone.
- A welcome message.
- Customizable questions.
- Thread messages.
- Periodic reminders.
c) What do you get after the upgrade?
Standuply offers three different pricing plans:
- The Team Plan is priced at $1.5 per user per month.
- The Business Plan is for $3.5 per user per month.
- The Enterprise plan offers tailored pricing.
After the upgrade, these priced plans lift restrictions on important features like the generation of reports and access to analytics that are unavailable in the free plan and offer other features like voice and video messages.
d) What do the users say?
Standuply has a rating of 4.7 on Capterra.
Most reviewers are content with what Standuply has to offer on its paid plans, while some point out the slow pace at which it loads its features.
3. Standup Alice
The third of the Microsoft Teams bots that we are talking about today is Standup Alice. It is a simple bot that automates the process of your daily stand-ups.
a) Standup participants in the free plan
Standup Alice allows you to conduct stand-ups on its free plan with a capped user limit of four.
b) What does the free plan include?
Standup Alice offers the following stand-up features on its free plan:
- Anonymous stand-up reports.
- Scheduled reminders.
- Customization of questions.
- Custom timezone.
- Thread messages.
- Generation of reports.
c) What do you get after the upgrade?
You can upgrade to either of its two priced plans:
- The Pro Plan charges you at a rate of $1 per user per month.
- The Enterprise plan offers tailored pricing as per your needs.
Its priced plans provide you with a weekly standup bot in addition to a daily standup bot, but that can seem unnecessary since you can schedule a weekly standup on a daily standup bot as well. It also extends its features to other messaging platforms other than Microsoft Teams on its paid plans.
d) What do the users say?
Standup Alice is rated 5 on Capterra.
The only reviewer on Capterra highlights the easy set-up process as its pro and the lack of more features as its con.
Conclusion
It is your team's individual requirements that will decide which free Microsoft Teams standup bot you go for. Whether it is the highest number of allowed users that is your requirement or the specific features that you think are what you will be looking at, there is one listed above for each of your needs. There are also a few that take care of both of these requirements. So, go over the details again and select the one that you think is the one for your A-one team!
