Microsoft Teams Calling vs Gamma Horizon: Which Is Right for Your Business?
The short answer: Microsoft Teams Calling suits businesses that already live inside Microsoft 365 and want calling folded into the same app as chat and meetings. Gamma Horizon suits businesses that want a phone system built specifically for handling calls well — queues, auto attendants, and detailed reporting — with support from a telecoms partner rather than an IT department.
Neither is universally better. They're built for slightly different jobs, and plenty of businesses end up using elements of both.
What's the Core Difference?
Teams Calling is a feature added on top of Microsoft Teams. Its main strength is that everything sits in one app your team probably already uses daily for meetings and messaging.
Gamma Horizon is a dedicated hosted phone system, built by a telecoms provider specifically for business calling. Call handling — queues, auto attendants, interactive voice response, hunt groups, call recording — is the entire point of the platform, not a feature bolted onto something else.
Which Has Better Call Handling Features?
This is where the difference is most noticeable. Gamma Horizon has been purpose-built for business telephony for over two decades, and it shows in the depth of call management on offer: intelligent call queuing, time-based routing, detailed call reporting, busy lamp fields, and call recording are all standard territory.
Teams Phone covers the essentials — auto attendants, call queues, transfer, forwarding — competently, but it wasn't originally designed as a contact centre or reception platform. Businesses with a busy reception desk or a team fielding a high volume of inbound calls often find Horizon's call handling more capable out of the box.
Which Is Easier to Set Up and Manage?
Gamma Horizon is managed through a single web portal built specifically for phone system administration, and T2K handles the setup and configuration as part of the service. Changes to call routing, users, and features go through one place.
Teams Calling setup depends heavily on which PSTN connectivity method you choose. A Microsoft Calling Plan is straightforward. Direct Routing, by contrast, involves domain verification, DNS records, and a certified session border controller — considerably more technical groundwork, usually needing IT involvement or a specialist to configure it properly.
How Do the Costs Compare?
| Microsoft Teams Calling | Gamma Horizon | |
|---|---|---|
| Licensing model | Microsoft 365 subscription + Teams Phone licence + PSTN connectivity cost | Single monthly cost per user, telephony-specific |
| Setup cost | Varies significantly by connectivity method | Typically included as part of the service |
| Call handling features | Included, but more limited depth | Extensive, built for business calling |
| Support | Via Microsoft or your IT provider | Direct telecoms support from T2K |
Teams Calling can look cheaper on paper if you're only counting the Microsoft licence, but the full cost only becomes clear once you've picked a PSTN connectivity method and factored in setup and management time. Horizon's pricing tends to be more predictable because it's a single telephony-focused cost.
Can You Use Both Together?
Yes, and quite a few businesses do. Gamma offers Horizon for Microsoft Teams, which lets Horizon's telephony network provide the PSTN connectivity behind Teams calling, combining Teams as the interface with Horizon's call handling and network underneath. It's worth exploring if you want the familiarity of calling from Teams without giving up Horizon's more mature call management.
Which Should You Choose?
As a rough guide:
- Choose Teams Calling if your team already works primarily inside Microsoft 365, calling volume is moderate, and simplicity of having one app matters more than advanced call handling.
- Choose Gamma Horizon if you have a reception desk, call queues, or a team handling a meaningful volume of inbound calls, and you want a system built specifically for that job.
- Consider both together if you want Teams as the interface but Horizon's telephony features and network underneath.
The honest answer is that it depends on how your team actually works day to day, not which platform sounds more modern.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Gamma Horizon more expensive than Microsoft Teams Calling? Not necessarily. Teams Calling's headline licence cost can look lower, but once you add PSTN connectivity and setup, the total cost is often comparable — and Horizon's pricing is usually more predictable from the outset.
Can I switch from Teams Calling to Gamma Horizon later? Yes. Numbers can typically be ported across, though it's worth planning the migration properly rather than switching overnight, particularly around call forwarding and auto attendant setup.
Does Gamma Horizon integrate with Microsoft Teams? Yes, through Horizon for Microsoft Teams, which uses Horizon's network to provide calling inside the Teams app itself.
Which is better for a small business with under 10 staff? Both can work well at that size. The deciding factor is usually whether you need proper call queuing and reception features (Horizon) or whether simple calling inside Teams covers what you need (Teams Calling).
Not sure which fits the way your team actually works? Request a quote for independent advice comparing both, or read our full Gamma Horizon review for more detail on what it includes.
