Copilot or Claude? Which we'd choose and why

If you run a business on Microsoft 365, someone has probably tried to sell you Copilot. It's the question I get asked most right now: is it worth it?

My honest answer is that for most of the businesses we look after, Copilot isn't where I'd start. At Superfast IT we use Claude Team every day, and when I compared the two on our own work, Claude did more of what I needed and did it better.

That doesn't make Copilot a bad product. There are teams I'd still point towards it, and I'll say which ones below. But if you asked me which one I'd pay for first, it's Claude.

Here's how I got there.

Where Copilot is good

Copilot's strength is that it lives inside the apps your people already have open all day. It's in Outlook, Teams, Word, Excel and PowerPoint from day one. Claude now has add-ins for Excel, Word and PowerPoint, and one for Outlook in beta, so the gap is smaller than most people think. Teams is where Copilot is still clearly ahead.

For some teams, that matters a lot. If your week is mostly Teams calls, Copilot's meeting recaps are genuinely handy: who said what, what was agreed, and who owns the actions. In Outlook, it can summarise a long email thread so you can see what needs to be done without reading 30 replies.

It can also search across your Microsoft 365 data, so you can ask for "the latest version of the Henderson proposal" instead of remembering which SharePoint folder it's in. It only shows people what they already have permission to see. That's the right design, but it means any messy permissions you have today become very visible the day you switch it on. We see this a lot. If everyone can open the HR folder, Copilot will happily summarise it for them.

And because it's Microsoft, it's billed through the licensing you already have and managed in the same admin centre. For a finance director, one supplier and one invoice is a real plus.

Where Claude did better for us

The work that eats our time isn't really email triage. It's reading a long contract or tender and pulling out what matters, turning rough notes into a proposal a client will read, working through a spreadsheet to find out why a number moved, or drafting a policy that has to be accurate.

On that kind of work, Claude was better. The writing needed less fixing; it handled long documents without losing the thread, and it was more willing to say "this doesn't add up" rather than produce something confident and wrong.

The clearest test for me was writing LinkedIn posts. I need drafts that sound like me, not like a press release, and that's hard to get right. Claude got there far more often and needed much less rewriting before I'd put my name to it.

Claude Team also lets us set up projects: a shared space where we keep the background documents for a piece of work, so nobody has to explain the client or the brief from scratch each time. That's where a lot of our time saving comes from.

It isn't stuck outside Microsoft either. The add-ins mean people can use Claude inside the spreadsheet, document or deck they're working on. Claude can connect to Microsoft 365, so people can point it at files in SharePoint or OneDrive, emails in Outlook, and Teams chats and meetings. On the Team plan, there's also enterprise search: a shared space, set up by your admin, where people can ask a question, and Claude searches across your connected company sources to answer it. That's the same "find the latest Henderson proposal" job Copilot does. Each person signs in with their own account and only reaches what they already have access to, and admins choose which connections are allowed.

What they cost

Price isn't the deciding factor here. They're close enough that I'd choose based on what the tool does for your team, not on the licence fee.

At the time of writing, Microsoft 365 Copilot Business, the version for firms with up to 300 users, costs from £16.10 per user per month on top of your Microsoft 365 subscription. Microsoft also sells Business Standard and Business Premium bundles that include Copilot.

Claude Team costs £180 per user per year on an annual plan, which works out at £15 per month, or about £18 per month if you pay month-to-month. The minimum is two people. Heavy users can have a premium seat at £900 a year. Those are the prices we pay ourselves.

Both vendors change their pricing often, so check before you buy.*

Data and security: the same rules apply to both

Whichever one you choose, the basics don't change.

These are the rules we follow ourselves, taken from our own AI policy.

Only use tools you've approved, on company accounts with multi-factor authentication. On their business plans, neither Microsoft nor Anthropic trains its models on your data by default, and nobody should switch on a setting that changes that. Free and personal accounts don't offer the same protection or admin control, and right now that's how most staff use AI: on their phones, on personal accounts, with company information.

Check what it can reach. Both tools can connect to your Microsoft 365 data. Before you switch either one on, make sure people can only open the files they should. This is the part most businesses skip, and it's the part that causes problems.

Have a person check anything that goes to a client. AI gets things wrong and sounds sure of itself while it does. A named person checks client-facing work against the source before it goes out, and AI never signs anything off.

If AI can act, a person approves. Both tools are starting to do things and answer questions. A person should approve before an AI tool changes anything important or sends anything outside the business.

Write it down. A short AI policy covering approved tools, what never goes in and what needs approval first does more good than any setting. Our guide to using AI safely includes a template you can adapt.

There's one honest difference. Copilot keeps everything inside your Microsoft agreement. Claude means adding Anthropic as a supplier, so it needs to be checked like any other: where data is held, what the contract says, and whether that fits your obligations. For most of our clients, that's a short exercise. For a regulated firm, it needs to be done properly before anyone signs up.

When I'd still choose Copilot

I'd lean towards Copilot in two situations: your team spends most of the day in Teams meetings and wants help with exactly that, or your compliance team needs everything with one supplier and won't approve another.

Otherwise, I'd start with Claude, even if you're on Business Premium. Most of our clients are, and that's still what I'd tell them.

How to start without wasting money

My biggest gains haven't just come from clever use cases. They've come from finding a task that takes 20 minutes and asking whether AI can cut it to 5.

My best example is getting ready for a client review. The information I need lives in several different systems and reports, so pulling it together used to take an hour or more before I'd even started thinking about the client. Now Claude gathers it from our systems and puts it in a single report, and my time goes on checking it and deciding what to say.

That's the test I'd use in your business too. Don't license everyone on day one. Pick five people who do a lot of writing, reading or analysis, give them a paid plan for a month, and ask each of them to find three tasks that got noticeably quicker. Then decide.

Who those five people are depends on your business. In manufacturing, it's usually the office and sales team, not the shop floor. In professional services, start with whoever lives in long documents and meeting notes, because that's where any AI assistant pays back fastest. Charities should start with the few people who'll use it most and check for charity pricing before committing, because licence costs add up quickly across a stretched team.

Already paying for Copilot licences nobody uses?

That's more common than you'd think. Licences get bought in a burst of enthusiasm, a few people try them, and then they sit there on the monthly bill.

Book a free 20-minute AI readiness review with us. We'll look at what you're paying for, who's using it, and whether it's earning its keep. If the right answer is to keep Copilot, we'll tell you that.

Book your free 20-minute AI readiness review

Questions we get asked

Is Microsoft Copilot worth it for a small business?

It can be, if your team spends most of the day in Outlook and Teams and wants help with meetings and email. For businesses that mainly need help with writing, reading long documents and analysis, we think Claude Team is the better place to start.

Can Claude work with Microsoft 365?

Yes. Claude Team can connect to Microsoft 365, allowing people to work with their own files and emails. It also has add-ins for Excel, Word and PowerPoint, with Outlook in beta. Each person can only access what they already have permission to see, and admins control which connections are enabled.

Is it safe to use AI with company data?

It's much safer on a paid business plan than on free accounts. Check what the tool can reach in your systems, tidy up file permissions first, and give staff a short policy on what not to put into it.

Can we use both?

You can, but most small businesses don't need to. Pick one, trial it with a few people, and measure what changes before paying for a second tool.

*Prices were checked on 2 November 2026