Who each one is for
Copilot Studio is Microsoft's low-code builder for agents inside the Microsoft ecosystem: Teams, Microsoft 365 Copilot, SharePoint, Dataverse and the Power Platform connectors. If your organisation already runs on Microsoft 365 and wants agents surfaced in Teams and Microsoft 365 Copilot, it is the natural first look.
Harmona is a workspace where people and AI do the work together: Workers with a persistent board, agents grounded in your databases and documents, workflows with approval steps, and a builder that works by conversation. It is built for teams whose data lives in several systems, including ones outside Microsoft, and who need on-premises as an option.
Where Copilot Studio is stronger
- Native to Microsoft 365 Copilot and Teams, with Entra ID authentication out of the box.
- The Power Platform connector library and Power Automate flows for organisations already invested there.
- Usage by Microsoft 365 Copilot-licensed employees is not charged against Copilot Credits for employee-facing agents, per Microsoft's billing page.
- Voice channels and a broad list of messaging channels through Azure Bot Service.
- Tools through Power Platform connectors, REST APIs, MCP servers and computer use, plus deterministic agent flows.
Where Harmona is stronger
- The Worker. A board that refreshes from your sources without a model in the loop, memory and rules, tasks that run while you're away. Copilot Studio agents are conversational or autonomously triggered; there is no persistent personal or team surface.
- Data sources outside Microsoft. PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQL Server, Oracle, Snowflake, SQLite and SAP HANA, resolved Zoho Desk tickets, HubSpot, Jira, Google Drive, SFTP, crawled websites and images, alongside SharePoint and Office documents.
- One approval model everywhere. Outbound actions wait on an approval card in chat, in workflows and in unattended tasks.
- Deployment choice. Cloud in the EU region, private cloud, or your own servers.
- Simple pricing. A monthly credit allowance per plan; widget refreshes cost nothing because they run without AI.
Side by side
| Harmona | Microsoft Copilot Studio | |
|---|---|---|
| Core unit | Workers, agents, workflows, Agent Mode | Agents, agent flows, topics |
| Persistent board with self-refreshing tiles | Yes, 50+ widget types | No board product; agents are conversational or autonomously triggered |
| Knowledge sources | 7 SQL engines, documents, spreadsheets, SFTP, Google Drive, SharePoint, ReadMe.com, Zoho Desk tickets, web pages, images | Public websites, uploaded documents, SharePoint, Dataverse, Microsoft Search connectors |
| Reads with the asking user's permissions | Yes | Yes, for SharePoint, Dataverse and connectors via Entra ID |
| Actions in business tools | HubSpot, Jira, Zoho Desk, Gmail, Outlook, Google Drive, SharePoint, SAP (SOAP/RFC), your own REST/SOAP APIs; 200+ ready-made actions | Power Platform connectors (prebuilt and custom), REST APIs, MCP servers, agent flows, computer use |
| Human approval before outbound actions | Approval card in chat, workflows and tasks | Per tool: an 'Ask the end user before running' switch, off by default; approval actions in agent flows |
| Safety controls | Private data redaction, advice and content restriction, on per agent by default | Content moderation levels per agent; DLP data policies, sensitivity labels and audit logs via Power Platform and Purview |
| Channels | Web app, Microsoft Teams, REST API, your website (Web SDK) | Teams, Microsoft 365 Copilot, SharePoint, custom website, mobile, WhatsApp, Facebook, Azure Bot Service channels |
| Deployment | EU cloud, private cloud, on-premises | Microsoft cloud with geographic data residency, including US Government cloud |
| Pricing model | Trial 14 days; Individual from $8/mo billed annually ($10 monthly); Business from $80/mo billed annually ($100 monthly) with 5 seats; Enterprise custom. Monthly credit allowance; widget refreshes free | $200 per pack per month for 25,000 Copilot Credits per tenant, or pay-as-you-go; generative answer 2 credits, agent action 5, tenant graph grounding 10 |
| Product languages | English and Turkish UI; agents answer in the user's language | Many |
Sources. Accessed 2026-09-18: Microsoft Learn, "Knowledge sources summary", "Key concepts: publish and deploy your agent", "Billing rates and management", "Get access to Copilot Studio", "Add tools to custom agents", "Agent flows overview", "Security and governance"; microsoft.com, Copilot Studio pricing. Harmona: product and security pages on harmona.ai.
How to choose
Pick Copilot Studio if your users live in Microsoft 365 Copilot and Teams, your data is in SharePoint and Dataverse, and you want to stay inside one vendor's licensing. Pick Harmona if your data is spread across SQL databases, a CRM, a ticketing tool and drives; if you want a persistent board per team rather than a chat; if approvals must be the same everywhere; or if on-premises is a requirement. Many teams run both: Copilot for the Office work, a Harmona Worker for the team's operating board.