Research
Primary evidence before summaries
Microsoft Learn, Message Center, official marketplace listings and vendor product, pricing, licence, security and privacy documentation form the preferred evidence layer. News reports are leads, not automatic Microsoft confirmation. That is why the reported retirement is presented beside the conflicting public documentation state.
Every source stores its URL, publisher, retrieval date, status and next review. The build warns when review is close, fails when evidence is overdue, and distinguishes access restrictions such as HTTP 403 from broken 404 or 410 links.
Statements
Important claims carry status and limits
Claims are confirmed, partly documented, conflicting or unknown. Vendor wording remains attributed. Missing evidence is not turned into a negative feature; a price that cannot be read reliably remains unknown rather than becoming zero.
Hands-on findings are claimed only after a reproducible test. Current reviews are documentation-based. When a release log, setup guide and marketplace page show different scopes, we publish the narrowest defensible statement.
Fairness
The same criteria and a positive case for each side
Direct comparisons use the same six fields for both products: agent workspace, inbound channels, cost model, automation, governance, and implementation/operation. Each comparison names at least one situation where the competitor may fit better. General inboxes, Teams-centred bridges and enterprise contact centres are not treated as an identical class.
Free plans, open source and low total cost remain separate questions. A zero price can carry limits; self-hosting creates infrastructure, patching, backup and on-call work. The neutral TCO calculator therefore includes no preset vendor price.
Lifecycle
Indexing is a reversible editorial release
A page is indexed only after it has a distinct intent, at least 300 editorial words, sources, reviewed status, FAQs and useful internal paths. Similar keyword variants are consolidated. Freshness, links, hreflang, canonicals, sitemaps, partner destinations and channel IDs are checked on every build.
Corrections update the claim, evidence and all affected language pages together. A new Microsoft notice, price or licence term takes priority over producing another page. Historical statements retain their date and context.