Comparison
Belowdecks and Microsoft Copilot Studio compared point by point
Copilot Studio is Microsoft’s tool for building your own agents that work with Teams, Outlook and SharePoint. With Belowdecks, our team installs AI agents for you and monitors their work. This page compares the two for a small business.
Two ways to hand work to AI
Microsoft Copilot Studio is a graphical low-code studio to build and manage agents and workflows. Agents are published in Teams, in Microsoft Copilot, on a website and in other channels. Triggers and flows rely on the Power Platform: connectors, environments, data policies and Power Automate. Event triggers, which start an autonomous agent, work in English (United States) only. Since August 2026, Copilot Studio offers three execution engines, called harnesses, which do not have the same features or the same billing.
With Belowdecks, our team installs AI agents in your business that do the repetitive work, then monitors their work and adjusts them every month. An agent does a piece of work from start to finish, such as answering a quote request received by email. Before an important action, the agent waits for your go-ahead, and it asks your team when information is missing.
Copilot Studio therefore suits a business that already works in Microsoft 365 and has, in house or through a partner, the skills to build and administer its agents. Belowdecks suits a business that prefers to hand this work to our team.
Copilot Studio and Belowdecks, line by line
The facts about Copilot Studio come from Microsoft’s documentation and licensing pages, checked on October 6, 2026. Several features depend on the harness and the license.
What you get
- Copilot Studio
- A studio to build your own agents
- Belowdecks
- Agents installed and monitored by a team
Who builds and maintains it
- Copilot Studio
- You or a Microsoft partner
- Belowdecks
- The Belowdecks team, from diagnostic to follow-up
What starts the work
- Copilot Studio
- SharePoint, OneDrive, Dataverse, email, schedule
- Belowdecks
- An email, a schedule, another app, a new row in a list
Your go-ahead before an important action
- Copilot Studio
- Power Automate approvals; multistage in preview
- Belowdecks
- Set up at installation to wait for your approval
Where approval happens
- Copilot Studio
- Teams, Outlook or Power Automate
- Belowdecks
- In your Belowdecks workspace, or from an email
When information is missing
- Copilot Studio
- A form sent by Outlook, inside your tenant
- Belowdecks
- The agent asks your team and waits
Assistant for your customers
- Copilot Studio
- Website and other channels, billed in credits
- Belowdecks
- Assistant on your site; the customer confirms the request
Where data is hosted
- Copilot Studio
- Storage in Canada possible; AI in the US
- Belowdecks
- Your Belowdecks workspace; region agreed at the diagnostic
AI bill
- Copilot Studio
- Copilot Credits, or included in a Microsoft Copilot license
- Belowdecks
- Billed in your name by the AI provider
Monitoring the work
- Copilot Studio
- Monitor and Activity pages, cap per agent
- Belowdecks
- A result for each task, a monthly report
Help and support
- Copilot Studio
- Certified partners; self-paced training
- Belowdecks
- The Belowdecks team
Pricing structure
- Copilot Studio
- Credit packs, prepurchase or pay-as-you-go
- Belowdecks
- From $449 a month, setup quoted separately
Choosing
The situation where each one fits best
Both options meet real needs. The right choice depends mostly on the licenses you already have and the skills your team has.
Copilot Studio fits better if
Your employees already have Microsoft Copilot licenses and the work happens in Outlook, SharePoint and Teams. You have Power Platform skills in house or through a partner, or you need Microsoft’s governance and certifications.
Belowdecks fits better if
You want to hand over a complete piece of work, from the request received to the finished work, without building or administering the agents yourself. Important actions must wait for your go-ahead, and our team monitors the agents’ work every month.
Common questions about Belowdecks and Copilot Studio
We already have Microsoft 365. Is Copilot Studio included?
Partly. Some Microsoft 365 subscriptions include a Teams plan that allows classic agents in Teams only, without generative orchestration or Power Platform connectors. The Microsoft Copilot license, sold separately, covers agents used by an employee who has that license, in Teams, Microsoft Copilot or SharePoint, under their identity.
An agent offered to your customers on a website, agent flows started by a trigger other than an agent, and everything that runs on the GitHub Copilot harness use Copilot Credits, bought in packs or paid as you go.
Does the data stay in Canada with Copilot Studio?
Copilot Studio can store an environment’s data in the Canada geography, in the Canada Central and Canada East regions. For a Canadian environment, Microsoft states that model processing happens in the United States, and processing in Canada is announced for 2027. Some features also require allowing data to move across regions.
With Belowdecks, your data is hosted in a region agreed at the diagnostic, which may be outside Quebec. The text an agent reads goes through the AI provider, on an account in your name, and that provider may process it outside Quebec. Other data also leaves your Belowdecks workspace, such as technical error reports, notification emails, the monthly usage report and the agents’ web browsing, which the Security page lists. In both cases, your privacy impact assessment must take this into account.
Who builds the agents in Copilot Studio?
Your business builds them. Microsoft distinguishes makers, who build the agents, administrators, who manage environments, data policies and credit capacity, and adoption champions. For a small business, support goes through a Microsoft partner: the FastTrack program requires at least 150 licenses, and it advises on Copilot Studio without building the agents for you.
With Belowdecks, our team builds and sets up the agents with you, tries them on real cases with the instruction to send nothing, then monitors their work every month with the person in charge on your side.
How do the costs compare?
Copilot Studio is paid in Copilot Credits, either through monthly packs that do not roll over, through an annual prepurchase, or pay-as-you-go through an Azure subscription. Each response and each agent action uses a number of credits set by Microsoft. Agents used by employees who have the Microsoft Copilot license, in Microsoft channels, are included in that license, subject to reasonable use, except what runs on the GitHub Copilot harness. Add the time of the people who build and administer the agents.
With Belowdecks, plans start at $449 a month with Crew, which includes 15 million tokens, and the setup is quoted separately. It includes the agents our team designs for you, and the number of agents does not change the price. The AI provider bills you directly for what the model consumes. The Pricing page details the three plans.
Sources
The information about Copilot Studio comes from Microsoft’s documentation and licensing pages, checked on October 6, 2026: overview, standard harness licensing, data location, processing by region, processing in Canada announced, approvals and supported languages. Microsoft’s features and licensing change often, so check them before you decide.
Microsoft, Copilot Studio and Microsoft 365 are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies. Belowdecks is not affiliated with Microsoft.
First call
Find out whether some of your work suits agents
A free 20-minute call to describe the work that takes up your time. We will tell you whether Belowdecks fits, or whether Copilot Studio is enough with the licenses you have.