A decade ago, most investors wouldn't have mentioned Atlassian (NASDAQ: TEAM) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) in the same breath. Atlassian, which is based in Australia, provides software which helps employees plan their product launches and collaborate with each other. Microsoft, one of America's top tech companies, develops a much wider range of enterprise software. Its top products include its Windows and Office products, as well as its cloud-based Azure and Dynamics services.

But in recent years, Microsoft has emerged as one of Atlassian's most formidable competitors. Microsoft's Azure DevOps and GitHub target Atlassian's Jira in the product planning market, while Microsoft Teams is chasing Atlassian's Confluence in the cloud-based collaboration space. Should investors still buy Atlassian as a growth play in this tough market, or should they buy Microsoft as a more balanced play on the same secular trends?

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Source Fool.com