Microsoft 365's small-business plans have similar names but quite different contents. The wrong choice means either missing tools or paying for features nobody uses. Here is a short overview of what each plan includes and how to choose.
What every Business plan includes
- Exchange Online – e-mail on your own domain, calendar and contacts, 50 GB mailbox;
- Teams – chat, meetings and calls (in the European Economic Area the plans are also sold in a version without Teams);
- SharePoint and OneDrive – team files and personal cloud storage (1 TB per user);
- Office web and mobile apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook);
- basic security: spam and malware filtering, MFA.
The plans in brief
Business Basic – e-mail, Teams and cloud files, with Office only in the browser and on the phone. Suits staff who mainly use e-mail and simple documents, or who work on a shared computer.
Business Standard – everything in Basic plus the Office desktop apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and on Windows also Access) on up to five PCs or Macs, five tablets and five phones. The typical choice for office staff.
Business Premium – everything in Standard plus security and device management:
- Intune – central management of computers and phones, policies, remote wipe;
- Entra ID P1 – Conditional Access (e.g. sign-in only from managed devices or from certain countries);
- Defender for Business – advanced endpoint protection (EDR);
- Defender for Office 365 (Safe Links and Safe Attachments), data classification and a larger mail archive.
Comparison table
| Feature | Basic | Standard | Premium |
|---|---|---|---|
| E-mail, Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Office on the web and mobile | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Office desktop apps | No | Yes | Yes |
| Intune device management | No | No | Yes |
| Entra ID P1, Conditional Access | No | No | Yes |
| Defender for Business | No | No | Yes |
How to choose
- Does the person need full Excel or Word? If yes, at least Standard. The web versions are fine for simpler work but struggle with macros, large spreadsheets and complex formatting.
- Do you handle customer or personal data, remote work and laptops? Then Premium is usually sensible: Intune and Conditional Access deal with lost laptops and stolen passwords far better than separate products.
- Do customers or your insurer have security requirements? Premium helps meet them with one licence.
Mixing plans and limits
You can freely mix plans in one company: for example Basic for warehouse staff, Standard for the office and Premium for management or accounting. Bear in mind that Premium's security policies only protect users who have a Premium licence. Business plans are limited to 300 users per plan; larger organisations use the Enterprise (E3/E5) plans.
When to call a professional
If you are unsure which plan suits whom, or want Premium's security features actually configured and working, it is worth reviewing your licences with a specialist – often the same budget buys better protection. See our Microsoft 365 service.