Compare Office 365 for Business Plans – Detailed Comparison

These businesses range from small startups to Larger organisations with thousands of employees scattered over the world. These plans that Microsoft offers are designed to improve the collaboration and the productivity of the employees, while also giving users features such as security and compliance. In this article, we are going to compare Office 365 for Business plans. This will help you choose the right plan that fits your and your organisation’s needs. 

What is Office 365?

Office 365 is a service that is available for organisations, Individuals, families, and students. It is a subscription based service that is the combination of apps such as Powerpoint, Excel, Word. It also offers several cloud services such as Teams, and OneDrive. These plans offered by Microsoft are desined to improve the productivity and the collaboration. They also provide features such as security and compliance. Now we are going to discuss and compare the Office 365 for business plans in detail. 

Comparing Office 365 for Business Plans

Here is the list of Office 365 for business plans. We are going to compare these in detail so that you can choose the one that fits your requirements. 

Microsoft 365 Business Basic

This plan is offered at $6 per user per month.

Some of the features provided are: 

1. It allows web and mobile applications such as Word, Excel, OneNote, PowerPoint, and much more. Users can also access Outlook for managing emails. 
2. This plan includes 50GB of storage for mailboxes with a custom domain. 
3. It offers 1TB of OneDrive storage for every user for storing and sharing of files and other documents. 
4. This plan gives you access to Microsoft Teams that helps you to collaborate with other employees. 
5. The plan also offers several security features such as encryption of data and several compliance tools. 

This plan is ideal for: 

1. Small business that have basic collaboration needs. 
2. Organisations that need cost-effective solutions. 
3. Teams that use web-based apps and have a requirement for email hosting. 

Microsoft 365 Business Standard

This plan is priced at $12.50 per user per month.

Some of the features given in this plan are: 

1. Desktop versions of applications such as PowerPoint, Word, Excel, Publisher, Outlook, and Access are included in this plan. A point to note is that Publisher, and Access only have desktop versions. Others are included as both web as well as mobile versions. 
2. It includes 50GB of storage for mailboxes. 
3. 1TB of storage is provided to every user for storing their files and documents in OneDrive. 
4. Collaboration apps such as Teams, SharePoint, and Planner is provided for collaboration between users. 
5. It also provides additional tools such as webinars, reporting tools, and a tool for managing customer appointments. 

This plan is ideal for organisations that: 

1. Businesses that are growing rapidly. 
2. Teams that need desktop apps to work offline. 
3. Companies that conduct webinars often. 

Microsoft 365 Business Premium

This plan is offered at $22 per user per month. 

Features offered in this plan: 

1. It offers office apps as desktop, web, and mobile versions. 
2. 50GB of storage along with a custom domain is offered for mailboxes. 
3. Every user gets 1TB of storage for storing their files and documents in OneDrive. 
4. This plan offers tools that promote collaboration such as Teams, Planner, and SharePoint. 
5. It offers several security features such as Microsoft Defender, Threat protection, as well as Azure Information Protection. 
6. It has tools that prevent data loss and protects information of the users across all devices. 

This plan is ideal for organisations that: 

1. Businesses that need advanced security tools 
2. Orgnaisations that manage a huge amount of devices daily. 
3. Teams that need to collaborate with each other and need protections against cyber threats. 

Microsoft 365 Apps for Business

This plan is offered at $8.25 per user per month. 

Features that are offered in this plan: 

1. Office applications such as word, excel, Outlook PowerPoint, and much more. These applications are available as desktop, web, and mobile versions. 
2. This plan offers 1TB of OneDrive storage for storing files and documents. 
3. It provides data encryption and other compliance tools. 

This plan is useful for organisations that: 

1. This plan is focused on productivity apps that do not prioritise email hosting. 
2. Organisations that make use of several email services at the same time. 
3. Teams that require desktop apps as well as cloud storage. 

Detailed Comparison of Office 365 for Business Plans

Here is a table which will help you understand the plans in detail: 

Features	Microsoft 365 Business Basic Plan	Microsoft 365 Business Standard Plan	Microsoft 365 Business Premium Plan	Microsoft 365 Apps for Business Plan
Threat Protection	No	No	Yes	No
Management of Devices	No	No	Yes	No
Security	Standard	Standard	Advanced	Standard
Microsoft Teams	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Storage in OneDrive	1TB	1TB	1TB	1TB
Email Storage	50GB	50GB	50GB	Does not provide email hosting
Office Applications Offered	Web, and mobile	Desktop, web, and mobile	Desktop, web, and mobile	Desktop, web, and mobile
Price per User	$6 /month	$12.50 /month	$22 /month	$8.25 /month

This table will help you compare Office 365 for business plans in detail and help you the pick the right plan according to your requirements.

How to Choose the Right Plan for Your Organisation?

Now that we already compare Office 365 for business plans, we need to discuss which plan will suit what kind of business. In this section we will tell you which type of plan will suit you.

1. Small Businesses – If you are a small business, the Business Basic Plan is a very cost-effective plan that will provide tools that are essential to you such as emails, collaboration, and storage in the cloud. It is suitable for businesses that use web-based applications primarily and require reliable email hosting.
2. Businesses that are growing – As businesses gow, they need more tools to carry out the daily tasks. For these businesses, the Business Standard is a very good choice. This plan includes desktop apps, and added tools such as SharePoint and Planner for collaborating with other employees. It also has the capability to host webinars. Teams that need to work with offline Office apps and collaborate with others should opt for this plan. 
3. Businesses that need advanced security – Organisations that need advanced security features and have compliance requirements should opt for the Business Premium plan. This is suitable for those businesses that need protection against cyber threats. It is also suitable for users that need to manage a huge variety of devices and ensure the compliance with regulations in the industry. 
4. Businesses that are focused on productivity – Businesses that need to be productive should opt for the Apps for Business plan. This is suitable for businesses that are using several email services and teams that just need desktop apps and storage in the cloud. 

Factors that Users Need to Consider While Choosing a Plan

1. Licensing and the management of subscriptions – Microsoft 365 has licensing options that are flexible. This allows businesses to scale up and scale down based on their needs. You can manage these subscriptions through the Microsoft 365 admin center. Here admins can remove or add users, monitor the usage of resources, and assign licenses to employees. 
2. Training and support – Microsoft 365 has various support options online. There are various community forums and other resources that can help you when you have a problem involving the plan or any other application. There are also training resources offered that help users get the most out of their subscription. 
3. Integration with third-party applications – Microsoft 365 has seamlessly integrated with a huge variety of third-party apps which helps users improve the productivity and the efficiency of the organisation. 
4. Migration – Migrating to and from includes moving emails, several files and documents, and other apps to the cloud. Microsoft gives users the tools and several other resources that facilitate the migration process. It includes step-by-step guides that will help you the migration process. 

How to Migrate Plans?

As we discussed in the previous section, Microsoft allows users to migrate to other plans and even provides step-by-step instructions on how to do so. But, this manual procedure can be quite complicated and users can find it difficult to follow these instructions, no matter how detailed it is. 

To solve this problem, you can use an automated tool that can perform the entire process for you. When you upgrade to a different plan, you will need to move all your files and documents to the new plan. An automated tool such as SysTools Office 365 to Office 365 Migration Software. 

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Here are the features of this tool: 

1. You can migrate emails, documents, contacts, calendars and much more. 
2. There is support for migrating Office 365 shared mailbox. 
3. This tool also migrates data from one Teams to the other. 
4. You can also use a date-filter to migrate data select based on dates. 
5. You can also import CSV file to add source and destination accounts. 
6. This tool helps you to migrate selective or entire mailboxes using the admin account. 
7. Delta migration ability is also available. Users can migrate newly arrived items. 

Steps to use the migration tool: 

1. Select the source and the destination as Office 365. 
2. You can now select the category you want to migrate under the workload window. You can also allow users to create users and groups. 
3. You can also filter content based on dates using the date filter option. 
4. After selecting them click on Next. 
5. Enter the admin and application ID of the source tenant and click on validate.
6. Enter the admin and application ID of the destination tenant and click on validate. 
7. Now click on Fetch user and then click on continue. 
8. After all source Office 365 accounts are fetched, you can see the source mailboxes. 
9. Now, you can click on the Start Migration button to start the process.

Conclusion

Office 365 offers a huge range of plans that are designed to meet the needs of several businesses. These businesses can range from small businesses to Large multi national corporation. By understanding the features and other benefits provided to the users by every plan, they can choose which fits their requirements. We compare Office 365 for business plans in details that must have given you some idea for which plan to choose. We have also mentioned an automated tool that allows users to shift their entire data and important documents to the other plan with ease and with complete security.