Microsoft 365 plan comparison
Microsoft publishes plan comparisons and they are accurate and very hard to decide from, because they list everything rather than the handful of things that actually force a choice.
This compares capability and flags the features that genuinely drive an upgrade. Filter to those and the decision usually becomes obvious in about a minute.
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Plans to compare
| Feature | Business StandardUp to 300 seats | Business PremiumUp to 300 seats | Enterprise E3Unlimited seats |
|---|---|---|---|
| Productivity | |||
| Web and mobile Office appsWord, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook in the browser and on phones. | Included | Included | Included |
| Business email and calendarExchange Online mailboxes with a custom domain. | Included | Included | Included |
| Teams, SharePoint and OneDriveCollaboration, intranet and file storage. | Included | Included | Included |
| Desktop Office applicationsInstalled Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook. The usual reason to move off Basic. | Included | Included | Included |
| Webinars and attendee registrationUseful for marketing and training teams. | Included | Included | Included |
| Identity and devices | |||
| Multi-factor authenticationAvailable on every plan. There is no licensing excuse for not enabling it. | Included | Included | Included |
| Conditional accessPolicy-based control over who can reach what, from where, on which device. This is the single biggest security lever in the platform. | Not included | Included | Included |
| Intune device managementEnrol, configure, encrypt and wipe Windows, macOS, iOS and Android devices. | Not included | Included | Included |
| Self-service password resetRemoves a large share of routine helpdesk volume. | Not included | Included | Included |
| Identity protection and risk-based policiesDetects impossible travel, leaked credentials and anomalous sign-ins. | Not included | Not included | Not included |
| Security | |||
| Standard mail filteringBaseline anti-spam and anti-malware on every plan. | Included | Included | Included |
| Defender for Office 365: safe links and attachmentsDetonates attachments and rewrites links. Meaningful against real phishing. | Not included | Included | Not included |
| Defender for EndpointEndpoint detection and response rather than plain antivirus. | Not included | Included | Not included |
| Defender for Cloud AppsVisibility and control over SaaS applications in use. | Not included | Not included | Not included |
| Attack simulation trainingRun phishing simulations against your own staff. | Not included | Not included | Not included |
| Compliance | |||
| Basic retention policiesKeep or delete content on a schedule. | Not included | Included | Included |
| Data loss preventionStop defined data types leaving by mail or file share. Frequently the deciding factor for regulated businesses. | Not included | Included | Included |
| Sensitivity labels and encryptionClassify and protect documents wherever they travel. | Not included | Included | Included |
| eDiscovery (standard)Search and export content for legal or regulatory requests. | Not included | Not included | Included |
| Advanced eDiscovery and insider riskCase management, review sets and insider risk signals. | Not included | Not included | Not included |
| Customer Key and advanced auditExtended audit retention and customer-managed encryption keys. | Not included | Not included | Not included |
Capability only. Prices are not shown because they change, vary by agreement and by currency, and Microsoft publishes them directly. What is stable, and what people actually get stuck on, is which plan unlocks conditional access, Intune and data loss prevention.
Why there are no prices here
Prices change, vary by agreement, by currency and by reseller, and Microsoft publishes them directly. A price table on a third-party page is stale within a quarter and wrong for a meaningful share of readers.
What is stable is capability, and capability is what people actually get stuck on. Almost every upgrade conversation we have is about conditional access, Intune or data loss prevention rather than about cost per seat.
The three features that decide most upgrades
Conditional access. Policy-based control over who can reach what, from where, on which device. It is the single biggest security lever in the platform and the usual reason a business moves from Business Standard to Business Premium.
Intune. Device enrolment, encryption enforcement, compliance and remote wipe. If you want to be able to say a lost laptop was encrypted rather than hope it was, this is the line item.
Data loss prevention. Stopping defined data types leaving by mail or file share. For regulated businesses this frequently decides the plan on its own.
A common and expensive mistake
Many businesses pay separately for tools they already own. Intune rights are included in Business Premium and the enterprise plans, and we regularly audit clients paying for a third-party device management product while holding unused entitlement.
Before buying any security or management tool, check what your current plan already includes. It is the cheapest improvement available to most estates.
Others you might use
- Downtime cost calculatorWork out what an IT outage actually costs your business, per incident and per year.
- Security questionnaire self-checkThe questions enterprise customers ask suppliers, turned into a self-assessment with a prioritised gap list.
- DPDP readiness checkA practical self-assessment against the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, with what to fix first.
Send us your numbers and we will tell you what they mean
No obligation and no sales sequence. If the honest answer is that you do not need us, that is what you will get. Initial reply within 4 business hours.