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Which Microsoft 365 Plan Does Your Business Actually Need?
Microsoft 365 has a confusing range of plans. Pick too low and you lack tools you need, pick too high and you pay for things nobody uses. Here is how we think about it for small businesses.
The three Business plans
Business Basic gives you email, Teams, SharePoint and OneDrive, with Office in the web browser and on mobile. Business Standard adds the full installed Office apps on your computers. Business Premium includes everything in Standard plus device management through Intune, Conditional Access, Defender for Business endpoint protection and Defender for Office 365 email protection. Business plans are limited to 300 users, so larger organisations move to the Enterprise plans such as E3.
Why many small businesses end up on Premium
The security tools in Premium would cost more if you bought them separately, and they are the ones insurers, customers and frameworks like NIS2 increasingly ask about. For a business holding client or regulated data, the extra cost per user is usually small compared with the risk it reduces.
Common licensing mistakes
- Giving every person the same plan when frontline staff on shared devices could use the cheaper F-series plans.
- Paying for licences on shared mailboxes. Shared mailboxes under 50 GB do not need one.
- Leaving leavers licensed for months after they have gone.
- Assuming Copilot is included. It is a separate add-on licence.
- Starting on Business Basic and then discovering everyone needs the desktop apps.
How to decide
Ask what people actually open every day, who handles sensitive data, whether you need to manage and protect laptops, and whether you need to show evidence to insurers or customers. Or answer four questions in our free Microsoft 365 licence advisor. Plans and prices change, so always confirm the current details with Microsoft or your IT provider.