How Much Does Microsoft Office 365 Cost For Business?

Determine the right Office 365 Plan for your business by understanding the pricing for Office 365

Office 365 is a world renowned SaaS solution, that runs in the public cloud service provided and managed under subscription plan by the Microsoft. Every subscription plan of Microsoft Office 365 is made up of one or more licenses depending on the type of plan that you need for your business and its particular needs. As far as subscriptions are concerned, you can directly purchase them from Microsoft or also through authorized Microsoft Cloud Solution Providers (CSPs). The difference between the two is very obvious. When you buy subscriptions directly form the Microsoft, you get the direct support from Microsoft, however, getting them from CSPs get you the support services from the same service provider.

Talking about the Microsoft Office 365, the first thing you need to understand that it comes in two basic versions i.e. MS Office 365 for Business and MS Office 365 for Home. As implies by their names, the Home Version intends to be used at home, and it does not include any productivity tools and solutions offered by Microsoft such as SharePoint Online or Exchange Online etc. Whereas, the MS Office 365 obviously provides all such collaboration and productivity tools that are designed for typical business use and to support workplace efficiency.

Talking about the Business Version of Microsoft Office 365, you also need to make choices between Office 365 Enterprise Plans and Office 365 for Small Business.

Choosing The Right Office 365 Version for Your Business – Select Between Office 365 Enterprise Plans & Office 365 for Small Businesses

Business Version of Office 365 basically comes along with 4 key Workloads or Technologies i.e.;

• SharePoint Online: SharePoint is a web-bases collaborative platform which is typically used for document collaboration, online storage, intranet etc.
• Exchange Online: It is an enterprise level message application which empowers emails throughout the company.
• Microsoft Teams: Previously known as ‘Skype for Business’, MS Teams is the modern day technology which facilitates audio/video and web conferencing, screen-sharing, chats and voice communication etc.
• MS Office Applications: Collaborative and productivity tools include MS Word, MS Outlook, MS PowerPoint, MS Access, MS Excel etc. And, all of these are available in both Online and Desktop versions.

Additional to these four key workloads that are listed within the suite of Office 365, there comes plenty of other features; some of which are exclusive to the use of Small Business Enterprises, for example Microsoft Booking. Whereas, there are some others as well that can be used by both small and large enterprises such as StaffHub, Planner, PowerApps, Forms etc. Being a SaaS solution, Microsoft Office 365 is promised to be keep evolving by Microsoft; so don’t be surprised if you find more new features to your subscriptions that are not covered or listed in this post.

While it is correct that all business organization should have access to security and productivity tools, not all enterprises needs same frills and features to run their business, and hence they don’t need to pay the same prices for the services. And that’s why it does not make any sense for small business to pay the same subscription fees as large enterprises; that need more advanced features like eDiscovery etc.

In order to precisely address needs of every type of business enterprise, Microsoft has designed a variety of subscriptions and plans, from which a business can choose, as per their needs and convenience. However, there are multiple subscriptions, pay plans and combination of licenses, that are difficult to know sometimes, that which one is actually right for your enterprise. In order to narrow down your choices, we would refer you to the decision making tree below, which will help you quickly find out which Office 365 plan and subscription would be right for you. And to get to know, you simply need to answer three questions.

Office 365 for Small Businesses

MS Office 365 Small Business Plan is created to serve typical needs of small enterprises with less than or equal to 300 users. Under the MS Office 365 Small Business Plan, there are three key types of offerings which include the following;

• Office 365 Business: This plan is ideal for business users who only require access to online storage and Office desktop applications. It cost about $8.25 per user/month.
• Office 365 Business Essential: This plan is idea for users who need collaboration tools and business-class email, but does not require Office desktop applications. It costs around $5 per user/month.
• Office 365 Business Premium: This plan is suitable to users who need both collaboration tools and business-class emails and also require Office desktop applications. Subscription fees for this plan is around $12.50 per user/month.

For mid-sized and small non-profit organizations, Microsoft offers two types of subscriptions or pay plans corresponding to Business Premium and Business Essential at $3 per user/month and at $0/user/month respectively.

Office 365 Enterprise Plans

Under Office 365 Enterprise Plans, there are four key subscription plans that ranges between $8 per user/month to $ 35 per user/month. Details of each of them are listed below;

• Office 365 Pro Plus: This plan is suitable for user who only require access to online storage and desktop applications of Office 365. It costs around $12 per user/month.
• Office 365 E1: This plan will cost you around $18 per user/month; and it is best suited for users who require collaboration tools and business-class emails; but do not need desktop application offered by Office 365.
• Office 365 E3: This package costs for $20 per user/month and it is ideal for users who require E1 Plus security and Office ProPlus features along with the compliance tools such as retention policies, legal hold and data loss protection and prevention policies etc.
• Office 365 E5: This plan cost for $35 per user/month and it is ideal for the business users who require all the functions and features offered by Office 365 E3 Plus along with advanced analytics, voice capabilities and functionalities such as ability to receive and make audio/video calls or allowing the participants of meeting to dial-in for audio conferencing. For making international and domestic calls, there is an additional fee of $24 that is being charges. For availing domestic call only, you need to pay $ 12 per user/month.