In brief: for companies under 300 users there are three Microsoft 365 business plans, and the difference between them is not the number of applications. Business Basic and Business Standard differ by the apps installed on the computer. Business Premium adds something else: security and device management. If you choose on the per-user price alone, you usually buy too little.
The three plans, briefly
| Business Basic | Business Standard | Business Premium | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Office apps installed on the computer | No, browser and mobile only | Yes | Yes |
| E-mail, Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Primary mailbox | 100 GB | 100 GB | 100 GB |
| Archive | 50 GB | 50 GB | 1.5 TB, auto-expanding |
| Device management | Basic functions only | Basic functions only | Intune, full |
| Additional security | No | No | Yes, detailed below |
All three are capped at 300 users, and the cap counts across the whole tenant, pooled over the three plans. Above it you move to the enterprise plans, which have no ceiling.
What Business Premium actually adds
This is where the real difference sits, and why comparing on price misleads. Business Premium includes components that, bought separately, cost more than the gap between the plans.
- Entra ID P1. It brings conditional access, meaning you can require sign-in from a known and compliant device. On Basic and Standard you only have the free tier, without that capability.
- Defender for Office 365 Plan 1. Checking attachments and links at the moment they are opened, and protection against messages impersonating a colleague or a supplier. Exactly the class of attack we wrote about in the article on fake invoices and changes of bank details.
- Intune Plan 1. Full management of computers and phones, macOS included. You can enforce disk encryption, wipe a lost phone and verify that updates have been applied.
- Defender for Business. Endpoint protection, which Microsoft describes as equivalent to Defender for Endpoint Plan 1 with some features from Plan 2.
- Purview Information Protection and data loss prevention for e-mail and files, meaning sensitivity labels and rules that stop certain documents being sent outside.
If you already run Business Standard and pay separately for antivirus, a device management tool or a mail filter, the calculation is worth redoing. Moving to Premium often costs less than the subscriptions it replaces.
How to choose, by situation
- People working in the browser, on shared computers. Production, warehouse, reception. Business Basic covers mail and collaboration at the lowest cost.
- A normal office, documents worked on locally, no particular security requirements. Business Standard.
- Laptops that leave the building, people who approve payments, customer data, contractual requirements or NIS2. Business Premium, without hesitation.
- Over 300 users, or a need for advanced compliance tooling. The enterprise plans.
Plans can be mixed within the same company. Not everyone needs the same thing, and mixed licensing is normal and allowed within the 300-seat limit.
Teams is licensed separately in Europe
Since 2023, in the European Economic Area, Microsoft has separated Teams from the Microsoft 365 suites. There are plan versions without Teams and a standalone Microsoft Teams subscription. For the business plans, both the version with Teams included and the combination of a no-Teams plan plus a separate Teams subscription are possible.
The practical consequence is that two offers for “Microsoft 365 Business Standard” may not contain the same thing. Check explicitly whether Teams is included before comparing the amounts.
Why there are no prices here
Because they would go out of date quickly and mislead you. Microsoft has moved to updating local-currency prices annually, each January, announced in November. The next update is scheduled for 1 January 2027.
Beyond that, the list price Microsoft publishes is not necessarily what you pay. Licences bought through a Cloud Solution Provider partner have their own price list, and the term you choose, monthly or annual, changes the amount. Ask for a quote for your own configuration rather than a price found online.
The mistakes that cost the most
- Everyone on the same plan. Either you overpay for people who only work in a browser, or you leave the travelling laptops unprotected.
- Business Standard plus three security subscriptions. The common combination that ends up more expensive than Premium.
- Premium bought and never configured. The components in Premium do not switch themselves on. A licence paid for and left unconfigured is pure expense.
- Licences paid for people who have left. Review the list of active accounts at least quarterly.
- An annual commitment taken before you know your real user count. The annual term is cheaper, but it cannot be reduced during the term.
How we work
PRO IT is a Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider partner, so we license, migrate and administer subscriptions rather than merely reselling them. We start from who does what in the company, propose a plan per group of users and, on Premium, actually configure what you bought: conditional access, device policies, mail protection and sensitivity labels. The details are on the Microsoft 365 and cloud page.
If you already hold subscriptions and are unsure whether you are paying for the right thing, send us the list of active licences. We will tell you what is unused, what is under-specified and what you bought without ever switching it on.
