Office 365: Choosing Your Plans
This 12 minute video from our founder Thomas Carpe breaks down Office 365 licensing into easily understood terms.
Prefer to read instead of watch. We've posted the complete transcript.
More like this are on their way, so visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel at the top of this page.
Office 365 Plans and Pricing Demystified
We understand that Microsoft offers a lot of different choices - probably too many. We've compared the various plans, and organized them the way that our customers think about purchasing. Choose a category below and take a look.
The TLDR/W License Overview
We get it. You don't have 12 minutes to spare - or maybe you're in an office cube where you don't feel comfortable listening to us drone on and on, and you don't have time to read every last syllable of all that valuable knowledge Tom wants to drop on you. Fear not, we have the solution!
So, let's break it down! The following sections cover Office 365 plans based on the services that you're seeking to replace. You should choose the most affordable plan that meets all your needs.
Tom's video above covers the section below on replacing your e-mail service, as this is the most popular target by far. The rest go into even more detail.
Are you IT? Check out Advanced Solutions further down this page.
The Quick Skinny
Here's our 10 second Office 365 decision tree:
- Does Your Company Have...
- Voice Service Needs?
- Thousands of Users?
- Strict Security or Compliance Requirements?
- Does the User Need the Office Desktop Suite?
- Is the User a Part-time, Temp, or Field Worker?
How to decide based on answers:
- If any answer to question 1 is yes, limit your choices to: E1, E3, E5, ProPlus, and F1/K1.
- Voice for this user? E5 + optional calling plan
- Business intelligence a must? go with the E5
- User needs Office? E3 (or in very rare cases ProPlus)
- P/T, temp, or field workers should get E1, F1, or K1 plans.
- If not, look at Business plans B, BE, BP.
- User needs Office? BP (or in rare cases B)
- P/T, temp, or field workers should get BE plans.
Replace Your Email / Anti-spam Service
- Most plans include e-mail service
- Avoid Business or ProPlus plans since these don't include e-mail
- Users who need Outlook/Office, choose one:
- Business Premium (BP) - Best option for folks on a budget $12.50
- Office 365 Enterprise 3 (E3) - Enhanced voice and security features (a must-have for govt. contractors) $20
- Office 365 Enterprise 5 (E5) - Choose when voice/meeting services or business intelligence are important to you $35
- Users who don't need Outlook/Office, choose one:
- Business Essentials - Online services, no desktop apps $5
- Office 365 Enterprise 1 (E1) - Online services, enhanced security and voice features, no desktop apps $8
- Office 365 Frontline 1 (F1 - formerly K2) - Suitable for users who are not assigned their own PC, but need access to all the Office 365 services $4
- Exchange Online Kiosk 1 (K1) - E-mail service for mobile and web only $2
Want to cover Office and Windows licenses in one go?
Microsoft 365 cost effectively bundles Office 365 E3 and E5 with Windows 10 Enterprise, and you get the features of EMS plan essentially for free. These plans start as low as just $32 / month.
Migrate Network Shared Folders / Files
- Most plans have some version of OneDrive for Business
- All the Business, Enterprise, and Frontline plan include this.
- If you intend to migrate files into SharePoint Online, choose one:
- Business Premium (BP) - Best option for folks on a budget $12.50
- At least one user in your organization should have an E3 plan, to unlock certain SharePoint features company-wide
- Office 365 Enterprise 1 (E1) - Online services, enhanced security and voice features, no desktop apps $8
- Office 365 Enterprise 3 (E3) - Enhanced voice and security features (a must-have for govt. contractors) $20
- Office 365 Enterprise 5 (E5) - Choose when voice/meeting services or business intelligence are important to you $35
- Backup System
- OneDrive for Business provides a nice backup for files on your C: drive because it creates a mirrored copy in the cloud.
- SkyKick Backup - back up e-mail, files in OneDrive or SharePoint $5
- See Advanced Solutions below for backup of local file shares, servers, etc.
Replace or Upgrade Domain Controller / Small Business Server
- Most Office 365 accounts will allow Azure AD Join for desktop login, thus eliminating need for a domain controller in some cases.
- SBS combines a domain controller, file server, print server, Exchange server for e-mail, and SharePoint.
- You should approach the choice of Office 365 plans to replace the services you're actually using.
- In many cases, companies using SBS will prefer to upgrade to Windows Server 2016 with the Windows Essentials experience or AD Connect.
- We offer migration and planning services from on-premises Exchange and SharePoint servers. Please ask for a quote if you are interested in these.
Phase Out VPN and Terminal Server
- Need for VPN to access files can be greatly reduced by any Office 365 plan
- See Advanced Solutions below for additional options to access resources on the local network or migrate them to cloud hosting where they can be accessed without VPN.
- Many Office 365 plans can render the need for a terminal server obsolete
- Usually, users are accessing a terminal server as a way to get to their files and applications
- Choose between the Office 365 E3 and E5 plans if you need to run applications via Remote Desktop connection.
Dial-in Meetings and Telephone Services
- Avoid these if you want to implement voice services
- Business plans can't participate in PBX or host dial-in meetings, so look towards Enterprise plans
- Frontline plans can participate in, but not organize Skype for Business meetings
- Any Enterprise plan can add-on services needed to participate in a company PBX
- A-la-carte, these add up to $12, so probably not much advantage compared to the cost difference between E3 and E5
- They are included in the
Office 365 Enterprise 5 (E5) - Choose when voice/meeting services or business intelligence are important to you $35
- Sometimes an effective choice for
Office 365 Enterprise 1 (E1) - Online services, enhanced security and voice features, no desktop apps
$8
- Dial-in Meetings
- Fully replace services like Webex or GotoMeeting and the upgrade to E5 could actually be cost-positive
- Any plan with the voice services (describes above) can host a Skype for Business meeting and include a dial-in telephone number
- Telephone calling plans are extra
- Skype for Business Domestic Calling - make calls within the US and Canada $12
-
Skype for Business International Calling - make calls anywhere in the world
$24
- Both allow you to place calls from a dedicated handset, or your smartphone, or PC running the desktop client.
- Those with at least one calling plan can assign a phone number to Auto-attendant / Call Queues, allowing you to run your business' main or branch numbers from Skype for Business, with features like dial-by-name, after-hours messages, and more.
- Compared to similar business-class phone services such as those provided by Vonage, using Skype for Business for company telephones could be cost-positive for your business.
Advanced Solutions
Advanced Backup Scenarios
- Coming Soon: CloudPower Backup Service to back up local file shares Azure Backup Service to back up local servers / files
Domain Controller
- Choose Azure VMs to run replica AD (BDC) in the cloud
- Choose Azure AD DS for cloud based domain services
- Costs about $150 / month and can do most of what a domain controller can do including group policies
- Works well in distributed (multi-branch) businesses
VPN
- Windows 10 Enterprise for DirectAccess (replaces VPN)
- Available separately or in Microsoft 365 plans
- Or... Migrate the resources to Windows Azure
Terminal Server
- Choose E3/E5 for users who must work via Remote Desktop Services
- Choose Azure DevLabs or RemoteApp for Desktop VMs that users can access remotely
