o365 business plans and pricing

Compare all Microsoft Office 365 Plans in one Overview

The Microsoft Office 365 plans offer great tools for businesses and enterprises to fully work in the cloud. Microsoft has changed the names of most plans to Microsoft 365 but also kept partially the Office 365 label. Comparing all the plans together on the Microsoft site can sometimes be a bit challenging, so to help you out I have created an overview to compare all office 365 plans.

If you have a small business with less than 300 users, then the most interesting plans are the Microsoft 365 Business plans. Large organizations will have to look at the Office 365 Enterprise and Microsoft 365 plans.

I have also written a couple of articles where I go more into detail between the different plans, you can find the links further down in the article.

Microsoft Office 365 Comparison Chart

The table below will help you to compare the Office 365 plans. The prices are based on an annual subscription model. Enterprise plans are only available in a yearly agreement.

Note Microsoft added new plans without Teams wich are only available in the European Union. These plans are less expensive. Read everything about it in this article

Microsoft 365 Business plans

For most small businesses is the Microsoft 365 Business Standard plan the best choice. With a price of $12.50 per user per month, you get the full Office 365 suite, with the desktop apps, Exchange Online, SharePoint, OneDrive, etc. Everything you need to get your business started in the cloud. If you also want to fully manage your devices (computers, mobile phones) or make use of advanced threat protection, then take a look at the Business Premium plan.

Office 365 Enterprise plans

The Enterprise plans can also be used by companies with less than 300 users, but they are more meant for companies that also need Active Directory integration or features like Litigation Hold and eDiscovery. You get more storage for Exchange Online, OneDrive, and SharePoint with the Enterprise plans.

You can check the prices for your country or buy one of the Office 365 plans here at Office.com

Microsoft Office 365 license comparison

Start with an microsoft office 365 trial.

It can be difficult to select the right plan for your business with the many options that are available for Office 365. It’s good to start with the comparison of Office 365 plans, but keep in mind that you can also start with an Office 365 Trial . This way you can see what will work for your organization.

You can use your own domain for the trial, but only do that when you are really sure you are going to proceed with Office 365. Otherwise use a temporary domain, like Contoso-lab01, to test out Office 365.

There are a couple of trails available, Microsoft 365 Business Standard and Premium and Office 365 Enterprise E3 and E5 . If you have a small company, with less than 50 employees I recommend starting with a Microsoft 365 Business Premium trial. The business plans give you some nice features like Invoicing and Outlook Customer Manager which can be really useful in smaller companies.

If you have more than 50 employees I would recommend going for the Enterprise solution. It’s more expensive, but the Compliance and Information Protection services will help you protect your data and make it easier for you to comply with Business regulations and industry standards.

Comparing the plans side-by-side

I have written multiple in-depth articles about the differences between specific plans. These articles will help you when you can’t choose between E3 and E5 for example.

Microsoft 365 F1 vs Office 365 E1

I got a lot of questions on what the differences are between the Microsoft 365 F1 plan and the existing Office E1 plan. I worked out the details between them, you can read more about it in the in-depth article Microsoft 365 F1 vs Office 365 E1

Office 365 E1 vs E3

Do you want to know when Office 365 E1 is sufficient and what the differences are with Office 365 E3? Check out this article where we go into the differences between the two.

Microsoft 365 Business Premium vs Office E3

They look almost the same, but there is a huge price difference between these two plans. Want to know what these differences are and if E3 is worth the extra money? You can read all the details here in this article .

Microsoft 365 Business Plans

Are you a small business and do you want to know which Microsoft 365 Business Plan is the best fit for you? Then you should check out this article with all the details you need to know about the Business Plans.

Microsoft 365 Plans

Interested in Microsoft 365 as well? Take a look at this article where I explain the differences between Office 365 and Microsoft 365

Wrapping Up

Microsoft offers a lot of different plans, but in general, they offer you a lot of flexibility and can really help your business to grow. I hope this article helped you to compare Office 365 plans. If you have any questions, then just drop a comment below.

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Buy Microsoft 365 for your small business

Microsoft 365 for business  is a subscription service that lets you run your organization in the cloud while Microsoft takes care of the IT for you. It connects employees to the people, information, and content they need to do their best work, from any device.

There are several plans to choose from, but we recommend Business Standard for most small businesses--and that's the setup we'll walk you through.

Go to the Microsoft 365 business plans page , and select the For business tab.

Choose the plan you want and select Buy now .

The number of people this is for is dependent on how many employees you have and if they need a subscription. You can always just add yourself and then  Add more users and licenses when you're ready.

Verify the subscription plan you're purchasing and the quantity of licenses you need.

Select Add a payment method , enter the info requested, and select Save , and then select Place order .

Take a look at an  overview of the Microsoft 365 admin center , where you can download apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook, add more users, buy new features, and change settings for your business.

Get expert advice, dedicated support and personalized guidance from business specialists. With Business Assist, get help making Microsoft 365 products work for you and everyone in your business. Learn More

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Microsoft 365 License Comparison: Business Plans Vs. E5, E3, and E1

Price comparison for microsoft office 365 business plans and enterprise licenses, how microsoft 365 enterprise, microsoft 365 business, and office 365 enterprise plans differ, viva insights, microsoft 365 enterprise licenses, microsoft 365 e5, microsoft 365 e3, microsoft 365 f3, microsoft 365 f1, microsoft 365 business licenses, microsoft 365 business premium, microsoft 365 business standard, microsoft 365 business basic, microsoft 365 apps licenses, microsoft 365 apps for enterprise, microsoft 365 apps for business, office 365 enterprise licenses, office 365 enterprise e5, office 365 enterprise e3, the microsoft 365 business premium plan is most comparable to the enterprise e3 plan in terms of base features., office 365 enterprise e1, here’s how office 365 enterprise e1 differs from business premium:, office 365 enterprise f3, have questions about which microsoft 365 license is right for your organization request a quote to see how much you can save..

Choosing the correct Microsoft 365 licensing is an important step for every business, especially organizations in the cloud. Microsoft offers tiered solutions for small, medium, and enterprise sized businesses. While this allows companies to right-size licensing to their specific needs, it can also create confusion about which license is the right one. This blog will highlight the differences between Office 365 and Microsoft 365 products so you can make an informed decision.

Learn more about:

• Microsoft Licensing Changes in 2022 - The New Commerce Experience
• Microsoft Government Licensing
• Office 365 Educational Licensing
• Microsoft GCC and GCC High Licensing
• Microsoft Front Line Worker (F1 & F3) Licensing

When comparing Microsoft 365 licenses, price is one of the first questions decision-makers consider. Below are the prices* for Microsoft 365 Business, Microsoft 365 Enterprise, and Office 365 Enterprise licenses. As of April 1st, 2024, Microsoft Teams is no longer included in Microsoft 365 and Office 365 licensing but is available as a standalone purchase. When comparing Microsoft 365 licenses, price is one of the first questions decision-makers consider. Below are the annual* prices for Microsoft 365 Business, Microsoft 365 Enterprise, and Office 365 licenses:

• Prices assume a monthly payment with an annual agreement. Month-to-month licenses are available at a premium. Read more at Microsoft New Commerce Experience .

The base price per user for Microsoft 365 Business and Enterprise Plans ranges from $4.80 to $54.80, and that can quickly add up for larger organizations. That said, companies that utilize capabilities such as Rights Management or cloud PBX may save money by bundling these services into their licensing. Cost savings can be immense for businesses that purchase third party tools for Anti-Virus, eDiscovery, MFA, SIEM.

Many people use Microsoft 365 and Office 365 interchangeably; however, these are markedly different products. Office 365 is Microsoft’s productivity suite and includes the core applications most think of when they think of Microsoft: Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more. It is also only one of three suites included in a Microsoft 365 license.

Microsoft 365 licenses are available as Enterprise or Business licenses. Microsoft 365 Enterprise licenses bundle three suites—Office 365, Enterprise Mobility and Security, and Windows Enterprise—at different levels (E5, E3, F3, F1). Some Microsoft 365 Business licenses include all three suites but are generally more limited in features. Additionally, Microsoft 365 Business licenses have a per license cap of 300 users per tenant.

Note on GoDaddy’s Microsoft 365: We strongly discourage purchasing Microsoft 365 or Office 365 from GoDaddy due to hidden costs, and lack of feature availability. To learn more, read our blog on Migrating from GoDaddy Office 365 to Microsoft Office 365 .

Here are some major features you gain with Office 365 Enterprise plans:

• Advanced Information Protection
• Advanced Threat Protection
• Active Directory integration
• Litigation Hold
• Unlimited archive and mail storage

Microsoft 365 Enterprise is a suite that includes Office 365, Enterprise Mobility and Security, and Windows Enterprise. Microsoft 365 Enterprise gives you the enterprise security and compliance features you need, while providing cost savings through vendor consolidation, reduced management, and training overhead.

Due to its cost, the Microsoft 365 E5 license is often positioned as a luxury license for companies that want advanced security and compliance capabilities, along with automated features. The reality is that most IT teams are overworked and understaffed, at a time when cyberattacks are increasing exponentially.

Even if employees aren’t working from home, internet connectivity makes every company a potential global target and enables intellectual property to flow freely out of any unsecured environment. IT personnel are tasked with supporting business critical operations and protecting the organization from external and internal threat actors, a responsibility that’s only getting more challenging with shrinking budgets and workforce reductions.

At a minimum, we recommend having Microsoft 365 E5 licenses in place for anyone with far-reaching environment access, but strongly encourage companies to consider the business impact a breach will impose when, not if, one occurs.

Microsoft 365 E3 brings together best-in-productivity and collaboration with Office 365 Enterprise E3, Enterprise Mobility and Security E3 and Windows 11 E3.

Microsoft’s Frontline licensing is an alternative for users that need to have a digital presence in the tenant but are not but are not spending their days creating or consuming data within the environment. Frontline users may not work at a desk, but still require matching security and compliance capabilities. As such, the Microsoft 365 F3 license includes the full Enterprise Mobility and Security E3 suite but has very deprecated productivity applications and reduced storage allocations.

For organizations with regulatory requirements, the Microsoft 365 F5 Security and Compliance Add-On raises the security and compliance features in line with a Microsoft 365 E5 license while maintaining reduced productivity capabilities and storage allotments.

Microsoft 365 Business plans were created for small businesses that might not need all the features Enterprise Microsoft 365 and Office 365 offer. Microsoft 365 Business has a per license cap of 300 users per tenant.

The most powerful Microsoft Business Suite without going for full enterprise plans, Microsoft 365 Business premium takes all of the features of Microsoft 365 Business Standard and rolls in industry leading advanced security features, including Advance Threat Protection against zero-days, ransomware, malware, the ability to selectively wipe company data from mobile devices with Intune, Restrict copying and saving of company information on mobile devices, apply document restrictions and provide unlimited archiving.

Formerly Office 365 Business Premium, Microsoft 365 Business Standard adds critical small business tools such as Microsoft Bookings to allows customers to schedule appointments, and Mile IQ for real-time mileage tracking from your mobile devices.

Looking to get basic Microsoft 365 functionality? Microsoft 365 Business Basic offers business email with 50 GB mailbox storage, custom email domain, and web versions of essential Office 365 applications like Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

Here’s what you need to know about the Business Essentials license:

(Previously Office 365 ProPlus): Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise offers option for users who don’t need email but want Office 365 applications.

Microsoft 365 Apps for business (formerly Office 365 business) provides up to 300 users with automatically updated editions of the most used Office desktop applications.

Office 365 Business plans are great for companies just starting out or that only require limited functionality. For organizations looking for a more robust solution, Office 365 Enterprise plans are available. With Enterprise plans, you can choose from Office 365 and Microsoft 365 plans. Office 365 only includes Office, while Microsoft 365 is a full suite that includes Office 365, Enterprise Mobility and Security, and Windows 11 Enterprise. These licenses are broken up into E1, E3, and E5 enterprise plans, and F1 and F3 first line worker plans. (Learn all about Microsoft Front Line Worker Licensing)

Building off the E1 and E3 business plans, Office 365 E5 is the highest tier Microsoft offers. With this license, you gain Audio Conferencing, Phone System, Power BI pro, Customer Lockbox, and Microsoft Cloud App Security:

The E3 license is one of the more popular options for digital-driven businesses. With E3, you gain desktop apps, You gain email, archiving, information protection and more storage options. Additionally, you gain Intune for device management and Azure Information Protection (plan 1) for data loss protection.

Here’s what’s included in E3:

• Exchange Online Archiving (EOA) and Legal Hold
• Unified eDiscovery Center
• Rights management, data loss prevention and encryption
• Ability to add on PSTN

E1 is the least expensive Enterprise plan. Here’s what you get with the E1 license:

• With E1, you can only access email via the online application.
• With E1, you lose desktop versions of Office applications. You must use the online versions of Outlook and other Office applications like Word or PowerPoint online.

Ideal for line workers, drivers, retail staff, Office 365 F3 is focused on workers who do not spend much time in front of a computer. Including popular office apps for web and mobile devices, including Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint.

If any license doesn’t suit your needs, you can also add on specific features via add-on licensing. But often, the cost of upgrading is cheaper than ballooning a license with monthly add-on charges. (Read more about add-ons here .) You can also mix and match licenses depending on user needs to better control costs.

Agile IT’s cloud licensing services make it easy to purchase, transfer, and manage your licenses. As your cloud solutions provider, Agile IT handles all billing and subscriptions for your Office 365 products. You continue paying Microsoft the monthly license fee, and we take care of the rest.

Published on: May 22, 2024 .

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Compare Microsoft Office 365 Business Plans: Apps, Features and Pricing

Microsoft 365 for Business (previously known as Office 365 for Business) is a cloud productivity subscription-based service geared towards small to medium-sized businesses. With a Microsoft 365 for Business subscription, your organization gets access to the most up-to-date Office applications as well as Microsoft’s flagship collaborative online services.

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Microsoft Office 365 Plans for Business Overview

Microsoft Office 365 for Business is a complete solution that brings together the best-in-class productivity of Office 365, advanced security, and device management tools. Within your organization, you and your co-workers can be more productive and work better together with Office apps, email, cloud storage, and a hub for teamwork. Microsoft Office 365 plans for business come with building tools that let you manage access to your data, keep sensitive data safe, and keep your business compliant and protected against most (but not all) security threats.

Microsoft currently offers four business plans to choose from, depending on an organization’s needs. The Microsoft 365 plans for businesses are:

Microsoft 365 Business Basic

Microsoft 365 apps for business, microsoft 365 business standard, microsoft 365 business premium.

Note that all Microsoft 365 plans for business have a limit of 300 users per license. If your organization requires more users, you may want to consider subscribing to a Microsoft Office 365 enterprise plan.

Now, let’s take a closer look at each of the Microsoft 365 plans for businesses and see what they have to offer in terms of features and pricing.

For a subscription fee of $5.00 per user/month, Microsoft 365 Business Basic (formerly known as Office 365 Business Essentials) offers web and mobile versions only of Office apps. These apps include Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, and OneNote. This entry-level plan also gives your organization access to collaborative services like Exchange Online with 50 GB of mailbox storage, SharePoint Online, Yammer, Skype for Business Online, and Microsoft Teams. Also included with this subscription is 1 TB of OneDrive cloud storage per user.

This Microsoft Office 365 plan is ideal for small and medium-sized businesses that want to unlock the benefits of cloud integration and remote work using the Office for the web suite and online communication services.

For a subscription fee of $8.25 per user/month, Microsoft 365 Apps for Business (formerly known as Office 365 Business) gives your organization access to the most up-to-date desktop versions of Office applications. These include Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneDrive, Access, and Publisher. The Office suite in this plan can be installed on up to 5 devices per user. None of the collaborative tools and services are available in this plan but the 1 TB of OneDrive cloud storage per user feature and the Office for the web suite are still present.

Microsoft 365 Apps for Business provides both cloud-based and on-premises Office suites to deliver the right set of capabilities to your organization. This plan is ideal for organizations whose computing workload heavily revolves around Office applications.

Priced at $12.50 per user/month, the Microsoft 365 Business Standard plan  (formerly known as Office 365 Business Premium) combines in one package the features available in both Business Basic and Apps for Business plans. In addition to the cloud-based and on-premises Office suites, Microsoft 365 Business Standard includes a complete set of collaborative tools thus making this Microsoft Office 365 plan ideal for organizations looking to expand their remote work capabilities.

Priced at $20.00 per user/month, Microsoft 365 Business Premium (formerly known as Microsoft 365 Business) includes all the features available in the lower Business tiers in addition to an advanced security infrastructure and device management tools. The Business Premium plan is ideal for organizations that require a comprehensive remote work solution with cyber threat protection and a powerful mobile management system.

Microsoft Office 365 Comparison of Plans

Here is a comparison of pricing and available apps and collaboration services between all four Microsoft 365 plans for business:

Microsoft 365 suite apps comparison

Along with the traditional Office applications and online collaborative services, Microsoft 365 plans for businesses include applications used for knowledge, insights, content, project and task management, automation, and app building.

Business plans security and management options

As stated before, when it comes to advanced security options and management tools, Microsoft 365 Business Premium is the most feature-packed plan. The other Microsoft 365 plans do include basic security tools, but they pale in comparison to the Business plan’s features, as shown below:

Despite the advanced security features available in Microsoft 365 Business Premium, third-party Office 365 backup solutions is necessary to ensure that your SaaS data is safe and recoverable.

Your Microsoft 365 data can be compromised by human error or malicious cyber threats like ransomware. Files can be deleted or encrypted even when stored in the cloud. To keep your data safe, NAKIVO Backup & Replication offers full backup and recovery functionality for Exchange Online, OneDrives for Business, and SharePoint Online.

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Office 365 Business vs. Business Premium vs. Business Essentials: Which should you buy?

Microsoft has three different Office 365 Business plans, and picking the best one depends on your workflow.

Office 365 for Business brings together several Microsoft productivity apps and services into a single subscription. There are three different plans, Office 365 Business, Office 365 Business Premium, and Office 365 Business Essentials. The three plans aren't just tiers where paying more gets you everything a cheaper plan gets plus more. Instead, you pick a plan based on where you want to use Office, how you want to communicate, and of course, how much you want to spend. Office 365 Business Essentials focuses on the web and online communication through Teams, whereas Office 365 Business gets you the desktop Office apps but doesn't get you access to Teams. Office 365 Business Premium gets you access to everything but comes at a higher cost.

Getting work done your way

Office 365 Business plans build off Microsoft's robust set of productivity applications. They also support cloud storage, web versions of the Office suite, and Microsoft Teams if you pick the right plan.

Head-to-head features

Office 365 business.

Office 365 Business is in the middle of the pack when it comes to pricing. At $8.25 per user per month, you get access to all of the Office desktop apps, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Publisher, and Access. You also get 1TB of OneDrive storage and access to the web versions of the Office apps.

The main draw of this plan is its access to Microsoft's powerful desktop applications. These have been a staple of many workflows for decades, and Microsoft has done an excellent job building up their capabilities. In addition to their powerful features, their file formats will be the standard for some organizations and people.

The downside to this plan is that it doesn't get you access to Microsoft Teams. Teams is a relatively new communication tool that allows you to communicate through chat, calls, video calls, and file sharing. It integrates with the rest of Office well and is available across platforms. But if you don't need to use Teams or your organization already pays for Slack or another service, then it might not be worth the cost to bump up to Business Premium.

Office 365 Business Premium

Office 365 Business Premium is the fully stocked version of Office 365. With it, you get Microsoft's desktop apps, the web versions of Office, Microsoft Teams, business email support, 1 TB of OneDrive storage, SharePoint support, Exchange, and more. It's a complete productivity suite that covers everything from instant communication to file creation to file sharing.

The downside of the plan is its cost. At $12.50 per user per month, it can add up at a large business that has a lot of employees or have a high monthly cost at a small business that has a low overhead.

Whether you go with Business or Business Premium largely comes down to your budget, if you need Teams, if you need business email support, and if you use SharePoint.

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Office 365 Business Essentials

Office 365 Business Essentials is an affordable option that still gets you access to quite a bit. While you don't get the desktop Office apps, you do get the web versions of Office, Microsoft Teams, Exchange, 1TB of OneDrive storage, SharePoint, and business email support. All of that comes at $5 per user per month. While Business Essentials isn't identical to Business Premium aside from the desktop apps, the desktop apps do make up the bulk of the difference. Another difference is that Business Premium gets you several management tools tasks within Teams.

If the desktop apps aren't important to you and your business, Office 365 Business Essentials is an excellent choice. Aside from the desktop apps, you don't give up much to get a complete productivity suite on the web.

Office 365 Business Essentials doesn't directly compare to Office 365 Business since one has the desktop apps while the other has Teams.

Which should you buy?

All three plans have their strengths and weaknesses. If you want an affordable plan that gets your employees web-based productivity apps and Microsoft Teams for communication, you should go with Office 365 Business Essentials. You get access to a lot of services for just $5 per user per month.

If you need the fully-powered desktop applications and don't need Teams for communication or business email support, you should get Office 365 Business. It's much more affordable than Office 365 Business Premium and still gets all of your employees the desktop Office applications, OneDrive cloud storage, and the ability to work on the web with the Office web apps.

If you need everything Microsoft's Ofice 365 for Business has to offer, then you should get Office 365 Business Premium. It costs $12.50 per user but gets you Microsoft's entire offering. Just make sure that you need everything it has before subscribing to it. For a lot of businesses, the Premium plan could be overkill.

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COMPARISON OF OFFICE 365 BUSINESS PLANS AND PRICING

Office 365 plans.

Office 365 Business plans are suitable for businesses that have less than 300 users. There are three business plans: Office 365 Business Essentials, Office 365 Business, Office 365 Business Premium. They have been now renamed as Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Microsoft 365 Apps for business, and Microsoft 365 Business Standard respectively.

If you don’t need Microsoft Office applications, go with the most basic plan – Office 365 Business Essentials (now called as Microsoft 365 Business Basic). This plan is priced at only $6 user/month. At $8.25 user/month, Office 365 Business (now called as Microsoft 365 Apps for business) is a standard plan includes Microsoft Office applications along with OneDrive for Business. In addition to all the features of the above plans, Office 365 Business Premium (now called as Microsoft 365 Business Standard) has more advanced features priced at $12.50 user/month.

Business Plans without Teams

Business plans with teams.

• ✓ Free consultation call
• ✓ 24/7 expert support
• ✓ Talk to Microsoft-certified experts

All Our Office 365 Business plans include

Free end-user support, free migration help, 24 x 7 phone, chat, & email, online knowledge base, savings on it costs, fully automatic updates, regular data backup, 1 tb of online storage, business email service, tier-1 partner expertise, faq - your questions we got answers, how exactly will apps4rent help me with these plans.

As your Cloud Solution Provider for Office 365, we will provide free migration and 24 x 7 x 365 support to end-users for issues that take up your time, e.g., configuring email accounts, password resets, setting up aliases and contacts, creating groups, configuring Skype, synchronizing OneDrive, exploring search features, and optimizing browser settings. We will also help you with installing and configuring Office 2016 on your devices and handling DNS records.

What Office versions are compatible with Office 365 Business Essentials?

Office 365 Business Essentials is most compatible with the latest version of Office, Office 2013, and Office 2011 for Mac. Previous versions of Office, such as Office 2010 and Office 2007, may work with Office 365 but with reduced functionality.

What is the difference between Office 365 and Microsoft 365?

Microsoft 365 is a bundle of services including Office 365, comprising of Microsoft services including Windows 10 Enterprise. Office 365 is a cloud-based productivity suite which is a bundle of popular Microsoft apps.

Is it possible to use my own domain name for the emails in Office 365?

Yes, you can add the domain name you own to your Office 365 account and set up your domain-based email addresses. You can even add multiple domains and sub-domains to Office 365 and host any of the services, including email, on any of the domains that you add. You must own a domain name and as an admin, you will have to make some changes on the DNS records of your domain – we will guide you for this.

Is a desktop version of Office required to use Office 365 Business Essentials? 

No. You do not need to have a desktop version of Office to use Office 365 Business Essentials . However, you will have a richer experience and also be able to work offline when you connect a desktop version of Office to the Office 365 services and get it in sync.

Will by MS Office be automatically updates to the latest version if I have Office 365 plans?

Yes. MS Office apps are always up to date on Office 365. If you already have a subscription of Office 365 plans, you already have a version of Office that has all the functions of Office 2019.

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Sign up for a Microsoft 365 Business Standard subscription

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Check out all of our small business content on Small business help & learning .

Want to sign up for a Microsoft 365 Business Standard subscription?

There are a couple of ways to get started:

• Buy Microsoft 365 Business Standard and complete your own setup . To purchase Microsoft 365 Business Standard, follow the sign up steps below .
• For Microsoft partners : If you're a partner, see Get Microsoft 365 Business .

Sign up for Microsoft 365 for business

Microsoft 365 Business Standard subscriptions are for commercial use and are intended for business and enterprise customers.

Sign up steps

To sign up and purchase Microsoft 365 Business Standard, complete the following steps.

The person who signs up for Microsoft 365 for business (usually the business owner) automatically becomes the technical administrator of the organization. You can add other people as admins if you want help managing your Microsoft 365 services. Check out Assign admin roles for more info.

On the Microsoft 365 for business page , select See plans & pricing .

On the next page, find out the monthly cost, and then scroll down the page to find out more about what's included in Microsoft 365. Under Microsoft 365 Business Standard, select Buy now .

On the Thank you for choosing Microsoft 365 Business Standard page, enter your information to get started. Select Next .

Enter an email address that you already use. This email address can be any address you want Microsoft to use to communicate with you during setup. It's also the address where we send you information about your bill and renewals. Then select, Set up account .

Enter your name, business phone number, business size, company name, and location. Select Next .

We display your company name in the admin center. This is where you manage Microsoft 365 users, licenses and other features and services. We also include it in any internal SharePoint site URLs.

Enter a number that we can use to reach you and select Send Verification Code . You'll receive a text. Enter your code and select Verify .

Decide how you want to sign in to Microsoft 365. You can create a new business email account by adding a domain or sign in with your current personal email .

Choosing the right business subscription

When signing up for Microsoft 365 Business Standard, you have 2 options for how to get started. Evaluate three key factors to choose which best meets your needs:

Which apps and services do you want to use straight away?

How much technical skill do you have?

Do you need Microsoft to act as a processor for your data?

The table below outlines each choice.

Use these three factors to determine which of the two options is best for your business needs.

Option 1: Sign in with your Outlook, Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail or other email account

Sign in to Microsoft 365 with this email address. For example, [email protected].

Create a password on the next page, and select Create account to continue. On the next page, read about how we handle your data and select whether you want Microsoft Partners to contact you. Select Next .

Select how many Microsoft 365 Business Standard licenses you want for your organization and select Add payment method and continue with checkout to Place order .

On the Confirmation details page, we'll give you some more info about your subscription. You can now go to the Microsoft 365 admin center to add users, install Microsoft 365 productivity apps, invite your team to use Microsoft 365 and more. We'll also send you an email with set-up steps for Microsoft 365 Business Standard.

Remember this option doesn't provide branded email, admin control for use of the services by other users, or industry specific compliance support. Subscribers don't have any access or control over other users' (employees) usage or documents under this option users may choose not to transfer data created in storage such as OneDrive/Teams to your upgraded, enterprise-level domain account should you not choose option 2 immediately.

Option 2: Create a new business email account and attach a domain

With this option, you're able to use Microsoft 365 Exchange as your professional, branded email provider. All your users have a shared domain email address. For example, their username, followed by @contoso.com . You and your users sign into Microsoft 365 with this new email address. When you follow this process (add a domain and create new business email accounts), you'll get access to all the features provided in Microsoft 365 Business Standard. For steps on how to buy or add a domain, see Set up Microsoft 365 Business Standard .

This option provides immediate access to the full suite of features in your Microsoft 365 Business subscription but may require technical steps to be completed up front.

If you would like to add a domain and create a business email account, you can follow the steps in the articles below:

• Add a domain to Microsoft 365
• Finish setting up

Terms of service update for Simplified Sign Up mode

Applies to: Existing subscribers of Microsoft 365 Business Standard who previously purchased using Simplified Sign-up mode .

If you previously used Simplified Sign Up mode to purchase a business subscription before October 2021 without adding a business domain you may need to accept new terms of service for uninterrupted service and usage of the apps in Microsoft 365. You may be sent emails or you'll see in-app prompts when you sign in to Microsoft 365 admin center.

The Simplified Sign Up terms of use have been recently updated, and notably they clarify licensing and data ownership for multi-user business subscriptions. For continued service of your business subscription, you may either visit the Microsoft 365 admin Center and stay using Simplified Sign Up (and agree to use the Microsoft Services Agreement Supplemental), or visit the Microsoft 365 admin Center and add a business domain (and use the Microsoft Online Services Agreement). To help you choose which of these two modes best suits your needs, consult the table at the top of this article.

Should you choose not to accept the updated terms for Simplified Sign Up or to add a business domain, your subscription will not automatically renew, and at the end of your current subscription contract, you'll lose access to the Office apps. Your OneDrive data will be retained for 90 days for you to make copies of it, and then it will be deleted.

Frequently asked questions

What is a business email and what are the advantages to setting one up.

A business email is an email that uses your own domain name. For example, if you own the domain name contoso.com , you can build a website using the url www.contoso.com , but you can also have a custom email address such as [email protected]. This is referred to as a branded business email as it gives your email a professional look.

How do I get a new business email address?

There are three options for getting a business email.

• You can use a suggested onmicrosoft.com domain for free ([email protected]).
• You can buy a new domain to have a more compact email address ([email protected]).
• You use a domain name that you already own.

Why might I need to verify my domain to create a business email?

If you choose to use a domain you already own, you can use it for your email address with Microsoft 365. As part of sign-up process, we ask you to verify the domain so you can send emails via Microsoft 365. This confirms that you are the owner of the domain that is sending emails with that identity, which enhances security and prevents fraudulent activity.

Is there a benefit to paying monthly vs annually?

To provide customers with the greatest amount of flexibility, different payment options are available.

• Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Apps for business, Business Standard, and Business Premium plans are available for monthly commitment payment or annual commitment payment.
• Monthly commitment payment: You pay month by month, and you can cancel at any time.
• Annual commitment payment: You sign up for a one-year subscription, but you can choose to pay month to month or pay for the entire year at the time you sign up. There is a discount for using this payment option.

How does recurring billing work?

When recurring billing is on, your subscription will continue to be billed each year on the day you subscribed. You can turn it off or back on again in the admin center if your subscription is active. Learn more at Manage recurring billing in the Microsoft 365 admin center .

What do I do if I want to change my business name?

Contact our small business support experts who can help you change your business name. Learn more at Get support .

Related articles

Set up Microsoft 365 Business Standard with a new or existing domain Invite users to Microsoft 365 Business Standard

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Frequently asked questions, what does a trial of microsoft 365 for business include​.

Trial plans include Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Business Standard, Business Premium, or Microsoft 365 Apps for business. Get full access to the apps included in the selected plan at no cost for the first 30 days, for up to 25 users. After 30 days, your free trial will automatically convert to a paid subscription, and the subscription price will be charged to the payment method you provided at sign-up. Once your trial converts to a paid subscription, you’ll be able to adjust plan options, add more users, or switch to another plan that better suits your needs.

How many users can I add during the free trial of Microsoft 365 for business?​

Add up to 25 users during the trial period. Each user can install Microsoft 365 apps on up to five PCs or Macs, five tablets, and five mobile devices. After the trial period ends, add more users if needed.

How do I get started with a free trial of Microsoft 365 for business?

Select "Try free for one month" and complete the following steps:

Choose the number of users you want to include in your trial (up to 25 users).

Set up your username and password.

Provide payment information to enable future payments and help ensure that you won’t experience service interruptions once your trial period ends. Cancel online any time during the trial period without penalty. Once your payment method is confirmed, you'll be able to sign in to Microsoft365.com to install or start using Microsoft 365 apps.   

Why do I need to provide credit card information?

Providing credit card information helps ensure uninterrupted service once your trial period ends. Your credit card won’t be charged until the end of the trial period. Cancel online any time during the trial period without penalty.

What happens when my free trial of Microsoft 365 for business ends?

Your trial subscription will automatically convert to a paid subscription. You’ll be able to continue using your subscription and won’t need to reinstall Microsoft 365 apps. You may cancel your trial subscription before the free trial period ends to stop future charges. Learn how to turn off recurring billing in the Microsoft 365 admin center.

How do I cancel my subscription before the free trial ends?

To cancel your subscription before the free trial period ends, go to the Microsoft 365 admin center to turn off recurring billing. Learn how to turn off recurring billing in the Microsoft 365 admin center. Once canceled, the subscription will automatically expire at the end of the free trial period, and your credit card won't be charged.

What happens to my data if I cancel my subscription?

Your data is yours. If you cancel your Microsoft 365 trial subscription, you can download your data—for example, your email and documents on team sites—and save it to another location. You should save your data before canceling. After you cancel your subscription, data associated with your Microsoft 365 account will be available to your administrator(s) in an account with limited function for 90 days.

My files are currently hosted on another platform. Can I migrate them to Microsoft 365 as part of the trial?

When you sign up for a trial of Microsoft 365 for business, you’ll be able to migrate your files using the migration tools in the Microsoft 365 admin center. From there, choose your migration path using a step-by-step tool based on where your files are currently hosted, such as Google Workspace, Dropbox, Box, or other file-sharing or email accounts. If you don’t have a Microsoft 365 for business subscription, learn how to migrate your content to Microsoft 365 . If you already have a subscription, sign in to the Microsoft 365 admin center to start migrating your content.

If I don’t like the plan I try, can I switch to another plan for my paid subscription?

Yes, you can switch to another plan in the Microsoft 365 admin center. Learn how to try or buy a subscription of Microsoft 365 for business .

If I’m currently using Microsoft 365 for business, can I try another plan?

If you’re already subscribed to a plan, go to the Microsoft 365 admin center to try a different subscription. When you add a subscription, the new subscription is associated with the same organization or domain as your existing subscription. This makes it easier to move users in your organization between subscriptions or assign them a license for the other products they need.

I have more questions about the free trial of Microsoft 365 for business.

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Google Workspace vs. Microsoft 365: What’s the best office suite for business?

Google workspace has become a powerful, feature-filled alternative to microsoft office. we break down the pros and cons of each suite to help you decide which is right for your business..

Once upon a time, Microsoft Office ruled the business world. By the late ‘90s and early 2000s, Microsoft’s office suite had brushed aside rivals such as WordPerfect Office and Lotus SmartSuite, and there was no competition on the horizon.

Then in 2006 Google came along with Google Docs & Spreadsheets , a collaborative online word processing and spreadsheet duo that was combined with other business services to form the Google Apps suite, later rebranded as G Suite, and now as Google Workspace . Although Google’s productivity suite didn’t immediately take the business world by storm, over time it has gained both in features and in popularity, boasting 6 million paying customers , according to Google’s most recent public stats in March 2020.

Microsoft, meanwhile, has shifted its emphasis away from its traditional licensed Office software to Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365), a subscription-based version that’s treated more like a service, with frequent updates and new features. Microsoft 365 is what we’ve focused on in this story.

Nowadays, choosing an office suite isn’t as simple as it once was. We’re here to help.

Google Workspace vs. Microsoft 365

Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 have much in common. Both are subscription-based, charging businesses per-person fees every month, in varying tiers, depending on the capabilities their customers are looking for. Although Google Workspace is web-based, it has the capability to work offline as well. And while Microsoft 365 is based on installed desktop software, it also provides (less powerful) web-based versions of its applications.

Both suites work well with a range of devices. Because it’s web-based, Google Workspace works in most browsers on any operating system, and Google also offers mobile apps for Android and iOS. Microsoft provides Office client apps for Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android, and its web-based apps work across browsers.

The suites also offer the same basic core applications. Each has word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, email, calendar, and contacts programs, along with videoconferencing, messaging, and note-taking software. Each has cloud storage associated with it. But those individual applications are quite different from one suite to the other, as are the management tools for taking care of them in a business environment. And both suites offer scads of additional tools as well. So it can be exceedingly difficult to decide which suite is better for your business.

That’s where this piece comes in. We offer a detailed look at every aspect of the office suites, from an application-by-application comparison to how well each suite handles collaboration, how well their apps integrate, pricing, support, and more. Our focus here is on how the suites work for businesses, rather than individual use.

Pricing: Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 subscriptions compared

“Follow the money” is the hallowed refrain of investigators everywhere, and when you’re starting to decide which office suite is better for you, it’s a good place to start as well. Individuals can use several of the online apps from both suites — including Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides as well as Microsoft Word Online, Excel Online, and PowerPoint Online — for free, but businesses should look to the paid Workspace and Microsoft 365 subscriptions for necessary security and management features.

Check out the following tables, first for Google Workspace, and then for Microsoft 365, to compare plans and pricing.

Google Workspace pricing options for business

Google Workspace comes in four commercial versions: Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, and Enterprise. Business Starter, at $6 per user per month, comes with the full suite of applications and 30GB of storage per user.  At $12 per user per month, the Business Standard plan includes all that, plus 2TB of storage per user as well as archiving, enterprise search capabilities, and additional administrative tools. Business Plus at $18 per user per month includes everything the Business Standard version offers, plus even more administrative controls and business tools.

Enterprise has everything that Business Plus does, as well as more administrative controls and a low-code application builder. You’ll have to contact Google for pricing details for Enterprise.

Google Workspace business plans

For more detailed information, check out Google’s page comparing pricing plans . Also note that some features available in higher-level Google Workspace plans are available for purchase as standalone services. Additionally, Google offers specialized versions of Workspace Enterprise for healthcare and life sciences, retail, manufacturing, and government organizations, and there are a range of free and paid Workspace versions for nonprofits and educational institutions .

Microsoft 365 pricing options for business

Microsoft 365 business subscriptions are more complicated and range from $5 per user per month for Microsoft 365 Business Essentials, the most basic version for small businesses, to $35 per user per month for Microsoft 365 E5, the most feature-packed version for enterprises. Confusingly, Microsoft renamed all of its small business plans from Office 365 to Microsoft 365, but at the enterprise level, it offers both Office 365 and Microsoft 365 plans.

The tables below outline what you get with each version. The three plans in the first table are for small businesses with up to 300 employees; the ones in the second table are meant for larger organizations.

Microsoft 365 small business plans

Office 365 and microsoft 365 enterprise plans.

Scroll right to see all plans.

Find out more about Microsoft 365 small business plans , as well as the Office 365 enterprise plans and Microsoft 365 enterprise plans . Microsoft also offers an array of Microsoft 365 plans for educational, government, nonprofit, and other institutions .

In addition, many Office apps and services are available on an à la carte basis. Some companies prefer to pay for a lower-level plan and then pay for one or two of these items as add-ons rather than paying for a higher-level comprehensive plan.

Google Workspace vs. Microsoft 365: App by app

Every business has different needs, and yours may place greater value on certain apps than others. For some companies, word processing and email might be the most important apps in an office suite, while others might need a powerful spreadsheet program above everything else.

To help, we’ve compared the major office apps in Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 so you can zero in on the apps that are most important to your business and let their strengths and weaknesses guide your overall decision. We’ve included only the highlights below; if you want more details about each app, we’ve linked to Computerworld articles that offer in-depth comparisons.

Word processing: Google Docs vs. Microsoft Word

Deciding on whether your business would be better off with Google Docs or Microsoft Word is fairly straightforward. Which is more important to your users: easy-to-use collaboration or the greatest range of document creation and editing features? For collaboration, Google Docs is better. For as fully featured a word processor as you’ll find anywhere, you’ll want Word.

By saying Word has superior features, I don’t mean a bunch of tools that your business may never use. I mean great capabilities that make your workflow easier and more productive.

For example, if you’re creating a report, brochure, resume, or almost any other kind of document, Word offers an excellent set of pre-built templates so you can get writing fast, knowing that your document will have a solid, useful design. Word has 300 different business templates alone, while Google Docs only has 55 total templates of all kinds, including personal, business, and educational ones. (Microsoft claims Word has thousands of templates, but we couldn’t count them all.) Word also offers more chart types and styles for embedding into documents.

Microsoft Word has far more powerful features than Google Docs, including many pre-built templates from which to choose when creating a new document. (Click image to enlarge it.)

But Google Docs outshines Word when it comes to live collaboration. Collaborating is seamless and has been built into the app from the ground up, while in Word it’s more difficult to use, not as comprehensive, and feels tacked-on rather than an integral part of the program.

When it comes to document sharing and live collaboration, Google Docs outshines Microsoft Word by a wide margin. (Click image to enlarge it.)

For non-live collaboration — editing and marking up documents for review by others — Word has always been the gold standard, but Google Docs has come a long way and now is nearly as good as Word. Word’s editing tools have slightly finer-grained controls, but apart from that, they’re about even.

Spreadsheets: Google Sheets vs. Microsoft Excel

Do users in your company mostly work alone on spreadsheets, or do they frequently collaborate with others? The answer to that will determine whether Excel or Google Sheets is better for your business.

For those who primarily work by themselves, Excel is the clear winner. As with Word, its wide selection of templates offers an embarrassment of riches. For example, there are more than 80 templates just for different types of budgets. Whether it’s a business budget or a special-purpose budget, such as for a marketing event, you’ll likely find one that fits your needs and that can be easily edited. By contrast, Google Sheets has only three different budget templates.

Excel also offers far more chart types than Google Sheets — 19 in all — including popular ones such as column, line, pie, bar, and area; more complex ones such as radar, surface, and histogram; and some that are known mainly to data professionals, like box & whisker. And many chart types have multiple subtypes — for example, among the bar charts you’ll find clustered bar, stacked bar, and so on, and each of those has two variations. Google Sheets has only seven main types of charts and a handful of individual charts that can’t be categorized. It’s also simpler to create charts with Excel than it is in Google Sheets.

Excel has far more sophisticated features than Google Sheets, including many more chart types. (Click image to enlarge it.)

Google Sheets far outpaces Excel in real-time collaboration, though. As with Docs, collaboration is baked directly into Sheets. Not only does it have more powerful tools, but they’re naturally integrated and easy to access. The same holds true for editing and commenting on spreadsheets.

Google Sheets’ collaboration tools are powerful and easy to use. (Click image to enlarge it.)

Presentations: Google Slides vs. Microsoft PowerPoint

As with word processing and spreadsheet apps, whether Google Slides or PowerPoint is best for your business comes down to a single point: Do you prize collaboration or powerful features in a presentation program? If collaboration is king in your company, Google Slides is better. For every other reason, PowerPoint is.

For example, PowerPoint’s QuickStarter feature makes quick work of starting a presentation. Choose the topic of your presentation, and QuickStarter walks you through creating an outline, starter slides, templates, and themes. Although Google Slides does offer an Explore tool that suggests layouts as well as images and other content related to your slideshow topic, it is in no way equivalent to QuickStarter.

PowerPoint has numerous features Google Slides can’t match, including QuickStarter, which walks you through creating an outline, starter slides, templates, and themes. (Click image to enlarge it.)

Similarly, with PowerPoint, it’s easier to add graphics, transitions, animations, and multimedia. It has more chart and table types as well. And it offers sophisticated options when it comes to giving the presentation itself, with innovative capabilities such as Rehearse Timings, which times how long you take on each individual slide as you rehearse a presentation. That way, you won’t get bogged down on any individual slide, and you can practice giving each slide its just due. Google Slides has nothing like it.

However, Google Slides rules when it comes to collaboration, with far outstrips the kludgy and awkward capabilities built into PowerPoint. And because Slides offers fewer capabilities than Excel, it’s slightly easier to create slides in it, because it doesn’t pack as many features into the interface.

Slides isn’t as powerful as PowerPoint, but its interface is less cluttered and confusing. (Click image to enlarge it.)

Email: Gmail vs. Microsoft Outlook

If you prize simplicity, you’ll favor Gmail over Outlook. Gmail has a much cleaner and less cluttered interface than Outlook’s, offering the best balance between ease of use and powerful features. However, Outlook has made some headway towards being more straightforward to use with a new simplified Ribbon you can turn on.

Gmail offers a streamlined interface and intuitive ways to accomplish your most important email tasks. (Click image to enlarge it.)

Whether it’s creating, responding to, or managing email, Gmail offers an intuitive interface with easy-to-use tools for getting your work done fast. My favorites include an AI-driven option that suggests words and phrases as you type, a “nudge” feature for surfacing forgotten messages, and a handy snooze button for delaying incoming messages.

When it comes to power features, however, Outlook rules. For example, Outlook’s Focused Inbox lets you see and respond to the most important emails first, and its Clean Up feature does a great job of simplifying long email threads so they’re easier to follow. And because the contacts and calendar functions are part of Outlook itself, they’re well integrated with email. Gmail relies on the separate Google Contacts and Calendar apps, which can be a bit more cumbersome to navigate.

Even with a new, simplified Ribbon option, Outlook’s interface can be quite confusing to use. (Click image to enlarge it.)

If your users want every bell and whistle possible, Outlook provides them all. For getting things done quickly, Gmail is a better choice.

Collaboration: Google Chat, Meet, and Spaces vs. Microsoft Teams

As I’ve noted multiple times in this article, when it comes to collaborating on documents, Google Workspace is far superior to Microsoft 365 — it’s baked right into the interface, rather than feeling like an afterthought as it does in the Office apps. Everything is in front of you to invite people to collaborate, set their collaboration rights, and chat with them while you do the work together. There’s a deeper learning curve for using collaboration in Office, and even when you learn how to do it, it’s not nearly as seamless as in the Google apps.

Working together on individual documents is only one part of the equation, though. When it comes to more complex, enterprise-wide collaboration features, Microsoft 365 includes tools that beat anything Google Workspace offers. Microsoft Teams, for example, combines group chat, online meetings, videoconferencing, customized workspaces, calendars, and shared team file repositories in a way that’s more sophisticated and useful than anything Google has. And Teams has deep ties to the rest of the Office platform, offering effortless integration with Outlook, SharePoint, OneDrive for Business and more.

Teams is a group-chat platform that integrates closely with the rest of Microsoft 365. (Click image to enlarge it.)

For its part, Workspace offers Google Meet for videoconferencing and Google Chat for messaging. A relatively new addition to the Workspace app set is Spaces, a workflow integration and collaboration platform that’s integrated with Google Calendar, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Meet, and Tasks. Spaces lets you create shared workspaces where you can chat, share files, and assign tasks. These tools are useful and straightforward, although not quite as powerful as Microsoft 365’s offerings.

Creating a new shared workspace in Spaces. (Click image to enlarge it.)

Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace each offer their own social-network-like place to interact with one another, Yammer in the case of Microsoft 365 and Currents for Workspace. Neither of them is directly integrated with its respective office suite, though, and Google recently announced that it’s phasing out Currents in favor of Spaces.

Storage and file sharing: Google Drive vs. Microsoft OneDrive for Business and SharePoint

Both suites come with substantial amounts of storage, aside from the cheapest Google Workspace version, Starter, which offers only 30GB per person. The next two Workspace options include 2TB or 5TB per person, and the Enterprise plan includes unlimited storage. Microsoft 365’s small business and lower-tier enterprise plans include 1TB of storage per user, while its E3 and E5 plans include 5TB of storage per user.

There’s little to differentiate Google Workspace’s and Microsoft 365’s storage-and-shared-documents features from one another. Both Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive for Business integrate directly with their own office suites, and both allow you to access the files on any device. In Workspace, the files live in the cloud by default rather than on the devices themselves, although you can also store them locally. In Microsoft 365 they typically live on each device and also in the cloud, and it all syncs together, although you have the option of keeping specific files and folders cloud-only.

If you’re worried about offline access for the cloud-first Google Workspace, it offers management tools that allow administrators to set whether users can access their documents and use Docs, Sheets, and Slides when their computers aren’t connected to the internet. The tools allow admins to install a policy on each computer allowing that access, or else let each user decide whether to allow offline access.

OneDrive has a nice feature called OneDrive Files on Demand that lets users decide, on a file-by-file and folder-by-folder basis, which files to store on individual devices and which to leave in the cloud, although the files and folders in the cloud are still available for download when you want them on a device.

Almost all Microsoft 365 business and enterprise plans also include a free version of Microsoft’s SharePoint service, called SharePoint Online. SharePoint Online adds substantial features to storage and sharing. It manages and organizes documents, workflows, and other shared information, typically via a series of mini-sites.

SharePoint Online is delivered as a service and is hosted by Microsoft, so businesses do not need to purchase and manage their own servers and infrastructure for it. However, they may need admins to handle a number of SharePoint Online tasks, such as content management and portal design.

There’s also a for-pay version of SharePoint, called SharePoint Server, that is available under a separate license and isn’t included as part of Microsoft 365. With SharePoint Server, your business hosts and manages the physical and software infrastructure required for SharePoint. That means performing tasks such as racking servers; applying security patches and feature updates; and monitoring uptime, reliability, and security. With SharePoint Online, those tasks are handled by Microsoft.

Google doesn’t offer a true equivalent to SharePoint Online in Google Workspace. Subscribers to the Business, Education, and Enterprise plans can use a feature called Team Drives, which are Google Drive folders that can be accessed and managed by more than one person. They can be used as handy repositories for members of a team to store and share documents, images, and other files, but Team Drives are not integrated intranet sites like those offered by SharePoint.

One final note: Google’s search tools for finding documents in Google Drive are far better than Microsoft’s search tools in OneDrive, and its Cloud Search function extends Google’s search power across all of a company’s content. That being said, it’s generally easier to browse OneDrive using File Explorer than it is to browse Google Drive on the web.

Other tools and extras with Google Workspace vs. Microsoft 365

Microsoft 365 goes well beyond suite basics, with plenty of extra applications and smaller apps. Foremost among them is Access, which can be used to build business applications, either based on templates or completely from scratch. It’s designed for non-developers, although it does require some coding smarts. Access is available for Windows only, and subscribers to Microsoft 365 Business Basic and Microsoft 365 E1 don’t get it.

Access is among the tools included with most business and enterprise Microsoft 365 plans. (Click image to enlarge it.)

Another PC-only program included with most business and enterprise subscriptions is the Windows-based desktop publishing software Publisher. The OneNote note-taking app is a very useful yet underutilized part of the Office suite. Microsoft 365 also comes with Microsoft Forms, an app that lets you create surveys, quizzes and polls, and Microsoft Planner , which, as its name implies, helps teams create plans, and assign tasks, share files, chat about what you’re working on, and keep track of updates. It can work by itself or integrate with Microsoft Teams.

Another application included with some Microsoft 365 business and enterprise plans is Power Automate (previously called Microsoft Flow), which allows businesses to automate repetitive tasks and integrate them into workflows — for example, automatically sending an alert when a new item is added to SharePoint. Other apps and services included with some plans include PowerApps, a low-code app development tool; MyAnalytics, a productivity analysis tool; Delve, a tool that lets users find and organize content in Microsoft 365; Stream, an enterprise video service; Sway, a tool for creating web-based presentations; and Kaizala, a mobile work management app aimed at frontline workers.

Finally, Microsoft offers additional tools that aren’t formally part of Microsoft 365 but integrate with it, such as To Do, a to-do list app that works with Outlook and Microsoft Planner.

That’s a lot of extras, which is both good and bad. The good is obvious — there are plenty of tools available for you. The bad may be less obvious — getting a handle on how they all work (or don’t work) together can be very confusing.

Google Workspace has fewer of these extras, and most are less powerful than Microsoft 365’s additional tools. Google Forms , which works hand-in-hand with Sheets, is probably the most powerful and useful of the extras. As the name implies, it lets you create forms for a wide variety of purposes, such as an order form, a work request, time-off request, getting feedback about an event.

Google Forms lets you quickly and easily create customized forms to get feedback. (Click image to enlarge it.)

Google Sites is another useful one. It lets you create team and company websites for individual projects, events, and other similar purposes. There’s also the Google Keep note-taking app, which is straightforward, bare-bones, and not nearly as sophisticated as Microsoft’s OneNote. AppMaker (available with the Google Workspace Business and Enterprise plans) provides a low-code app development environment.

And if you want to create drawings, particularly diagrams, you’ll appreciate Google Drawings, which is not included with Google Workspace but works in concert with it (and is free). If you create a drawing with Drawings and embed it into a Google Doc, and then make a change in the drawing file itself, the drawing in Google Docs gets updated as well.

None of these extras offers knock-your-socks-off capabilities, aside from Microsoft’s Access and PowerApps and Google’s AppMaker, which can allow those with limited programming experience to create truly useful applications. So they may not affect which suite is best for your business. For many companies, they’re nice-to-have tools, not must-have ones.

Google Workspace vs. Microsoft 365: Security and management tools

Choosing the productivity suite with the best features for your business is one thing, but often overlooked is how easy or difficult it is to manage the suite and protect your data. Even the best user-facing features can’t make up for poor or insufficient security and management tools.

Both suites are managed from a web interface, and in both instances, the interface leaves something to be desired, with somewhat confusing options and layouts. However, the simplified  view in the Microsoft 365 admin center beats anything in Google Workspace because of how easily it lets you accomplish the most common tasks, including and editing new and existing users, changing licenses, paying bills, and installing Office on devices..

Interfaces aside, Microsoft 365 offers better admin account security, superior mobile administration, and more management controls. Both suites protect your data with enterprise-grade security and offer a central security center for managing user permissions and protections.

For an in-depth comparison, check out “ Google Workspace vs. Microsoft 365: Which has better management tools? ”

Google Workspace vs. Microsoft 365: Service and support

In an ideal world, nothing goes wrong with an office suite, and no one ever needs technical support. But we don’t live in that ideal world. So you’ll want to know the kind of support and updates Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 offer.

Google Workspace offers 24/7 tech support via phone, email, and chat, but for Workspace administrators only. There’s also a searchable help center for administrators and a blog covering release information for Google Workspace updates . Also useful is the Google Workspace Community , which includes forums as well as YouTube videos to help administrators accomplish common tasks. Non-administrators will have to visit Google’s general help area , which covers many Google products such as YouTube, Google Maps, and Google Photos in addition to the individual components of Google Workspace. There’s also a Google Workspace Learning Center for user training.

Microsoft also has 24/7 tech support via phone, email, and chat for Microsoft 365 administrators. The Microsoft 365 admin center help site includes help targeted at small businesses as well as enterprises, and the Microsoft 365 Training site offers comprehensive video training for admins, IT pros and Microsoft 365 users. There’s a sizable number of forums devoted to Microsoft 365 . And the Microsoft Office Help & Training area has a wide variety of help, down to the application level and including troubleshooting for both consumers and admins. As for updates, Microsoft generally releases Microsoft 365 updates one or more times a month and publishes information online about every update .

Can Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace work together?

As you’ve seen throughout this piece, Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace have their own strengths and weaknesses, so you might be tempted to use both of them — for example, Microsoft 365 for document creation and Google Workspace for collaboration.

Theoretically, it’s possible. In practice, it’s a bad idea. In part that’s because Google Workspace’s documents aren’t saved as local documents with their own file formats. Instead, they live on Google’s servers. You can save them in various file formats, including Microsoft 365’s .docx, .xlsx and .pptx, and you can import files from those and other formats as well. There’s even a way to natively edit Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files in their original formats on Google’s servers. But I’ve found that formatting and layouts are often lost in translation between Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace, embedded videos don’t work, not all comments are shown, resolved comments don’t appear, comments you make in Google aren’t brought back into Office, and so on.

In addition, the workflow is a nightmare if you’re transferring files back and forth between the two suites. The idea behind editing online is to have a single location where everyone can collaborate on the latest version of each file, but if you use both Workspace and Microsoft 365, various versions of the file may be stored in Google Drive, OneDrive for Business, or both.

But what about using one suite for content creation, collaboration, and storage and the other for communications like email, shared calendars, group chat, and videoconferencing? Again, it’s theoretically possible, but I don’t see the point. It makes everything much more difficult because of convoluted workflows, and you’d lose the integrations built into each suite. And there’s also the issue of businesses having to pay for, manage, and maintain two office suites, not one, when there are no obvious benefits to be gained by it.

As for integrating with other enterprise software such as Salesforce, Shopify, HubSpot, and others, there are plenty of tools for doing that with both suites. If any particular piece of enterprise software is particularly important to your business, you’d do well to test out the integrations with both Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 before deciding on a suite.

Who should use Google Workspace

Based on all this, what kind of company should use Google Workspace? It’s pretty straightforward: If collaborating on documents is baked into your company’s DNA — or you want to bake it in — Google Workspace is for you. Its live collaboration features far outstrip anything Microsoft 365 has to offer. They’re such an integral part of the suite’s design and so simple to use, it requires practically no time at all to get up and running with them.

Google Workspace is also a good bet if your company doesn’t need all the sophisticated features of Microsoft 365’s individual apps. Each individual application in Google Workspace is simpler to use than Microsoft 365’s, with Gmail in particular more straightforward than Outlook. And if your users do a lot of searching for documents, Google’s search for Google Drive outstrips what Microsoft 365 has to offer.

Who should use Microsoft 365

If powerful and sophisticated features are more important to you than the best in collaboration, then Microsoft 365 is for you. Every one of its applications beats out its Google Workspace equivalent. And it’s not as if you can’t do live collaboration in Microsoft 365. It’s just a bit more of a chore and not as straightforward as in Google Workspace. And Microsoft 365’s markup features are exemplary, so it’s a good bet when people need to review each other’s work.

There are other reasons for a business to use Microsoft 365 as well. Although Google Workspace’s Team Drives are useful for sharing documents and materials, they are no match for the fully collaborative environments that SharePoint offers. If you want to manage your mail server, rather than use hosted email, you’ll also want Microsoft 365. And Microsoft Teams provides a great way for teams to share work with one another.

This story was originally published in February 2020 and updated in September 2022.

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Preston Gralla is a contributing editor for Computerworld , a blogger for ITworld, and the author of more than 45 books, including NOOK Tablet: The Missing Manual (O'Reilly 2012) and How the Internet Works (Que, 2006).

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