Comparing Business Plans for Office 365 for Your Small Business

It can be difficult to compare business plans for Office 365 for any business. Office 365 helps businesses manage data, share files and improve team collaboration. With the different Office 365 plans available on the market, how can you make sure that your small business will get its money’s worth? Here are some compare business plans Office 365 tips to help you choose the right plan for your small business. 

Office 365 Business or Enterprise

Office 365 Business and Enterprise are the best choices if you’re running cloud-based business systems. Both of these plans will give you access to the data management app Office Online and file hosting service OneDrive, but there are some differences between the two.

• Office 365 Enterprise E3 and E5 plans have unlimited archive and mail storage space. 
• Office 365 Business plans have a 50 GB storage limit and don’t provide archive access from the Outlook client. In terms of SharePoint (a collaborative platform, document and storage system), Business plans are lacking in enterprise search, Excel services and Visio features. They also lack in unified communication solutions, such as Power BI, an interactive data visualization tool, and Delve Analytics, which provides real-time work analytics to businesses.

Comparing Business Plans for Office 365 Pricing

With these points above in mind, it may seem like Enterprise subscriptions are superior. Business plans however are more suited for small businesses running on a tight budget. Office 365 Business and Business Premium prices are $10 and $15 per user per month, respectively. The highest-end Enterprise plan costs $35 per user per month.

As a general rule, consider subscribing to the Enterprise plans when your employee headcount exceeds 50 people and your users require more storage space solutions. Otherwise, Office 365 Business plans are the perfect choice for small businesses. Comparing business plans for Office 365 is an item where we have helped companies save thousands. (See our Case Study: How One Client Saved 28K with Microsoft Office 365 Auditing)

Comparing Office 365 Enterprise E1, E3 or E5

If you have significant headcount and you’ve decided to go for the Office 365 Enterprise, you need to choose which plan (E1, E2 or E5) suits your business requirements.

Office 365 Enterprise E1 plans offers basic solutions, such as Outlook, Word, OneNote, PowerPoint, and Excel for only $8 per month. It also provides access to SharePoint team sites, video conferencing and Yammer for social media for businesses.

Office 365 Enterprise E3 plans provide all E1 features with data loss prevention, rights management and encryption to help ensure your business’s security and compliance.

Office 365 Enterprise E5 plans are a full enterprise-grade solution with all the above features plus analytics tools, advanced threat protection, flexible Skype for Business conferencing and unified communications solutions.

Office 365 Enterprise Recommendations

Small- and medium-sized businesses often select either E1 or E3 and subscribe to third-party applications for their cloud security and VoIP needs. But if you have the resources and prefer a single provider to manage your suite, the E5 plan is the way to go.

Migrating to Office 365 is not an easy task. Comparing business plans for Office 365 is just the beginning. If you’re still undecided about which plan to opt for, contact us today. We will be happy to assess your business to find the best Office 365 plan for your budget and business goals. We understand it can be tough to compare business plans office 365. Schedule a call to see if working with us can save you money.