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Three plans, and most businesses are on the wrong one. Here is what each includes, what it costs at Microsoft's list price, and the one honest reason to move up a tier.
You buy your Microsoft 365 licences in your own name, directly from Microsoft, and keep them. Our fee covers setting the tenant up, running it, and the automations we build — not the licences themselves.
Every figure below carries the same caveat: Microsoft list price, per user/month, billed annually — check Microsoft for current pricing. These are Microsoft's prices for Microsoft's products, not ours — they change, and monthly terms, regional pricing, and promotions all move them. Microsoft's own comparison
Microsoft list price, per user/month, billed annually — check Microsoft for current pricing.
Email on your domain, 1TB of OneDrive per person, SharePoint, and the web versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
Right for: Teams who work in a browser and do not need Office installed on the desktop.
Most often sits under our Launch plan.
Microsoft list price, per user/month, billed annually — check Microsoft for current pricing.
Everything in Basic, plus the desktop Office apps on up to five devices per person, and the booking and webinar tools.
Right for: Most small businesses — anyone who wants Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint installed on their machine.
Most often sits under our Growth plan.
Microsoft list price, per user/month, billed annually — check Microsoft for current pricing.
Everything in Standard, plus device management, conditional access, advanced threat protection, and information protection.
Right for: Businesses handling regulated, client-confidential, or financial data, and anyone who needs to manage the devices staff work on.
Most often sits under our Scale plan.
| Capability | Basic | Standard | Premium |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business email on your domainExchange Online mailboxes with a 50 GB mailbox per person, on you@yourcompany.com. | Included | Included | Included |
| Word, Excel, PowerPoint in the browserThe web versions, on any machine with a browser and a login. | Included | Included | Included |
| Desktop Office apps installed on your machineThe full Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook applications, on up to five PCs or Macs, five tablets, and five phones per person. This is the single biggest difference between Basic and Standard. | Not included | Included | Included |
| 1 TB of OneDrive storage per personPersonal working files, backed up and synced across devices. | Included | Included | Included |
| SharePoint team sites and shared librariesShared document storage, intranet pages, and lists for the team. | Included | Included | Included |
| Teams chat and meetingsChat, calls, and meetings. Whether Teams is inside your bundle or licensed alongside it depends on your SKU — see the note below the table. | Depends on SKU | Depends on SKU | Depends on SKU |
| Webinars and BookingsRegistration pages and reporting for webinars, and the Bookings calendar for customer appointments. | Bookings yes, webinars no | Included | Included |
| Clipchamp, Loop, and the wider app setThe additional productivity apps Microsoft bundles above Basic. Microsoft revises this set periodically — we confirm what your actual SKU includes during onboarding. | Varies by app | Included | Included |
| Device management (Microsoft Intune)Enrol laptops and phones, enforce encryption and screen locks, and wipe a lost device remotely. Premium only. | Not included | Not included | Included |
| Conditional access (Microsoft Entra ID P1)Rules about who can sign in from where, on what device, with what second factor. This is the control most compliance questionnaires are really asking about. Premium only. | Not included | Not included | Included |
| Advanced threat protection (Defender for Office 365 Plan 1)Scanning of links and attachments at the moment they are clicked, plus anti-phishing policies. Premium only. | Not included | Not included | Included |
| Sensitivity labels and information protectionClassify and encrypt documents so a confidential file stays readable only to the people entitled to it. Premium only. | Not included | Not included | Included |
| Windows 11 Business upgrade rights and AutopilotUpgrade rights from a qualifying Windows Pro licence, and zero-touch device provisioning. Premium only. | Not included | Not included | Included |
| Maximum users on the planAll three Business plans cap at 300 users. Above that, Microsoft moves you to the Enterprise range. | Up to 300 | Up to 300 | Up to 300 |
Microsoft now sells these plans in both “with Teams” and “without Teams” variants, and which one you are on depends on when and where you bought. We check the actual SKU in your tenant during onboarding and tell you what you have.
Microsoft also sells “with Copilot” bundles of Standard and Premium at a higher price, and its comparison page now shows those first. The classic plans in this table are still sold; whether Copilot is worth the difference for your team is exactly the kind of question we work through on the setup call.
We have no incentive to push you up a tier — our fee is the same either way, and the licence is your bill, not ours. So here is the plain version.
You move up from Basic for one reason above all: the installed desktop apps. If anyone in your team lives in Excel, works offline, or needs full Outlook on their laptop, Standard is the honest starting point.
You move up from Standard when the risk changes, not when the headcount does. Premium is what adds Intune for device management, Microsoft Entra ID P1 for conditional access and multi-factor policy, Defender for Office 365 Plan 1 for link and attachment scanning, and sensitivity labels for documents. If you hold client financial or health data, or staff work from their own laptops, this is the tier that lets us enforce anything.
A licence is permission to use the software. It does not configure your domain, structure your files, or build the workflow that files your invoices. That is the part we are paid for.
Twenty minutes, no obligation. We'll work out which tier you need, what Microsoft will charge you for it, and what we would do with it.
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