Microsoft 365 is a business suite of office applications that is designed to enhance productivity, management, communication, and collaboration for businesses safeguarded with robust security. Microsoft 365 comes with four tier licensing plans:
- Microsoft 365 Apps
- Business Basic
- Business Standard
- Business Premium
The first two plans, Microsoft 365 Apps and Business Basic, are the most affordable ones but do not offer advanced features that are available in the Standard and the Premium plan. In this article, we will make a comparison between the Business Standard and the Business Premium plan to help you make a better choice between these two.
Breaking down Microsoft 365 Business Standard and Premium in terms of features, services, security, and management:
Number of Applications:
The basic difference between the tiers comes when we compare the number of applications each plan offers. From the 1990 version, the Standard tier plan offers 10+ applications. Also, with the Standard plan, users have access to Copilot. Copilot is advanced software that automates tasks in the applications, provides suggestions, and can alter files with the help of large language models by reading your data.
Microsoft provides secure cloud services to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint among the 10+ applications. Given below are the list of applications available in the Business Standard plan:
Teams: With Teams, employees can collaborate easily, host meetings to include everyone in projects, and enhance teamwork.
Exchange: Exchange helps customers with emailing and scheduling their calendars.
OneDrive: OneDrive is a solid platform for saving important documents, altering, and accessing files.
SharePoint: SharePoint allows users to store data so that all employees have access to it and share it effortlessly.
Outlook: Outlook is a great tool for scheduling your calendar and helps you manage tasks and send emails seamlessly
Clipchamp: Clipchamp allows users to edit and design videos with the help of simple tools.
Loop: Loop is for creating workspaces so that your teams can merge, collaborate, and give their inputs in projects.
Microsoft 365 Business Premium encompasses all these applications in addition to four more apps for advanced security and better management in terms of controlling employees’ access to sensitive business information. Also, just like the Standard plan, the Premium package supports Copilot as an advanced feature.
Security:
One of the most important factors to consider when choosing between plans is the security level that comes with storing and exchanging files. While the Business Standard plan is great for spam control and defending the system against malware, the Premium package goes several steps further to ensure premium-level security. With M365 Business Premium, users can store and access their data safely with its device as well as endpoint protective features:
The premium tier promises advanced security with these additional tools:
- Intune: it can control and limit access to your sensitive data and devices.
- Defender: Defender can identify and fight advanced cyberattacks such as ransomware.
- Entra ID: Entra ID ensures the protection of your employees and their credentials.
- Information Protection: Information Protection enables you to secure files and label documents and helps you determine which employees are allowed to access the company’s data.
User Management:
The Business and the Business Premium tiers allow user management for up to 300 users or employees. In addition to accommodating 300 users, both these plans offer 1 TB of cloud storage to each employee with a custom business email account.
The Premium tier has more options for managing the number of users including what they are allowed to do within the applications. Moreover, the Premium package has advanced settings with which you can control identity access.
Which is the right package for your Business?
Although the Premium package offers everything the Standard one does, including some advanced features, that does not mean that all businesses should opt for Business Premium. There are several factors one needs to consider before making a choice. For one, businesses should check their budget limit; the Standard package comes at a much cheaper price compared to the Premium package. Also, you must consider whether your Business requires all the services offered by the Premium tier. For example, if you don’t require user management, going for the Standard plan is a much better choice. On the other hand, if your company deals with sensitive information, opting for the Premium package is advisable for advanced security. If you are still confused about which one to buy, you can always purchase both these plans and give different employees different access as required. Premium users can easily share files and exchange data with Standard users through OneDrive, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. At the same time, the files that are labeled as sensitive will limit Standard users to access them.