Microsoft 365 License Comparison in Detail

  

Mark Regan
Published: May 28th, 2025 • 8 Min Read

Every business needs a program where they store their data, manage them, protect them from ransomware attacks and also help you to increase productivity, communication and collaboration. For this reason, Microsoft introduced Office 365, where you can access several Microsoft applications with cloud storage. Now, it is simply called Microsoft 365 as it now works on broader things like cloud based productivity tools, artificial intelligence features and other services.

Office 365 Personal and Family Subscriptions

These two licenses contain basic features and functions. Because most people use this for personal work. That’s why it contains basic features such as.

Office 365 Personal Plan

• It is used for individual work and costs around $69.99 per year or $6.99 per month (US dollar).
• Only 1 user can use this account and provide many features like.
• Access to premium Office applications: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote.
• It provide 1 TB OneDrive cloud storage
• You can access Outlook.com advanced security and ad-free email service.
• Get Microsoft Editor, templates and design ideas.
• You will also get access to feature updates and security patches.

Microsoft 365 Family Plan

• This plan is used by one or more users, up to 6 users.
• It will cost you $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year.
• Per user will get following features:
• Same functions offered by personal plan but it will get each user separately.
• Provide 1TB OneDrive storage per user (Total of 6TB).
• You will get a function to share your subscription with your family using their own Microsoft accounts.
• Offers Location sharing and Microsoft Family Safety features.

Microsoft 365 for Business Plan

This subscription provided you features and functions for the small and mid-sized business. It provides you several features which you can choose according to your needs.

Microsoft 365 Business Basic

• This plan is for those who want cloud services but not desktop apps.
• The price is $6 per user per month.
• It provides features like web and mobile versions of Office applications: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.
• You will get Exchange to save your business emails with the capacity of 50 GB.
• You will also get OneDrive with 1TB storage per user.
• Other products like Microsoft Teams and SharePoint, but no desktop Office apps.

Office 365 Business Standard

• In the standard version you will get all the basic plan features with desktop Office apps and cloud services.
• It costs you $12.50/user per month.
• This version contains all the features of the basic business plan and also includes complete desktop MS
• Office applications such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, etc.
• Get Publisher and Access but for PC only
• Advanced email and calendaring management.
• You will also get Webinar hosting and attendee registration

Microsoft 365 Business Premium

• It is best for those who want additional security and device management with the basic features.
• Price is $22 per user and per month.
• Will contain all Business Standard features and get Microsoft Intune, a device and app management.
• You will also get Azure Information Protection, Defender for Business, Conditional Access and MFA policies.

Microsoft 365 Apps for Business

• If you want Microsoft Office applications but not email services. Then, this subscription is for you.
• You can buy the license only for $8.25/user/month.
• Here, you will get all the desktop versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook.
• You will also get 1TB OneDrive storage per user but not email, Teams and Exchange services.

Office 365 Enterprise Subscription

Medium and large organizations use Microsoft 365 Enterprise plans for their needs. Here, are the different plans for different purpose

Microsoft 365 E1

• It is suitable for frontline or remote workers who need basic tools.
• Cost you $10 per user and per month.
• It provides you Web and mobile versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook.
• You will get Exchange Online with 50 GB mailbox
• It also offers Microsoft Teams, OneDrive, SharePoint, but no desktop apps.
• Here, it provides you basic security and compliance.

Office 365 E3

• For companies who needs desktop application and compliance tools
• Purchase the license for $ 36 per user/month
• You will get all the features of E1 and full desktop Office apps.
• Get Exchange Online with 100 GB mailbox and archiving
• Offers you Microsoft Purview for your data loss prevention and legal hold.
• Azure AD Premium P1 for identity and access management
• Lastly Intune for the device management

Microsoft 365 E5

• Those who need top-tier security and analytics, this subscription is perfect.
• Price is $57/user/month
• Access to all the features of E3 along with Microsoft Defender for Office 365
• Microsoft Purview Premium, Power BI Pro, Azure AD Premium P2, Phone System and audio conferencing

Other Office 365 License

There are other subscriptions of Office 365 that are only used for specific institutions. For example:

• Microsoft 365 Education: Used by schools, colleges and universities. It provides features like collaboration with Teams, classroom tools, identity and access management.
• Microsoft 365 for Non Profit Organization: It is used by registered non profit companies. For this, you need the approval of Microsoft Nonprofit eligibility and get the same features as commercial subscription but with less price.
• Microsoft 365 Government: Government bodies use this plan for their work with high advance securities.

These licenses are not for you but for your knowledge we mentioned them. So, we have learned different types of Office 365 subscriptions. So, let’s compare them and see which one will be best suited for you.

Compare Office 365 Plans to Choose Right One

Well it depends on the user what are their requirements and their budget. But, we will give you a summary of all the subscriptions that we mentioned above and you can easily compare them side by side.

So, here is the comparison between Microsoft 365 licenses. Carefully examine the features and decide which one is best suited for you. In addition to choosing and using the right Office 365 subscription. It is also important to use the secure backup tool. Because you will need it when you are using the Microsoft suite.

To Be Conclude

In this article, we have seen different Office 365 subscriptions, Microsoft offered. We mentioned all their features and compare Office 365 plans to help you in making decisions. Furthermore, we also suggest you expert recommend methods to save your Office 365 for any situations.