Microsoft sells three main plans to businesses with up to 300 people: Business Basic, Business Standard and Business Premium. The names don't tell you much, and the price gap looks bigger than it is once you see what Premium adds.
Here's what each plan includes, what it costs and how to choose.
The short version
| Plan | Price | What it adds |
|---|---|---|
| Business Basic | $7 | Email, Teams, OneDrive and SharePoint, with web and mobile versions of Word, Excel and Outlook |
| Business Standard | $14 | Everything in Basic, plus the desktop apps for Windows and Mac |
| Business Premium | $22 | Everything in Standard, plus tools to manage devices, control sign-ins, stop malware and protect sensitive files |
Prices are Microsoft's US list prices per user, per month, paid yearly, after Microsoft raised Basic and Standard on July 1, 2026. Premium didn't change. Paying month to month costs more, and existing subscriptions move to the new prices at their first renewal after July 1.
What every plan includes
- Business email on your own domain, with shared calendars and shared mailboxes
- Microsoft Teams for chat, calls and meetings
- 1 TB of OneDrive storage per person, plus SharePoint for shared company files
- Basic multi-factor authentication, using Microsoft's security defaults
Business Basic: for people who work in a browser
Basic fits people who mostly need email and Teams and only open documents now and then: field staff, front desk and part-time help. The web versions of Word and Excel handle everyday editing. Complex spreadsheets, macros and some add-ins need the desktop apps.
Business Standard: adds the desktop apps
Standard adds the installed versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook. Each person can install them on up to five PCs or Macs, five tablets and five phones.
Standard has the security basics: spam and malware filtering, multi-factor authentication and, since mid-2026, link checks when someone clicks. What it lacks is device management for company laptops and sign-in rules like "only company computers can open email." For a business that handles client financial, health or legal information, that's a real gap.
Business Premium: adds the security tools
Premium includes everything in Standard, plus:
- Microsoft Intune to manage company laptops and phones: require encryption, push updates and settings, and wipe a lost device
- Microsoft Defender for Business, protection against viruses and ransomware with detection and response, for Windows, Mac, iPhone and Android devices
- Microsoft Entra ID P1 for conditional access, so you can set rules like "block sign-ins from outside the US" or "only company devices can open company files"
- Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Plan 1, which scans email attachments in a sandbox before they're delivered and checks links when someone clicks them, including in Teams
- Microsoft Purview information protection and data loss prevention, to label sensitive files and catch things like Social Security numbers going out by email
- Email archiving of up to 1.5 TB per person, for firms that need to keep mail for years
The jump from Standard to Premium is $8 per person, per month. Buying device management, endpoint protection and attachment sandboxing separately often costs more than that, and the pieces don't work together as well.
It also lines up with what insurers and examiners ask about. Cyber insurance questionnaires commonly ask about multi-factor authentication, encrypted devices, malware protection and email filtering, and Premium covers much of that list once it's set up properly.
Most Premium security features don't protect you until someone turns them on and configures them. Plenty of businesses pay for Premium and use it like Standard.
Can you mix plans?
Yes. You can give Basic to people who only need email and Teams, and Standard or Premium to everyone else. Each business plan tops out at 300 users.
Keep in mind that Premium's security features are licensed per person. Someone on Basic or Standard isn't covered by them, and attackers look for the weakest account. If you mix plans, make sure the people with access to sensitive data, money or admin settings are on Premium.
Businesses with more than 300 people move to Microsoft's enterprise plans, like E3 and E5.
What about Copilot?
Microsoft now sells Business Standard and Business Premium with Microsoft 365 Copilot Business included, at $23.50 and $32 per user, per month, paid yearly. Copilot can also be added to an existing plan, and some advanced AI features are billed by usage on top. Copilot can draft, summarize and search across your email and files.
Before you turn it on, clean up file sharing. Copilot can find anything a person already has access to, including files that were shared too widely years ago.
How we help
As an authorized Microsoft partner, we license Microsoft 365, set it up properly and turn on the security settings your plan includes. If you already have Microsoft 365, we can review your licenses and settings and tell you whether you're paying for features you don't use or missing protections you need.