Office 365: Business Plans Vs. E5, E3 and E1

If you’re looking to migrate to the Cloud, the first thing you need to do is choose a proper Office 365 license. There are multiple options available for SME businesses, and finding the right plan that suits your requirements can be quite a task. We have sorted the difference between Business and Enterprise Office 365 plans that will help you in making the right choice.

Here’s the price comparison between Office 365 Business plans and Enterprise licenses:

Office 365 Business Plans:

Features	Microsoft 365 Business Basic (no Teams) (Formerly Office 365 Business Essentials)	Microsoft 365 Apps for business (Formerly Office 365 Business)	Microsoft 365 Business Standard (no Teams) (Formerly Office 365 Business Premium)	Microsoft 365 Business Premium (no Teams) (Formerly Microsoft 365 Business)
Price	$4.75 user/month (Annual commitment)	$8.30 user/month (Annual commitment)	$10.25 user/month (Annual commitment)	$19.75 user/month (Annual commitment)
	Buy Now	Buy Now	Buy Now	Buy Now
Office applications included in the plan	Outlook, Exchange, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote	Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Access, Publisher	Outlook, Exchange, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Access, Publisher	Outlook, Exchange, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Access, Publisher
Desktop version of Office apps	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Services include	Exchange, OneDrive for Business, Sites	OneDrive for Business	Exchange, OneDrive for Business, Sites
Custom domain name with 50 GB mailbox	Yes		Yes
Video conferencing (Max 250 users)	Yes	Yes	Yes
eDiscovery cases	Yes	Yes	Yes
Archiving	Up to 50 GB	No	Up to 50 GB	1.5 TB
Host Webinars	No	No	Yes	Yes
Microsoft Bookings	No	No	Yes	Yes
Microsoft Lists	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Microsoft Defender for Office 365				Yes
Intune				Yes
Azure Information Protection				Yes

Office 365 Enterprise Plans:

Features	Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise (Formerly Office 365 ProPlus)	Office 365 Enterprise E1 (no Teams)	Office 365 Enterprise E3 (no Teams)	Office 365 Enterprise E5 (no Teams)
Price	$12.00 user/month (Annual commitment)	$7.75 user/month (Annual commitment)	$20.75 user/month (Annual commitment)	$35.75 user/month (Annual commitment)
	Buy Now	Buy Now	Buy Now	Buy Now
Office applications included in the plan	Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Publisher, OneDrive for Business, Access	Exchange, OneNote, OneDrive for Business, Sway, Sites, Yammer, Delve, Stream	Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Exchange, OneNote, OneDrive for Business, Access, Sway, Sites, Yammer, Delve, Stream, Publisher	Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Exchange, OneNote, OneDrive for Business, Access, Sway, Sites, Yammer, Delve, Stream, Publisher, Power BI
MS Access included in Office	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Office on tablets and phones	5 tablets/5 phones per user	No	5 tablets/5 phones per user	5 tablets/5 phones per user
Microsoft Teams	No	Option to add Teams Enterprise at $5.25 u./m.	Option to add Teams Enterprise at $5.25 u./m.	Option to add Teams Enterprise at $5.25 u./m.
Unlimited online meetings	No	With add-on Teams Enterprise	With add-on Teams Enterprise	With add-on Teams Enterprise
eDiscovery cases	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Archiving	No	Up to 50 GB	1.5 TB	1.5 TB
Microsoft Defender for Office 365	No	No	No	No
Azure Information Protection	No	No	Yes	Yes
Office 365 Cloud App Security	No	No	No	Yes
Legal Compliance and Archiving	No	No	Yes	Yes
Office 365 Advanced Compliance	No	No	No	Yes
Shared Computer Activation	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Power BI Pro	No	No	No	Yes
Microsoft Viva	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Microsoft Bookings	No	No	Yes	Yes
Microsoft Whiteboard	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
SharePoint Online	No	Plan 1	Plan 2	Plan 2
Microsoft Phone System	No	No	No	Yes

The unit price for each Office 365 Business and Enterprise plan goes from $6 to $38. The costs can shoot up quickly for organizations with a large number of users. However, you can save money if you organize your plan properly taking into consideration the right functionalities you need. Bundling your required services into your license can help you save a lot of money.

Difference Between Enterprise and Business Plans

If an organization has less than 300 users, both Office 365 plans – Business and Enterprise – can be available. As large organizations use Office 365 plans, you might be still wondering which the right Office 365 plan for you is.

Features of Office 365 Enterprise plans:

• Microsoft Teams – PSTN and PBX conferencing is available as E3 & E5 addons
• Advanced Security Protection
• Advanced Directory Integration
• Power BI
• Delve Analytics
• Litigation Hold
• Application management for enterprise
• Advanced Threat Protection

If you are willing to opt for an annual commitment, you can go for the Enterprise plan. But Business plans are also available on a monthly subscription, as well as a yearly subscription.

Comparison of Office 365 Business Plans:

Fundamentally, Office 365 Business plans were made for small and medium businesses (SMEs) that have fewer than 300 users. Office 365 can be overwhelming with a lot of features, and small businesses might not need them all. Thus, they can opt for Office 365 Business plans.

Let’s see how small businesses can use the Office 365 Business plans. Comparison between Office 365 Business plans:

Microsoft 365 Business Basic (no Teams) (formerly Office 365 Business Essentials)

$4.75/user/month – Annual commitment

Preferred by: Small businesses that don’t depend on Office 365 apps too much.

If you want the basic functions of Office 365 without all the bells and whistles, Office 365 Business Essentials is the best plan for you.

What you get in the Office 365 Business Essentials plan:

• 50 GB mailbox email
• Custom email domain address
• Web-based MS Office 2016 – Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint
• 1 TB of OneDrive storage
• SharePoint
• Microsoft Planner
• Yammer to collaborate across departments and locations
• 24/7 technical support via phone, char, and email (Including weekends and U.S. public holidays)

Microsoft 365 Apps for business (Formerly Office 365 Business)

$8.30/user/month – Annual commitment

Preferred by: Small businesses that require only Office 365 apps, online storage, and file sharing

What you get in Office 365 Business plan:

• Desktop-based MS Office 2016 – Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote
• Web-based MS Office 2016 – Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint
• OneDrive and 1 TB of OneDrive storage
• 24/7 technical support via phone, char, and email (Including weekends and U.S. public holidays)

Microsoft 365 Business Standard (Formerly Office 365 Business Premium)

$12.50/user/month – Annual commitment

Preferred by: Small businesses that require recent versions of Office 365 applications, preferably desktop versions.

It is the costliest business plan in Office 365. Enterprise E1 is cheaper than Business Premium, so the right choice should be made after looking at all the features.

What you get in the Office 365 Business Premium plan:

• 50 GB mailbox email
• Custom email domain address
• Desktop-based MS Office 2016 – Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote
• Web-based MS Office 2016 – Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint
• 1 TB of OneDrive storage
• SharePoint
• Microsoft Planner
• Yammer to collaborate across departments and locations
• 24/7 technical support via phone, char, and email (Including weekends and U.S. public holidays)

Comparison of Office 365 Enterprise Plans:

As the name suggests, Office 365 Enterprise plans are for large enterprises that have more than 300 users. Big companies need more vigorous solutions because their needs are more complicated than those SME. The plans focus more on the needs of enterprise, which heavily focus on compliance and security issues.

Office 365 Enterprise plans offer three plans: E1, E3, E5. These plans are available on the annual contract only.

Let’s see the comparison between Office 365 Enterprise plans:

Office 365 Enterprise E1 (no Teams)

$7.75/user/month – Annual commitment

Preferred by: Enterprises that need features like data governance, but very limited use of MS Office applications

If you want to opt for an Enterprise plan within your budget, opt for the Enterprise E1 plan. This costs less than the Business Premium plan while allowing the benefits of an enterprise plan.

What you’ll get in the Office 365 Enterprise E1 plan:

• Email 50 GB mailbox (only accessible from Outlook online)
• Microsoft Teams for web conferencing, Instant Messaging, online meetings, and presence (Option to add Teams Enterprise at $5.25 u./m.)
• OneDrive for Business
• Yammer
• SharePoint
• Video Sharing
• 1 TB OneDrive storage, File sharing
• HD video conferencing
• Team sites
• eDiscovery search
• Data Governance

Difference Between Business Premium and Enterprise E1:

• Email can be accessed only via the online app in the Enterprise E1 plan
• There are no desktop versions of MS Office in the E1 plan, only web-based versions

Office 365 Enterprise E3 (no Teams)

$20.75/user/month – Annual commitment

Preferred by: Enterprises that need features like security, compliance, business intelligence, and voice capabilities.

At best, the E3 plan can be compared to the Business Premium plan because of similar features.

All the features of the Enterprise E1 plan are included in the E3 plan as well. In addition to that, here’s what you’ll get in the Office 365 Enterprise E3 plan:

• Office Client Apps
• Legal compliance
• Information protection: Email Encryption, Rights Admin, DLP
• Azure Rights Management and functions of doc management – Email Encryption, Rights Admin, DLP, Document Encryption
• Email storage for in-place archive
• Unlimited OneDrive storage
• eDiscovery legal hold
• eDiscovery export and case management
• Support for hosted voicemail

There are more features like Exchange Online Archiving, unified eDiscovery, PSTN adding, rights management, DLP, and encryption in the Enterprise E3 plan in comparison with the Business Premium plan.

Office 365 Enterprise E5 (no Teams)

$35.75/user/month – Annual commitment

Preferred by: The costliest Office 365 plan. Enterprises that need all the features of E1 and E3 plan. With the E5 plan, you get all the consolidated features available in Office 365.

All the features of the Enterprise E1 & E3 plans are included in the Enterprise E5 plan as well. In addition to that, here’s what you’ll get in Office 365 Enterprise E5 plan:

• Enhanced security features
• Microsoft’s Business Intelligence tools for end-user organizational analytics
• Office 365 Cloud App Security
• Cloud PBX
• Microsoft Teams (Option to add Teams Enterprise at $5.25 u./m.)
• Unlimited OneDrive storage
• PSTN conferencing to dial into Teams meetings from anywhere
• Call management in the cloud
• Advanced analytics with Power BI Pro and Microsoft MyAnalytics
• Advanced eDiscovery
• Advanced-Data Governance and Audit
• Advanced security with Advanced Threat Protection and Customer Lockbox
• Data loss prevention for Microsoft Teams chat and channel messages
• Advanced control and presence of Office 365 environment

Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise (Formerly Office 365 ProPlus)

$12/user/month – Annual commitment

Preferred by: Enterprises that don’t really have an email in focus but want compliance and BI features, and who use MS Office on mobile.

• File sharing and 1 TB OneDrive online document storage
• Fully installed Office on PC/Mac
• Office apps on tablets and phones
• Self-service BI in Excel
• Office Online: Create, view, and edit rights for online versions of core Office apps for collaborating on documents
• eDiscovery search
• On-premises AD sync for single sign-on
• Mobile device management

If you are still wondering what’s the right Office 365 plan for you, talk to our Sales team. We’ll understand your requirements, and propose the best possible solution for you.