Office 365 v Microsoft 365

If you use the Office Suite at all, you’ve probably heard of Office 365. Depending on who you are and what you do, the service we discuss below could be called two different things:

• Office 365: The service below will be known as Office 365 to you if the below is true:
  • Your business uses Enterprise plans
  • You operate in the Education sector
  • You operate in the Healthcare sector
  • You operate in the Government sector
• Microsoft 365: The service we discuss below will be known as Microsoft 365 if the below is true:
  • You are a consumer using the service for your household
  • Your business is a small enterprise
  • Your business is a medium-sized enterprise

So now we’ve covered that, here’s what Office 365/Microsoft 365 is.

What is Office 365/Microsoft 365? O365/M365 is the Office applications (Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, Publisher, and so on), hosted exchange, SharePoint, Teams, Azure Information Protection, and Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection depending on the plan you choose.

Nearly every subscription was previously known as Office 365, but Microsoft rebranded their subscriptions in April 2020. The following subscriptions are the products that were affected by the rebrand.

• Office 365 Business Essentials. Office 365 Business Essentials will become Microsoft 365 Business Basic.
• Office 365 Business Premium. Office 365 Business Premium will become Microsoft 365 Business Standard.
• Microsoft 365 Business. Microsoft 365 Business will become Microsoft 365 Business Premium.
• Office 365 Business and Office 365 ProPlus. These will both become Microsoft 365 Apps. Microsoft state that they will use the labels ‘for business’ and ‘for enterprise’ to distinguish between the two where necessary.

Office 365/Microsoft 365 Subscriptions

There are 6 main subscriptions available. There are two available for consumers, four available for small businesses, and one available for large enterprises.

Consumer subscriptions:

There are two consumer subscriptions that offer access to Microsoft Office applications and OneDrive storage. Here are the options available to consumers:

• Microsoft 365 Personal: One Microsoft account with the applications available for up to 5 computers, tablets, or smartphones. This subscription gives you access to the entire Office suite as well as OneDrive for storage. Furthermore, you will get a host of special offers.
• Microsoft 365 Family: Up to six Microsoft accounts with applications available for up to 6 devices per user. Again, you will also get a host of special offers and OneDrive storage.

Small business subscriptions:

• Microsoft 365 Business Basic: Offers access to hosted e-mail (Exchange), SharePoint, and Microsoft Teams services, and access to the mobile app and Office Online versions of Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote.
• Microsoft 365 Apps for business: Offers Office applications for Windows, Mac, and mobile platforms for up to five computers, tablets, and smartphones per user.
• Microsoft 365 Business Standard: Offers Office applications for Windows, Mac, and mobile platforms for up to five computers, tablets, and smartphones per user, as well as hosted Exchange, SharePoint, and Teams.

Enterprise business subscriptions:

• Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise: Offers access to the Office Professional Plus applications on up to five devices per user.

If you would like to find out more about Office 365/Microsoft 365 subscriptions, please contact us today to speak to our friendly team. We are a Microsoft Silver Partner, meaning we’re reliable, trusted, and can provide the appropriate solutions for your business.