Microsoft 365 Buyer's Guide for SMEs: Which is Right for You?

Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) is a widely used productivity software suite that is the industry standard for many business verticals.

But as a small business, the different subscription plans can be confusing. Especially if you’re early on in your business journey, or you're coming from another package like Google Workspace.

So which Microsoft 365 plan is right for you? In this buyer’s guide, I’ll steer you through the different options available and share my insider take on the various features on offer.

Before You Make the Move

Choosing the right productivity package for you and your team is a big undertaking, so a bit of prep work can go a long way.

Working alongside your team, seek to answer the following questions:

• What are your business’s core needs from productivity software? Don’t be limited by the solution you’re currently using, or indeed by what Microsoft offers. In an ideal world, what would you like your business productivity suite to do?
• Why are you thinking of moving? What about your current solution isn’t working for you? Defining this will help you establish whether a move to Microsoft 365 is truly going to solve your problems.
• If you are already using a productivity solution, are there any features you currently aren’t using? How much redundancy is there in what you’re paying for at the moment?
• We all need essentials like word processing and spreadsheets, but consider other things like cybersecurity, device management, and data protection too. These things are typically on the fringes of productivity software, but are becoming more and more essential.
• What capability do you have to train up your team in the new solution? Will your team be able to have extra allowances of time while they get up to speed?

Microsoft 365: Your Business’s Options

So with that initial homework out of the way, let’s dive into the main four Microsoft 365 options available to small businesses.

Microsoft 365 Business Basic

This is the cheapest option, and as such may be the one that many smaller businesses are drawn to. Though Basic users do benefit from Microsoft's industry leading productivity software, it is very much the bottom rung of the ladder.

This is purely an online, cloud-based, scaled back version of Microsoft 365, only giving access to web and mobile versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. It includes some of Microsoft’s excellent commercial grade cloud collaboration features like OneDrive, SharePoint, Teams, and Exchange. Each employee gets a generous 1 terabyte of cloud storage.

Microsoft 365 Business Basic: Our Thoughts

Microsoft 365 Business Basic is the most basic, entry level plan, with the most basic, entry level feature set. The biggest downside to Basic is that Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook are only available online, through a web browser - not as their installed software counterparts. This means that your teams will not be able to use them without an internet connection at all.

Business Basic might be an option for businesses who predominantly use another productivity suite and just need some Microsoft features to collaborate with external parties. However, in my experience, Business Basic doesn’t provide enough functionality with which to run a business on its own. So if that was your plan, please reconsider!

Microsoft 365 Apps for Business

This is another very basic version of Microsoft's productivity suite. It provides access to the mobile, desktop installable, and web browser versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneDrive, and Outlook. It includes very basic filesharing features to enable some online collaboration, but it is still a hugely limited version of what Microsoft 365 is capable of.

Though file sharing is possible here, the main benefit over Business Basic is that you have installable versions of the core “Microsoft Office" packages which can be used offline. Modern Microsoft collaboration essentials Teams and SharePoint are markedly absent here.

Microsoft 365 Apps for Business: Our Thoughts

Again, this is a very bare bones offering, and not one I can ever remember us recommending. I’m sure some businesses may have a use for it; maybe those who use another platform and just need some basic Microsoft interoperability; but it’s far from enough to run a whole business through.

However, it does include completely installable, offline desktop versions of the core Microsoft productivity offering, so it may be useful for non-Microsoft focused organisations whose internet access is unreliable.

Microsoft 365 Business Standard

Now we’re talking! Business Standard provides a far more robust feature set compared to the two cheaper options. It’s a great option for business buyers who are price conscious, but also wish to secure and future-proof their productivity functions.

It includes desktop installable, mobile app, and web browser versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneDrive, Outlook, Teams, and Clipchamp (Microsoft’s surprisingly feature-rich video editing and capture app). Business Standard also provides businesses with enterprise-grade email and calendaring through Microsoft Exchange.

It also includes cloud tools SharePoint and Loop - names which may not be familiar to all readers, so let’s explore them briefly.

SharePoint is an enterprise content management system that can be used as a central repository of internal business information. If you’ve ever used a corporate intranet, then SharePoint sites fulfil a very similar function. But because they are in the cloud, they can be used to provide a shared experience to remote team members across the globe. SharePoint sites can also be public-facing.

Loop is an online collaborative workspace, where users can come together to share notes, organise ideas, and plan projects together.

Microsoft 365 Business Standard: Our Thoughts

Business Standard is a great choice for more forward thinking businesses who want many of the benefits of Microsoft 365 whilst also strengthening their own digital collaborative capabilities. SharePoint and Loop are particularly useful tools for small teams who consistently need to use and access the same information and assets, especially if they do so remotely.

In contrast to the previous two offerings in this article, Business Standard is very much something you can “run a business with”. But there is a caveat here. When onboarding businesses to Microsoft 365, we generally recommend investing in Business Premium because of the added cybersecurity, device management, and data protection features it provides.

Microsoft 365 Business Premium

Business Premium provides all of the software and features of Standard, but with a few essential security additions:

• Entra ID - Cloud-based identity and access management solution, managing identities, access, and policies across your Microsoft ecosystem. It can enforce certain policies and conditions across your IT estate, such as requiring multi-factor authentication with every sign in, or only permitting access to company resources from within a set geographical location.
• Intune - Cloud-based endpoint management tool which keeps track of all relevant devices, with the potential to cover both your organisation’s own hardware and your team’s “BYOD” devices. It allows for central management of all business relevant device policies, such as BitLocker encryption or disabling use of external data drives, keeping all devices in your ecosystem monitored, secure, and compliant.
• Purview - Microsoft’s data governance and security platform which protects sensitive data from leaving your defined on-premises, cloud, and software-as-a-service (SaaS) estate.
• Defender for Business - Microsoft’s business-grade antimalware and threat-detection solution.

Microsoft 365 Business Premium: Our Thoughts

In addition to all of the benefits of Business Standard, Business Premium comes prepackaged with essential security features. Centralised functions like Intune’s device management, Purview’s data protection, and Entra ID’s access management make securing your business a breeze.

It’s worth mentioning that these are the sorts of controls expected for Cyber Essentials certification. Whether you’re looking to become certified or not, it bears repeating that it reflects an essential, industry-standard level of security that can benefit all organizations.

Enhanced Microsoft 365 Security with Penken Technology

When you invest in Business Standard or Premium through Penken Technology, we have a few extra tricks up our sleeves. Alongside these plans, we deploy a tried and tested suite of handpicked and fully managed third-party endpoint and email security tools which layer even more protection on to that which Microsoft already provides.

These advanced third-party tools provide additional features such as enhanced ransomware protection, web filtering, and reinforced email security policies. These third-party tools dovetail especially well with Microsoft’s own Entra ID, Intune, and Purview solutions, and I feel our endpoint security tool outperforms Defender, making our enhanced deployment of Business Premium the most feature packed and secure productivity suite that we provide.

We also don’t lock users into 12 month Microsoft licenses, so your Microsoft investment can be as flexible as your team is!

Penken Technology’s Final Verdict

Though we can see potential use cases for all of Microsoft’s different offers, we definitely consider Business Premium to be the best possible option for most businesses.

Business Basic and Apps for Business may be useful in certain, very limited situations, but are far from enough to use solely for the day-to-day running of a business. Though they do come with Microsoft’s basic security oversight, they lack a lot of the available security controls that are needed to keep your team and your business safe.

Business Standard provides a good middle ground for organisations who are operating on a relative shoestring budget, but still want the collaborative benefits of SharePoint, Loop, and Exchange. However, again, it lacks essential device, policy and data security additions which will likely need to be purchased elsewhere at extra cost.

So our personal pick is most definitely Business Premium. Not only does it come with essential security controls from the outset, but it provides all of the productivity and collaborative benefits that Microsoft has to offer. And paired with our own suite of third-party security controls, there’ll be no stopping you!

So if you’re choosing your business’s first productivity suite, or you’re looking to move to Microsoft from another solution, book an obligation-free chat to discuss which Microsoft 365 subscription is the best fit for your business.