Business Basic or Business Standard?
$9 a seat against $18. One question settles it, and everything below is what the two plans share and where they part.
Does anyone need Word, Excel and Outlook installed on the computer, rather than in a browser tab?
A browser tab is enough
a seat, a month
Staff who live in mail and Teams, and open a spreadsheet occasionally.
Installed on the computer
a seat, a month
Anyone who works in a document all day, needs to work offline, or runs the kind of spreadsheet the browser version will not open.
The step up is $9 a seat, a month — $9 against $18.
Where the two plans part
Three capabilities separate them. Each row is what one plan does and the other does not, taken from the same comparison the hub publishes.
Both plans run the Office apps in a browser. Only one of them also installs them on the computer, which is the whole of the difference in the apps.
| Capability | Business Basic | Business Standard |
|---|---|---|
Word, Excel and Outlook installed The full versions installed on a Windows PC or a Mac, working offline. | Business Basic: —Not included | Business Standard: |
Webinars and meeting recording Running a registered event, and keeping a recording of a meeting. | Business Basic: —Not included | Business Standard: |
Extra apps included The smaller apps that come with the plan rather than costing extra. | Business Basic: Bookings, Planner, Forms, Sway | Business Standard: Bookings, Planner, Forms, Sway, Loop, Clipchamp |
What the two plans share
The rows that read the same on both. Worth knowing before stepping up, and worth knowing before staying put.
Both plans carry
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Email at your own domain
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Mailbox size: 50 GB
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Archive storage: 50 GB
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Word, Excel and Outlook in a browser
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Microsoft Teams
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File storage per person: 1 TB
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Shared company files and intranet: Plan 1
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Maximum number of people: 300
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Attachment and link scanning: URL time-of-click protection
Neither plan carries
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Windows 11 upgrade included
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Control over company devices
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Protection on the computers themselves
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Rules about who can sign in, and from where
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Finding and protecting sensitive records
Neither plan carries these, so the step up does not change them. The comparison page shows which plans do.
Common questions
Yes. Licenses are assigned per person, so Business Basic for one group of people and Business Standard for another sit in the same tenant.
One person, for one month, on an annual commitment, billed monthly. The figures above are $9 a seat for Business Basic and $18 for Business Standard.
Microsoft 365 Apps for business is on the comparison table beside them, at $13 a seat. The installed Office apps without email.
Both plans stop at 300. Above that the enterprise range takes over, and the answer is a different conversation.
The other decisions in the range
Each of these is one question with two answers, the same shape as this page.
Business Standard or Business Premium?
Does the company need to control the computers and phones themselves, or only the accounts?
Exchange Online Plan 1 or Plan 2?
How much mail has to be kept, and for how long?
Microsoft 365 F1 or F3?
Does this person need a mailbox of their own?
See the whole range
Every plan side by side, with what a seat costs and which capabilities are already bundled in.