Microsoft 365 F1 or F3?
$4 a seat against $13. One question settles it, and everything below is what the two plans share and where they part.
Does this person need a mailbox of their own?
No mailbox of their own
a seat, a month
Staff who need the schedule, the company intranet and Teams, and who have never had a work email address.
A mailbox of their own
a seat, a month
Staff who are emailed directly, or who fill in and return documents rather than only reading them.
The step up is $9 a seat, a month — $4 against $13.
Where the two plans part
Five capabilities separate them. Each row is what one plan does and the other does not, taken from the same comparison the hub publishes.
The plans differ in several places, and one of them decides it. A person who is emailed directly needs the plan that carries a mailbox.
| Capability | F1 | F3 |
|---|---|---|
Email at your own domain Addresses that end in your company name rather than a provider’s. | F1: —Not included | F3: |
Mailbox size How much mail one person can keep before anything has to be cleared out. | F1: calendar only, not for mail | F3: 2 GB |
Word, Excel and Outlook in a browser The Office apps running in a browser tab, with nothing installed. | F1: read-only | F3: |
Extra apps included The smaller apps that come with the plan rather than costing extra. | F1: Planner and Lists; Bookings with Teams | F3: Bookings, Planner, Forms, Sway |
Windows 11 upgrade included Which edition of Windows 11 the plan entitles a company machine to. | F1: —Not included | F3: Windows 11 Enterprise E3 |
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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Microsoft Teams
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File storage per person: 2 GB
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Shared company files and intranet: SharePoint Kiosk
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Maximum number of people: no limit
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Control over company devices
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Rules about who can sign in, and from where
Neither plan carries
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Archive storage
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Word, Excel and Outlook installed
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Webinars and meeting recording
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Protection on the computers themselves
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Attachment and link scanning
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 F1 for one group of people and F3 for another sit in the same tenant.
One person, for one month, on an annual commitment, billed monthly. The figures above are $4 a seat for F1 and $13 for F3.
They sit beside the business plans rather than below them. A different set of people, not a smaller version of the same plan.
They carry no cap. The business plans stop at 300, and the frontline pair is the range that does not.
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?
Business Basic or Business Standard?
Does anyone need Word, Excel and Outlook installed on the computer, rather than in a browser tab?
Exchange Online Plan 1 or Plan 2?
How much mail has to be kept, and for how long?
See the whole range
Every plan side by side, with what a seat costs and which capabilities are already bundled in.