There’s no denying the importance of Office 365 as a powerful set of tools for running your day-to-day office.
Or is it Microsoft 365?
If you’ve been wondering what’s the difference between Office 365 and Microsoft 365 and which one to use, you’re not alone. If you’re an IT decision maker wanting to use Office 365 (O365) or Microsoft 365 (M365) or if you’re using one option and want to understand which is best for you, we’ll take you through the differences.
In a nutshell, M365 plans have extra security and device management capabilities compared to their equivalent O365 plans. You can mix and match O365 and M365 plans and swap users from one to the other. So it all boils down to the capabilities you need.
For peace of mind that you won’t pay more than you need to, get in touch for a free, no-obligation chat. We are Microsoft gold partners and our certified M365 technical consultants will help you choose the right licensing options for your business.
Let's find the best plan for you
Making sense of O365 and M365
Launched in 2011 and 2017 respectively, O365 and M365 run alongside each other and by April 2020, most O365 plans had been renamed under M365 plans. For example, O365 Business Premium is now called M365 Business Standard. To keep us on our toes, there’s an exception to this with the O365 Enterprise plans, which have kept their name.
So when comparing O365 to M365 plans, it’s only with Enterprise that you need to choose between the two plans, which are typically for larger organisations. The M365 Business range of plans (typically M365 Business Standard or M365 Business Premium) is well-suited to small and medium-sized businesses respectively.
When it was first launched in 2017, there was a clear distinction between the M365 plans and the O365 plans. M365 plans offered everything that its equivalent O365 plans contained, plus more extensive device management and security features for an additional fee.
A business with a traditional on-premise infrastructure (such as a network with a Domain Controller, Active Directory and Domain-joined Windows PC controlled by Group Policy) would buy an O365 plan to give them Exchange Online, SharePoint, Teams and Office licensing.
M365 additional capabilities
On the other hand, “cloud first” businesses that didn’t rely on an on-premise infrastructure and needed their full capability to be cloud based, would buy an M365 plan. In addition to the above-listed services for O365, the plan included a number of other capabilities. For example they’d use Azure AD in conjunction with Microsoft Intune, which is included in the M365 plan to secure and manage their devices. Find out more in our blog post, What’s the difference between AD vs Azure AD?
Businesses like this may also use Azure Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD) for a remote desktop or remote app solution. The licensing needed for some components of WVD are included in M365 Business Premium, as explained in our quick guide, What is Azure Windows Virtual Desktop?
Comparing O365 and M365
With the renaming of the O365 Business plans to M365 plans in 2020, the line between the two O365 and M365 plans has been blurred. The idea is that you can mix and match to choose whichever plan and capabilities best suit you.
Business versus Enterprise plans
Business plans are cheaper than their equivalent Enterprise plans with a cap at 300 seats per plan. Larger and more complex organisations tend to need Enterprise plans with more capabilities, which makes the additional cost worthwhile.
Microsoft’s mix and match approach means that if you need 400 seats, for example, and the Business version has all the capabilities you need, you can buy 300 of the Business plan and top up the extra 100 using the Enterprise version of that plan.
Mix, match or change plans
In your O365 tenant you can have a mix of all these different types of plan:
- M365 Business
- O365 Enterprise
- M365 Enterprise
You can also change a user’s license from one type to another as you need. If your new plan has additional capabilities, users gain access to these services when the license is assigned. On the other hand, if your new plan has less capabilities, users will lose access to any services not in the new plan once it has been assigned.
Add-on capabilities
There are a number of add-on capabilities that can be used with your O365 or M365 plans including:
- Microsoft Intune for device and application management: this can come as an add-on or as part of M365 Business Premium and above.
- M365 Business Voice: this is an add on license for a full telephony system to your Teams set up.
Keeping up to date with Microsoft licensing can seem complex and time consuming as Microsoft releases new O365 plans several times a year. Get in touch for a free discussion with one of our certified M365 technical consultants to discuss the right O365 or M365 licensing options for your business.
Want to keep in touch?
If you’ve enjoyed reading this blog, then sign up to receive our monthly newsletter where we share new blogs, technical updates, product news, case studies, company updates, Microsoft and Cloud news.
We promise that we won’t share your email address with other business or parties, and will keep your details safe. You can choose to unsubscribe at any time.
Newsletter Sign Up
Contact our Microsoft specialists
Phone or email us to find out more – or book a free, no-obligation call with our technical consultants using the contact form.
“It’s great to work with the Compete366 team, the team members are really knowledgeable, helpful and responsive. No question is too difficult for them. They have really helped us to manage our Azure costs and ensure we have the right environment. When we bring a new customer on-board we can scale up immediately via the Azure portal and quickly make environments available to our customers.”
“We also find that there’s never a heavy sales pitch from them – they are technically focused and recommend what’s right for us.”
“We had great support from the Compete366 AVD expert, who was really helpful, and guided me through options to tackle issues that arose.”
“The great thing about our AVD set up is that we have a custom set up for each project which Compete366 showed me how to do. And with the scalability and flexibility of AVD – we can meet clients’ expectations and get project users up and running more quickly.”
“We were immediately impressed with the advice that the Compete366 specialists in Azure Architecture were able to provide. This was all new to us and we really needed some external expertise that we could use to get our questions answered. The beauty of working with Compete366 is that we transferred our Azure consumption to them, and at the same time received all of their advice and guidance free of charge.”
“Working with Compete366 has been like extending our own team – they are extremely and easy to work with. Right from the outset, it was clear what was on offer – everything was presented to us in a straightforward and uncomplicated way. They also provided just the right level of challenge to our developers and saved us time and money by suggesting better ways to implement our infrastructure.”
“Compete366 were able to help us leverage some useful contacts in Microsoft. We really value the expert advice and guidance that they have offered us in setting up a highly scalable infrastructure. We are also setting in place a regular monthly meeting which will allow us to further refine our architecture and ensure we keep on track as our requirements grow and change.”
“I have been delighted with the migration, where my team worked very hard, supported by expert advice from Compete366, and achieved everything in the timescale we had set out. Compete 366 made sure that we didn’t make any expensive mistakes, and guided us through the process”
