Thorough comparison of all Microsoft 365 plans The Office license your company needs

The support period for Office 2019 is almost over, and many people may be considering a replacement.

Currently, the mainstream contract is “Microsoft 365,” which allows you to use Microsoft products on a subscription basis.

In this article

“I want to introduce Microsoft 365, but I can’t decide because there are too many plans.”

“I have a similar plan and I don’t know the difference”

For those in charge, we have compiled information for choosing the best Office plan for your company.

Microsoft 365 feature comparison

Now let’s compare Microsoft 365 plans.

Broadly speaking,

• for individuals
• For small business
• for large enterprises
• For field personnel

There are four categories of

Personal

This plan is for sole proprietors and small businesses.

“Family” is advantageous if you use it with 2 or more people.

Business (for general corporations)

This plan is for small businesses with 300 employees or less.

In addition to the three plans of Basic, Standard, and Premium, there is “Apps for Business” for users who want to use Office apps.

Enterprise

This plan is for large companies with 300 or more employees.

We have more advanced plans than the business plan for general corporations, and you can contract even for 300 people or less.

For large companies, the old plan “Office365” is still on sale.

Microsoft 365 plans

*When used by 5 or more people (1TB for 5 or less people)

Office365 plan

*When used by 5 or more people (1TB for 5 or less people)

Frontline worker (for field personnel)

This plan is for on-site personnel who work in factories and stores.

It is a plan for web applications only, assuming use on a shared computer.

Points for choosing a Microsoft 365 plan

Microsoft 365 plans are

• Number of users
• Individual or corporate
• Functions and services included in the license

is designed based on

The point when actually choosing a plan is to clarify these conditions first.

Since Microsoft 365 is a monthly subscription service, we tend to pay attention to the price, but since there are many types of plans, it is difficult to compare functions from the price point.

When choosing a plan, we recommend that you narrow down your options by following the steps below.

Usage scale

First, decide how many licenses you want to purchase.

The criterion is whether the number of users exceeds 300.

Microsoft 365 Business for general corporations can only be used by up to 300 people, so it is not an option in the first place for companies with more than 300 people.

If you have more than 300 users, you need to subscribe to Microsoft 365 Enterprise for Large Enterprises.

Since the Enterprise plan has no limit on the number of people, it is possible to contract with a large number of people.

Usage

The next thing I would like to confirm is the purpose of introducing Microsoft 365.

Make sure that the features and apps you want to use are included in the plan.

There are things that can be covered by using external apps, but Microsoft 365 has a lot of functions for linking between apps, so there is no reason not to take advantage of this.

By solidifying with Microsoft 365 Apps

• Register web conference schedules on the calendar and display alarms
• Save files uploaded to chat to shared cloud storage

etc., will greatly improve convenience.

Main apps and features

Application form

With Microsoft 365, there are plans that provide Office desktop apps and plans that only offer web-based apps.

Plans that offer only the web version are relatively inexpensive, but if you decide only on price, problems such as “cannot be used offline” and “cannot be used for advanced editing” will occur.

If you want to create materials on your computer or work offline, choose a plan that provides a desktop application that you can install and use on your computer.

If you only want to browse in an online environment, a web app is enough.

Recommended plans by purpose

For those who don’t want to spend time choosing a plan or want to use it for the time being, we will introduce recommended plans for each purpose.

All you need is to use Office apps

If you think of it as an alternative to a one-off Office license, the Office desktop app is enough.

Microsoft 365 has reasonable plans that specialize in using desktop apps.

Please note that these plans do not include Teams, a mail server or communication tool.

I want to use it for remote work

In order to maintain teamwork and increase productivity even in telework and hybrid work, you need an app that excels in information collaboration and file sharing.

• Communication tool (Teams)
• Cloud storage (OneDrive for Business)
• Portal site (SharePoint)

No matter where you work, here‘s a plan we recommend for maintaining high performance:

Using a shared computer or using only a mobile device

The field personnel plan is for users who do not have a dedicated PC.

Usage is limited to the following conditions, but you can use it at an overwhelmingly low price compared to other plans.

• Web version of the app only
• Can be used only on shared terminals and small terminals

Requires advanced security and device management

Microsoft 365’s top plans come with advanced security features.

• Azure Active Directory Premium (Identity Management)
• Intune (device management/app management)
• Azure Information Protection Premium

If you require a high level of security, the plans you can choose from will inevitably be limited.

We recommend that you choose a plan from the table below according to your usage scale.

Recommended plan if you can’t decide

If you don’t know which one is better, or if it’s hard to imagine how each feature will be used, we recommend using the most standard plan.

Another advantage of a subscription is that you can try it out and easily review the plan later.

What price are you interested in?

We introduced all the plans of Microsoft 365 and tips for choosing a plan.

By comparing each plan, have you come up with a specific usage image?