Microsoft 365 for Small Business: What You Get and What It Costs

Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) is how most businesses run their email, documents, and collaboration today. If you’re still running on-premise Exchange or using a consumer email service for your business, you’re behind — and it’s causing problems you may not have quantified yet.

What Microsoft 365 Includes

At its core, Microsoft 365 is a subscription that gives every user access to:

• Outlook email with your company domain (@yourbusiness.com)
• Microsoft Teams for messaging and video calls
• SharePoint and OneDrive for file storage and sharing
• Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote — desktop and web versions
• Exchange Online — enterprise-grade email with 50GB+ mailbox

Higher-tier plans add advanced security features, compliance tools, device management, and expanded storage.

Which Plan Do Most Small Businesses Need?

Microsoft 365 Business Basic is $6/user/month and covers email, Teams, and web-based Office apps. It works for businesses that primarily need cloud-based access.

Microsoft 365 Business Standard is $12.50/user/month and adds desktop Office installations — meaning each user can install Word, Excel, Outlook, and Teams on up to 5 devices. This is the most common choice for professional service firms.

Microsoft 365 Business Premium at $22/user/month adds advanced security features including Microsoft Defender, Intune device management, and Azure AD Premium. For businesses with compliance requirements or elevated security concerns, this tier is worth the additional cost.

What Setup Actually Involves

Setting up Microsoft 365 isn’t just clicking a button. A proper deployment includes:

• Domain verification and DNS configuration
• Migration of existing email from your previous provider
• User account creation and license assignment
• SharePoint or OneDrive configuration for file sharing
• Teams setup if replacing another communications platform
• Security baseline configuration — MFA, conditional access policies

Skipping the security baseline setup is where most DIY deployments go wrong. Out-of-the-box Microsoft 365 has weaker security defaults than most businesses need. An IT provider who knows what they’re doing will configure MFA, login policies, and data loss prevention as part of the standard setup.

Microsoft 365 vs. Google Workspace

Both are solid platforms. Microsoft 365 is the right choice for businesses that live in the Microsoft ecosystem — Word, Excel, and Outlook are the standard in most professional service industries. Google Workspace tends to work better for organizations that are already heavily Google-centric. For most Tallahassee law firms, medical practices, and CPA firms, Microsoft 365 is the natural fit.