Microsoft 365 and Office 365 Enterprise | Which Plan Is Best for You?

Choosing a Microsoft plan can be overwhelming. With so many features available it can be daunting to decide which plan has the right mix for our team’s needs. With this post, you’ll be able to clearly identify which plan is the right fit for you! For your enterprise needs, Microsoft offers the following levels of Microsoft 365 solutions.

• Office 365 E1
• Office 365 E3
• Office 365 E5
• Microsoft 365 E3
• Microsoft 365 E5

How do you decide which is the most suitable for your enterprise? Here’s a basic overview of each plan and the benefits it can provide for your organization.

Office 365 – E1

Price: $12.80 CAD/user/month

Overview

Office 365 E1 includes the essential office applications like Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Exchange, Outlook, and OneNote. However, it does not include the desktop versions of these apps, meaning you cannot use the applications offline. Instead, the online web-based and mobile versions of these applications are provided, meaning you will need an internet connection.

Features included:

• Office for mobile
• Outlook on the web and mobile
• Office Delve
• Microsoft Bookings
• Microsoft Whiteboard
• Microsoft Kaizala Pro
• SharePoint Online Plan 1
• Microsoft OneDrive for work
• Microsoft Sway
• Microsoft Forms
• Microsoft Planner
• Microsoft Shifts
• Microsoft Graph
• Compliance
• Office on the web
• Exchange Online Plan 1
• Microsoft Teams
• Office 365 Groups
• Yammer (Rebranding to Microsoft Viva Engage)
• Microsoft Stream
• Power Apps for Microsoft 365
• Power Automate for Microsoft 365
• Power Virtual Agents for Teams
• Dataverse for Teams
• Microsoft To Do
• Microsoft Viva Insights (personal insights)
• Microsoft Viva Connections
• On-premises Active Directory sync for single sign-on (SSO)
• Visio for the web

* Power Virtual Agents is now offered by Copilot Studio *

Office 365 – E3

Price: $30.60 CAD/user/month

Overview:

Office 365 E3 includes all of the features from E1 with information protection and compliance capabilities included as well as desktop apps. With E3 you can protect information with message encryption, rights management, and data loss prevention for email and files.

Additional features:

• All features from E1
• Exchange Online
• Microsoft One Drive for work
• Information Protection
• SharePoint Online
• Azure Information Protection
• Additional compliance capabilities

Office 365 – E5

Price: $50.60 CAD/user/month

Overview:

Office 365 E5 includes all the features from E3 combined with advanced voice, analytics, security, and compliance services.

Additional features:

• Microsoft Teams Phone systems
• Power BI Pro
• Office 365 Cloud App Security
• Audio Conferencing
• Microsoft Defender for Office 365 – Plan 2
• Advanced compliance

 

Microsoft 365 – E3

Price: $47.90 CAD/user/month (annual commitment)

Overview:

Microsoft 365 E3 combines productivity apps with core security and compliance capabilities. E3 includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, SharePoint, OneDrive, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Stream, and Windows. It increases productivity, and collaboration, while proactively protecting your employees with Microsoft 365 services. E3 also uses integrated workflows to manage your organization and improve customer relationships.

Features:

• Windows for Enterprise
• Office for mobile
• Outlook
• Bookings
• SharePoint
• Microsoft OneDrive for work
• Microsoft Stream
• Power Apps for Microsoft 365
• Power Virtual Agents for Teams
• Microsoft Planner
• Microsoft 365 Admin Center
• Desktop Analytics
• Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager
• Azure Information Protection Plan 1
• Windows Hello
• Direct Access
• Microsoft Advanced Threat Analytics
• Device Guard
• Windows Information Protection
• Microsoft Secure Score
• E-discovery and retention
• Visio for the web
• Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise
• Office on the web
• Exchange
• Microsoft Teams
• Yammer (Rebranding to Microsoft Viva Engage)
• Lists
• Sway
• Power automate for Microsoft 365
• Dataverse for Teams
• Microsoft To Do
• Microsoft Viva Insights (personal insights)
• Microsoft Viva Connections
• Windows Autopilot
• Device Health
• Microsoft Intune
• Microsoft Defender Credential Guard
• Azure Active Directory Premium 1
• Microsoft Defender Antivirus
• Data Loss Prevention for email and files
• BitLocker
• Microsoft Security and Compliance Center
• Basic auditing and retention tools

Microsoft 365 – E5

Price: $73.00 CAD/user/month (annual commitment)

Overview:

Microsoft 365 E5 includes all features from E3 with extended identity and threat protection to help stop attacks as well as audio conferencing and calling capabilities in the cloud to enable your teams.

Features:

• Azure Active Directory Premium 1 & 2
• Microsoft Defender for Office 365
• Azure Information Protection Plan 2
• Information protection and governance
• Insider risk management
• Audio conferencing
• Power BI Pro
• Microsoft Defender for Endpoint
• Microsoft Defender for Identity
• Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps
• Advanced eDiscovery and advanced audit
• Built-in third-party connectors
• Phone system

Intranet and Content/File management

SharePoint, OneDrive for business, Yammer, Stream, and Sway are all included within the Enterprise plans. The difference between the three enterprise plans when it comes to storage is in terms of their cloud storage limit. E1 has a 1 TB limit on OneDrive cloud storage per user, while E3 and E4 both have 5TB of storage, but can be upgraded to 25TB.

Analytics

E1 and E3 plans both include MyAnalytics, a personal productivity insight tool that allows a user to view their work patterns, network, collaboration, and more.

E5 also offers Power BI Pro, a powerful analytical data visualization tool to view specific insights about your business.

All things Security

E1 is limited in terms of security and offers anti-malware, Active Directory Sync, mail filtering, and more privacy and security features offered in most Microsoft 365 packages.

E3 includes Azure Information Protection, which includes important tools that allow one to classify important data and only give access to people who need to view it. It also comes with eDiscovery and Defender. Where E3 shines is with its Azure AD Multi-Factor Authentication, where it’s used across all users to ensure that all cybersecurity threats are prevented.

E5 offers the most advanced security protection from cyber attacks. It includes Advanced Threat Protection, which scans any link on any team’s chat or office applications. It also includes Customer Lockbox to ensure Microsoft can’t access your content without approval and Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps for cyberthreat security.

Which is best for you?

Each organization is unique. By defining your team’s needs and using this breakdown to help you decide which plan fulfills you can choose one that’s just right for you and your organization. Whether you want a plan that contains just the essentials or one that allows you to use Microsoft on the go with a variety of additional security features and integrated workflows, Microsoft provides it all! As remote work has taken over the workforce, ensuring that you have the right Microsoft plan for both your and your organization’s needs will set you on the right path to success.

If you’re still debating which plan is the right choice for both you and your organization, feel free to reach out to us.