Is your business planning to implement Microsoft 365? If so, your first 300 users can be licensed under the Business Premium Plan. This plan offers the best cybersecurity features, so your company will save money, and you can rest assured that your company data is safe and secure.

Remote work continues to be an essential part of most companies. For this reason, it’s essential to secure not only the data on your premises but also for each remote user. Not only do their endpoints need to be secured, but their other devices and the data stored on them, too.

If your company is like most businesses today, you are heavily invested in the cloud, with most business activities taking place there. That means it’s necessary to provide the best possible security available. One that saves money and improves security is Microsoft 365 Business Premium (M365).

What is Microsoft 365 Business Premium?

Microsoft 365 Business Premium offers Microsoft’s suite of office applications using Azure cloud technology. The service is available in different plans, including home, business, and enterprise. Each plan offers different pricing tiers and features.

For instance, M365’s business services include Business Basic, Business Standard, and Business Premium. Enterprise plans include E1, E3, and E5. Microsoft also offers standard Office applications with their Business plan.

Fees are listed per user/per month with an annual subscription. You’ll find that Microsoft Business Premium costs £17/user/month.

Microsoft 365 Business Premium Features

Microsoft 365 Business Premium includes a wide range of features that make this a cost-effective solution for many organisations. It features the following services:

Productivity: you’ll find popular Office apps, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, SharePoint Online, and more.

Email: storage includes up to 50GB of storage in Outlook, with 1TB storage limit in OneDrive. This includes Azure Information Protection, which includes Microsoft Purview Email Encryption.

You’ll also find more services available through M365 BP, including excellent cybersecurity features.

Microsoft 365 Business Premium Cybersecurity Features

Business Premium comes with enterprise-level protection for your data and employees. Many of these features include Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Plan 1 (it used to be called Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection) and Defender for Endpoint Plan 2 (it used to be called Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection).

M365 Business Premium includes anti-phishing features to avoid user and domain impersonation, unusual characters and sender alerts.

The service also includes safe links and attachments. This feature works by placing the data in a virtual environment and destroying anything that is malicious. These features work in Outlook, SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams.

The service also reports in real-time so you can ensure the environment is safe and secure.

Microsoft 365 Business Premium vs. Business Standard

So, what are the differences between Microsoft 365 Business Premium and Business Standard? Let’s take a look.

First, the standard version is plain and allows you to use the applications offered. However, these are not protected. In addition, Business Standard does not provide security features that would keep a business and its data safe. While the price for Business Standard (£10.01/user/month) may seem attractive, this service is not as cost-effective as it seems.

Here’s a quick overview of some features that are different between M365 Business Premium and M365 Business Standard.

Plan	M365 Business Premium	M365 Business Standard
User Limit (number users)	300	300
Outlook/OneDrive Storage	50GB/1TB	50GB/1TB
Intune	Yes	No
eDiscovery	Yes	No
Azure AD	Yes	No
Anti-Phishing	Yes	No
Real-Time Reports	Yes	No
Safe Attachments	Yes	No
Safe Links	Yes	No
Single Sign On (SSO)	Yes	No
Endpoint Analytics	Yes	No
Conditional Access	Yes	No
Multi-Factor Authentication	Yes	No

 

As you can see, M365 Business Standard does not offer the standard level of security needed to ensure company data is safe. And when it comes to compliance, a company cannot rely on M365 Business Standard.

But how does M365 Business Premium compare to E3? Read on to find out!

What is Microsoft E3?

Microsoft 365 E3 is the first-level enterprise plan offered by Microsoft. The plan costs $36/user/month and comes with 100GB of mailbox space and unlimited OneDrive storage. And there’s no limit to the number of people a company can include on the E3 plan. 

Microsoft 365 Business Premium & E3

Here, again, you may be surprised to learn that E3 does not offer the same amount of cybersecurity protection as Microsoft 365 Business Premium. E3 is more expensive at £28.80/user/month, but how does the service compare with M365 Business Premium?

Plan	M365 Business Premium	M365 Business Standard
User Limit (number users)	300	Unlimited
Outlook/OneDrive Storage	50GB/1TB	100GB/Unlimited
Intune	Yes	Yes
Endpoint Configuration Manager	No	Yes
Litigation Hold	Yes	Yes
eDiscovery	Yes	Yes
Credential Guard	No	Yes
App Locker	No	Yes
Azure AD	Yes	Yes
Anti-Phishing	Yes	No
Real-Time Reports	Yes	No
Safe Attachments	Yes	No
Safe Links	Yes	No

 

The main benefits of E3 are an unlimited number of users, more Outlook storage, more OneDrive storage, Credential Guard, App Locker, and that’s about it. From the table, you can see that for a lower monthly price, M365 Business Premium offers much more security. While you give up some storage and an unlimited number of users, security usually takes top consideration.

Now, to be fair, E3 does come with Defender Endpoint Plan 1, which includes the following:

•   Block at First Sight
•   Endpoint Defender for Mac
•   Enhanced ASR
•   Tamper Protection
•   Web Content Filtering

However, Defender for Mac and Web Content Filtering are also available in Business Premium. So, you can have access to these features for a lower cost by choosing Business Premium over E3.

Why is Business Premium the Best Choice?

Microsoft 365 Business Premium is the best choice for small businesses that have up to 300 employees. However, if a company hires employees 301 and more, it’s necessary to go up to M365 E3 for each additional employee.

But for companies with under 300 employees, Business Premium offers everything needed for productivity, along with all the security features not found in Business Standard or E3.

Larger organisations can licence the first 300 employees on Business Premium and pay for enterprise licences for those who need additional features.