by Microsoft CorporationBusiness email and office suites
Exchange email on your own domain with a 100 GB mailbox, 1 TB of OneDrive and Office for the web, from Business Basic at $5.40 per user without Teams or $7 with it, billed annually.
A 100 GB Exchange mailbox, 1 TB of OneDrive and Office for the web per user from $5.40 a month, with desktop Office apps one plan up.
Business Basic gives each user Exchange Online mail on the company domain with a 100 GB mailbox and a 50 GB archive, 1 TB of OneDrive, and Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook on the web and mobile, at $5.40 a month without Teams or $7 with it on annual terms. Shared mailboxes need no licence, and the HIPAA BAA comes with Microsoft’s data protection terms by default. Business Standard adds the desktop Office apps; Business Premium adds litigation hold, eDiscovery export, Intune and Defender.
Against 3 other products we reviewed in Business email and office suites: what you pay for with each, the five access facts, the plan limits we recorded and each review's bottom line. The note under the table says how each one was checked.
| Metric | Microsoft 365 Business | Zoho Workplace | Google Workspace | Proton for Business |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What you're paying for | Worth the priceA 100 GB Exchange mailbox, 1 TB of OneDrive and Office for the web per user from $5.40 a month, with desktop Office apps one plan up. | Worth the priceBusiness mail on your own domain from $1 per user a month, with SSO, audit logs and an online DPA on every paid plan, and a free plan for 5 users. | Easy to adoptGmail on your own domain with Docs, Sheets, Drive and Meet in one per-user plan, with SSO, audit logs and a HIPAA BAA on the entry plan. | Compliance includedEnd-to-end encrypted email and calendar on your own domain, with 1 TB per user, Docs, Sheets and recorded meetings on Workspace Standard. |
| Overall score | 7.6 | 8.5Best | 6.8 | 6.4 |
| Free option | 30-day free trial | Free plan | 14-day free trial | 14-day free trial |
| Card to start | Card required | No card needed | –Not measured | –Not measured |
| Getting access | Self-serve | Self-serve | Self-serve | Self-serve |
| Starter priceCheapest paid plan | $5.40/user/mo | $1/user/mo | $7/user/mo | $6.99/user/mo |
| Pricing model | Per seat | Per seat | Per seat | Per seat |
| Pricing page | Public prices | Public prices | Public prices | Public prices |
| Billing unit | Per user per month; up to 300 users across all Business plans | Per user; Mail plans yearly only, Workplace plans yearly or monthly | Per user per month; storage pooled across the organization | Per user per month; storage pooled across Mail and Drive |
| Free option | No free plan; one-month trial for up to 25 users, credit card required | Mail Free for up to 5 users on one domain; 15-day trial, no card | No free plan with Gmail; 14-day trial for up to 10 users, payment method needed | No free plan on a custom domain; 14-day trial for up to 10 users, payment method needed; 30-day money-back guarantee |
| Reference scenario (5 users, annual) | $27/mo on Business Basic (no Teams) ($5.40 × 5), computed; $35 with Teams | $6.88/mo on Mail Lite 5 GB + 45 GB add-ons ($1 × 5 + $1.88), computed; $15 on Workplace Standard | $50/mo on Business Starter + 100 GB storage ($7 × 5 + $15), computed | $64.95/mo on Workspace Standard ($12.99 × 5), computed |
| Month-to-month price | $6.48 per user on Business Basic (no Teams); $8.40 with Teams | None for Mail Lite and Mail Premium; $4 / $7 for Workplace Standard / Professional | $8.40 per user on Business Starter (Flexible plan; $16.80 / $26.40 for Standard / Plus) | $14.99 per user on Workspace Standard ($7.99 / $24.99 for Essentials / Premium) |
| Storage per user | 100 GB mailbox + 50 GB archive and 1 TB of OneDrive (1.5 TB archive on Premium) | 5 or 10 GB (Lite), 50 GB (Premium), 30 GB + team drive (Standard), 100 GB + 1 TB team drive (Professional) | 30 GB (Starter), 2 TB (Standard), 5 TB (Plus), pooled across Gmail and Drive | 15 GB (Mail Essentials), 1 TB (Workspace Standard), 3 TB (Premium), pooled |
| Domains, aliases and catch-all | Up to 5,000 domains, 300 to 400 aliases per user; no catch-all stated | Up to 30 domains and 30 addresses per mailbox on paid plans; catch-all | Up to 600 domains, 30 aliases per user, catch-all on every plan | 3, 15 or 20 domains (extra $1.40/mo on Workspace); 10 or 20 addresses per user; catch-all |
| Office apps | Office for the web and mobile on Basic; desktop apps from Standard | Writer, Sheet and Show in the browser from Workplace Standard | Docs, Sheets and Slides in the browser on every plan; no desktop apps | Proton Docs and Sheets in the browser on every plan |
| Video meetings | Teams for 300 with recording in the plans with Teams | Zoho Meeting with cloud recording from Workplace Standard | Meet for 100 on Starter without recording; recording from Standard | Proton Meet for 100 for 24 hours with local recording on Workspace Standard |
| Retention and eDiscovery | Litigation hold and eDiscovery export on Premium ($22); archiving add-on $3 | Mail Premium ($4) and Workplace Professional ($6) | Vault on Business Plus ($22) | Retention policies on Workspace Premium; no eDiscovery |
| SOC 2 / ISO 27001 | Office 365 in SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 scope (Service Trust Portal) | SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001 for all cloud services (report under online NDA) | SOC 2 Type II reports and ISO 27001 certificates (Compliance Reports Manager) | SOC 2 Type II (report on request) and ISO 27001 |
| HIPAA BAA | Included in the data protection addendum by default | BAA template on request from Zoho legal | Accepted electronically in the Admin console | Offered to all users, signed on request by email |
| EU data storage | EU Data Boundary for EU and EFTA sign-ups | EU data center (Amsterdam, Dublin) chosen by country at sign-up | Data regions on Business Standard and Plus at no extra cost | Swiss jurisdiction; no region choice stated |
| SAML SSO | Single sign-on for apps with Entra ID on every plan | Every paid plan | Every Business plan | Not supported for Proton Mail yet |
| Mailbox export | PST from classic Outlook per user; admin eDiscovery export on Premium | Users: EML in ZIP; admins: every mailbox as ZIP or PST on paid plans | Admin Data Export tool on every edition; Vault exports PST or mbox (Plus) | Per user with the Export Tool (EML and JSON); no admin export of all mailboxes |
| Bottom line | From its public pages, Microsoft 365 gives a large mailbox and 1 TB of OneDrive per user at a low price, with shared mailboxes, an audit log and a BAA on Business Basic. Retention and eDiscovery sit on Premium or add-ons, and refunds and seat cuts are limited to 7 days. | From its public pages, Zoho Workplace is the lowest-priced suite here, with SSO, audit logs, shared mailboxes and migration on every paid plan and retention from $4. Mail plans are yearly only, editors and meetings start on Workplace Standard, and a few prices differ between pages. | From its public pages, Google Workspace is a full collaboration suite with SSO, audit logs, export and a self-serve BAA from Business Starter. Starter storage is small, recording and data regions start on Standard, Vault on Plus, and annual plans cannot be cut mid-term. | From its public pages, Proton for Business is the encryption-first option here, with audits, a BAA on request and a 30-day guarantee. The scenario needs Workspace Standard at $64.95 for five, and SSO, admin-wide export and a mail API are not offered. |
Evidence: Microsoft 365 Business: facts checked 2026-10-16 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run; Zoho Workplace: facts checked 2026-10-16 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run; Google Workspace: facts checked 2026-10-16 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run; Proton for Business: facts checked 2026-10-16 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run. Prices in USD as listed, excluding tax. "–" means not recorded.
Review from public pages
Written from Microsoft 365 Business's public pages (pricing, security or privacy, and docs) as read on Oct 16, 2026. We did not sign up, and no hands-on run is published yet.
We read Microsoft's US business plans and pricing pages (with and without Teams), each plan page, the Exchange Online, security, Copilot and add-on pricing pages, the 2026 packaging and pricing update and its FAQ, the SMB plan comparison PDF dated October 1, 2026, Microsoft Learn articles on Exchange Online limits, shared mailboxes, domains, aliases, migration, PST import, audit retention, security defaults, trials, cancellation, renewal and expiry, and Microsoft's compliance offering pages on Oct 16, 2026; we did not start a trial or call an API. The en-us pages showed US dollar prices from our location.
The plan pages are clear: each lists the annual price and a month-to-month price 20% higher, and the July 1, 2026 update lists old and new prices (Business Basic $6.00 to $7.00, Standard $12.50 to $14.00, Premium unchanged at $22.00). The same update added 50 GB of mailbox to the Business plans, so the plan pages now show a 100 GB primary mailbox.
Some points differ between pages. The FAQ says annual plans paid upfront get no refund on cancellation, a footnote on the same page offers a prorated refund within 7 days, and the cancellation article gives older (MOSA) billing accounts a prorated refund at any time. The alias article allows 400 aliases per user while the Exchange limits page lists 300 for Business plans. The comparison PDF still shows the mailbox as 50 GB plus 50 GB, and we did not find the price of extra SharePoint storage.
A 100 GB primary mailbox, a 50 GB archive and 1 TB of OneDrive per user on Business Basic, at $5.40 without Teams or $7 with Teams on annual terms.
Compared: Google Business Starter pools 30 GB per user across Gmail and Drive; Proton Mail Essentials has 15 GB.
A shared mailbox holds up to 50 GB without a licence of its own on every Business plan; each user who opens it needs a licensed mailbox.
Compared: Proton’s email groups forward to members rather than giving a shared mailbox.
The HIPAA BAA comes with the data protection addendum, Office 365 is in SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 scope, and organizations that sign up in the EU or EFTA are in the EU Data Boundary.
Compared: Fastmail states no SOC 2 report or ISO 27001 certificate and offers no BAA.
Business Standard ($14, annual) adds desktop Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook; Business Basic has the web and mobile versions.
Compared: Google, Zoho and Proton list no desktop office apps; their editors run in the browser.
Copilot Business is $21 per user a month on annual terms, with $18 promotional pricing for the first year until Dec 31, 2026, shown next to the regular price.
Litigation hold, retention policies and eDiscovery (Standard) with export are in Business Premium ($22). Basic and Standard can add Exchange Online Archiving for $3 per user.
Workaround: Exchange Online Plan 2 ($8 per user, email only) is another route to litigation hold.
The domains, alias and Exchange limits pages describe aliases (300 or 400 per user) and up to 5,000 domains, but not a catch-all address for a domain.
On Microsoft Customer Agreement billing, a prorated refund and licence reductions are possible only within 7 days of buying or renewing; annual plans paid monthly are charged for the rest of the term.
Workaround: Monthly commitment plans cost 20% more but run month to month.
Business Basic (no Teams) at $5.40 has no video meetings; Business Basic with Teams is $7 and records meetings.
Workaround: Teams Essentials is sold on its own at $4 per user.
Microsoft bills per user per month, for up to 300 users across all Business plans. For our scenario, Business Basic (no Teams) already gives each user a 100 GB mailbox and 1 TB of OneDrive, so 5 users cost 5 × $5.40 = $27 a month on annual terms (computed), before tax; with Teams it is $35. Month to month the same seats cost 20% more. Costs rise with Business Standard ($14, desktop apps), Business Premium ($22, litigation hold, eDiscovery, Intune, Defender) and add-ons: Exchange Online Archiving $3, Defender for Office 365 P1 $2, Intune P1 $8, Copilot Business $21 ($18 in the first year until Dec 31, 2026) and Teams Premium $10. Basic and Standard prices rose on July 1, 2026, and existing customers see them at their next renewal.
Each user can export mail, calendar and contacts to a PST file in classic Outlook, contacts as CSV and calendars as ICS, and IMAP and the Microsoft Graph mail API are on every plan. Admin export across mailboxes is eDiscovery (Standard) on Business Premium. After a subscription expires, data stays accessible for 30 days, then to admins only for 90 more; deleting a subscription deletes OneDrive and SharePoint data at once. A custom domain must be removed before cancelling.
From its public pages, Microsoft 365 gives a large mailbox and 1 TB of OneDrive per user at a low price, with shared mailboxes, an audit log and a BAA on Business Basic. Retention and eDiscovery sit on Premium or add-ons, and refunds and seat cuts are limited to 7 days.
| Limit | As recorded |
|---|---|
| Billing unit | Per user per month; up to 300 users across all Business plans |
| Free option | No free plan; one-month trial for up to 25 users, credit card required |
| Reference scenario (5 users, annual) | $27/mo on Business Basic (no Teams) ($5.40 × 5), computed; $35 with Teams |
| Month-to-month price | $6.48 per user on Business Basic (no Teams); $8.40 with Teams |
| Storage per user | 100 GB mailbox + 50 GB archive and 1 TB of OneDrive (1.5 TB archive on Premium) |
| Domains, aliases and catch-all | Up to 5,000 domains, 300 to 400 aliases per user; no catch-all stated |
| Office apps | Office for the web and mobile on Basic; desktop apps from Standard |
| Video meetings | Teams for 300 with recording in the plans with Teams |
| Retention and eDiscovery | Litigation hold and eDiscovery export on Premium ($22); archiving add-on $3 |
| SOC 2 / ISO 27001 | Office 365 in SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 scope (Service Trust Portal) |
| HIPAA BAA | Included in the data protection addendum by default |
| EU data storage | EU Data Boundary for EU and EFTA sign-ups |
| SAML SSO | Single sign-on for apps with Entra ID on every plan |
| Mailbox export | PST from classic Outlook per user; admin eDiscovery export on Premium |
Read from the vendor's public pages on Oct 16, 2026. No hands-on run is published yet. How we check
We have not published a sign-up run for Microsoft 365 Business yet. The access facts above were read from its sign-up and pricing pages on Oct 16, 2026.
We have not published API calls for Microsoft 365 Business yet.
Microsoft 365 Business lists 4 plans. The cheapest paid plan, Business Basic (no Teams), annual commitment, costs $5.40/user/mo.
Prices as listed, USD, excluding tax; observed 2026-10-16.
Source: microsoft.com pricing page. Prices change; the observed date above is when our agent read them.
We read the pricing, trust, legal, help center and developer pages of three business email suites on the same day and scored them on the same six indicators. What 5 users with 50 GB each cost, where retention, SSO and export sit, and who should pick which.
