Updated Licensing Graphics

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Updated Licensing Graphics

With the recent changes to Microsoft 365 Business (which now includes Conditional Access–hooray!), it was time to dust off the old licensing guide page, which is also linked on the top banner of my site.

Here are the resulting images which were updated just this month, describing each of the major Microsoft 365 bundles. Two versions for each the Business and Enterprise products.

The detailed view attempts to capture all of the relevant information–what individual pieces of software/products are included with each sub-package/bundle? For example, this first image describes the Business track:

The simplified view in contrast basically just states what the purpose of each plan is. Here again are the Business plans, from Essentials on up to Microsoft 365 Business:

And, here is the Enterprise representation of the SKU’s (simple first):

And the detailed view of Enterprise:

Let me know if these images make sense. And, feel free to let me know if it doesn’t have the desired effect (it is supposed to make it easier for you to visualize the different plans). Otherwise, should I just go back to the old grid/table format of comparing features line-by-line? Thoughts? Suggestions?

Comments (5)

  • Mike Reply

    Is there fluid migration between Enterprise and Business products these days? I know in the past this was pretty hard to do… but I think it is possibly easier now? (I think in the olden days, you could possibly only do a one-way upgrade from Business to Enterprise, but to go back to Business meant opening a new tenant!)

    We currently have Office365 E1 and also EMS E3 licenses for free as non-profit. We then have some ProPlus licenses we pay for for those who need them, but they aren’t as good value now compared to the past. Was pondering your suggestions of Microsoft 365 Business, or even Business Premium, as possibly being better value propositions, but depends on portability to drop back across to business portfolio.

    June 19, 2019 at 7:52 am
    • Alex Reply

      It is possible to switch between them pretty seamlessly now. Microsoft 365 Business is the best value for sure. For computers that have Pro Plus, you would at minimum need to sign out of the software and back into it again so it can pick up the new license, or just remove and reinstall the Office software from the portal. But the for the tenant itself you can add whichever licenses you want, and mix and match even.

      June 19, 2019 at 10:03 am
  • Hal Sclater Reply

    Very useful Alex as a high level overview, I’ve printed this and stuck it to my wall!
    I also refer to this page frequently, has the little differences that are not obvious e.g. both Business Premium and M365 Business include email archiving, but actually, the M365 archiving is better with 100GB mailbox and unlimited archiving, compared to 50 of each for Business Premium.
    So useful to refer to this as well: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/servicedescriptions/microsoft-365-business-service-description

    June 21, 2019 at 1:36 am
  • Carolyn Billups Reply

    Do you have a breakdown on cost for the M365 plans that includes the $35 M365 E5 Plan?

    This is great by the way!

    July 25, 2019 at 12:03 pm
    • Alex Reply

      The cost varies by region (different in UK, AUS, etc., etc.) as well as type of business such as non-profit, education, whether they have a discount via EA, whatever. So I don’t post pricing anymore in the graphics. But in the US, the Microsoft 365 E5 plan is 57.00, not 35.00. Office 365 E5 is 35.00, but the “bundle of bundles” is much more expensive since it adds EMS E5 and Windows 10 E5.

      July 26, 2019 at 10:46 am

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