Picking the right Microsoft 365 plan is one of the most cost-effective IT decisions a UK small business makes. Get it right and you have email, file storage, Teams, and proper security for under £20 per user per month. Get it wrong and you either overpay for unused licences or leave critical gaps in your security.
Microsoft 365 Business Basic — from £5.60 / user / month
The entry-level plan. You get Exchange (50GB mailboxes), Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive (1TB per user), and the web/mobile versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. There are no desktop Office apps.
Best for: businesses where staff mostly work in a browser, or organisations replacing free Gmail/Outlook.com email with a proper business domain.
Microsoft 365 Business Standard — from £11.70 / user / month
Everything in Basic, plus the desktop Office apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote) installed on up to 5 PCs or Macs per user. You also get Microsoft Loop and Clipchamp.
Best for: most UK small businesses where staff use Office every day on a desktop or laptop. This is the default 'productivity' plan.
Microsoft 365 Business Premium — from £20.60 / user / month
Everything in Standard, plus the enterprise-grade security stack: Microsoft Defender for Business (EDR), Intune (device management), Azure AD Premium P1 (Conditional Access, advanced MFA), and Information Protection.
Best for: any business that needs to enforce security on staff devices, meet Cyber Essentials, handle sensitive data, or support remote/hybrid workers properly. We recommend this as the default for most UK SMBs in 2026.
Microsoft 365 Apps for Business — from £9.70 / user / month
Just the desktop Office apps and OneDrive — no Exchange email, no Teams. Useful in narrow cases where email is already provided elsewhere.
Common Mistakes
- • Buying Business Standard then bolting on third-party MFA, MDM, and antivirus — Business Premium usually works out cheaper and is far better integrated
- • Over-licensing — directors and admin staff often need Premium, but warehouse or shop-floor staff might be fine on Basic
- • Forgetting Microsoft 365 caps out at 300 users — above that you need Enterprise (E3/E5) plans
- • Paying monthly when you could lock in an annual commitment for ~16% off
Mixing Plans
You don't have to put everyone on the same plan. Many of our clients use Premium for office staff and Basic for kiosk or field users. We help businesses audit usage and re-licence to cut waste — typically saving 15-30% on Microsoft 365 spend.
CLD Computers is a Microsoft Partner. We help UK businesses choose the right Microsoft 365 plans, optimise licensing, and deploy Business Premium security properly. Get a free Microsoft 365 review.
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