The Short Verdict for a Small Office
Put most staff on Business Basic at $7.00 per user per month. Buy Business Standard at $14.00 only for people who live in desktop Excel or Word (as of Sep 2026). Both plans give every user 1 TB of OneDrive storage and a 100 GB mailbox. The $7 gap buys installed apps and a few extras, not more space.
For a ten person office, that split usually saves several hundred dollars a year against putting everyone on Standard. Confirm current pricing on the official site before you commit, because Microsoft repackaged its business suites on July 1, 2026.
The Question Behind the Plan Page
Microsoft sells Basic and Standard as a ladder, so most buyers assume they should climb it. The real question is narrower: who in your office needs Office installed on a computer, and who only needs mail, Teams and a browser?
That question matters more than it used to. Browser versions of Word and PowerPoint now handle most everyday documents well, and a lot of staff never open anything heavier than a shared spreadsheet.
If you are still choosing between suites rather than tiers, start with Google Workspace against Microsoft 365 for a small business. This piece assumes you have already picked Microsoft.
What the Extra Seven Dollars Actually Buys
- ● Installed Word and Excel
- ● Webinars with registration
- ● Loop and Clipchamp
The headline difference is the desktop apps. Business Standard lets each user install Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote on up to 5 PCs or Macs, 5 tablets and 5 phones. Microsoft Access comes too, but only on Windows PCs.
Business Basic stops at web and mobile versions of the same apps. Staff can still open, edit and co-author documents, just inside a browser tab or on a phone.
Standard also adds a handful of extras that Basic leaves out:
- Webinar hosting in Teams, with attendee registration and reporting.
- Microsoft Loop workspaces for shared project pages.
- Clipchamp for web based video editing.
Everything else is close to identical. Custom domain email, SharePoint team sites, Bookings, Planner, Forms and the 300 user cap appear on both plans.
Where Browser Office Runs Out of Road
The web apps are good enough for writing, reviewing and light spreadsheets. They run out of road on specific jobs, and those jobs tell you exactly who needs a Standard seat.
Macros are the clearest line. Microsoft’s own support page says a macro enabled workbook can be opened in the browser, but its macros do not run there. Any team with a VBA driven invoice template, price list or report is a Standard team.
Other limits are quieter but just as real:
- External data connections may stop a workbook from displaying in the browser, depending on how they are configured.
- Protected worksheets can be viewed in the browser but not edited.
- Workbooks with rights management or digital signatures will not open in a browser window at all.
- Microsoft Access databases have no web version, so anyone who uses one needs a desktop licence.
Word and PowerPoint gaps are milder. Complex mail merges, heavy templates with content controls, and long documents with tracked changes from several reviewers tend to push people back to the installed apps.
Basic, Standard and the Plans Between Them
Microsoft sells more than two options, and the in-between plans are useful when one person’s needs do not fit either tier. The table lists the US prices shown on Microsoft’s plan pages as of Sep 2026.
| Plan | Annual price per user | Monthly price per user | Desktop apps | Business email | Best fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Business Basic | $7.00 | $8.40 | No, web and mobile only | Yes | Staff who mostly email and join calls |
| Apps for business | $10.00 | $12.00 | Yes | No | Someone who needs Excel but has mail elsewhere |
| Business Standard (no Teams) | $10.79 | Not listed on page | Yes | Yes | Offices that already pay for Slack or Zoom |
| Business Standard | $14.00 | $16.80 | Yes | Yes | Heavy Excel, Word and webinar users |
| Business Premium | $22.00 | $26.40 | Yes | Yes | Offices that need device management and stronger threat protection |
| Business Standard with Copilot | $23.50 | Not listed on page | Yes | Yes | Teams that will use Copilot in the apps daily |
The no Teams version of Standard is worth a look if your office already standardised on another chat tool. It keeps the desktop apps and email while dropping a service you would otherwise pay for twice. The trade-offs there are covered in Slack against Microsoft Teams.
Apps for business looks like a bargain, but it has no Exchange mailbox. Stacking it on top of Basic costs $17.00 a seat, which is more than Standard.
Mixing Licences Is the Move Most Offices Miss
- ● Basic for mail and web apps
- ● Standard for spreadsheet owners
- ● One tenant, one admin centre
You do not have to put the whole company on one plan. A single Microsoft 365 tenant can hold Basic licences for some users and Standard licences for others, all managed from the same admin centre.
Run the numbers for a ten person office paying annually:
- Everyone on Standard: 10 seats at $14.00 is $140 a month, or $1,680 a year.
- Everyone on Basic: 10 seats at $7.00 is $70 a month, or $840 a year.
- Seven on Basic, three on Standard: $49 plus $42 is $91 a month, or $1,092 a year.
The split saves $588 a year against an all Standard office. The same people share the same mail system, Teams channels and SharePoint sites, so nobody notices the difference in daily collaboration.
The catch is administration. Someone has to decide who gets which licence and revisit it when roles change, the same discipline covered in auditing SaaS subscriptions and cutting wasted seats.
Moving Someone Between Plans Later
A split is only cheap if it stays accurate, so plan for people to move. Moving a user from Basic to Standard is the easy direction. You assign the new licence, they sign in to the desktop apps, and their mailbox and OneDrive files stay where they are.
Moving someone down takes more care. Once the Standard licence is removed, their installed Office apps lose the right to edit and eventually drop into a reduced functionality mode. Warn the person first so they are not caught halfway through a report.
Two checks make a downgrade painless:
- Look for macro workbooks they own. If a shared template depends on their desktop Excel, move ownership or keep one Standard seat for whoever runs it.
- Check the renewal date. Licence counts on annual terms are easier to reduce at renewal than mid-term, so line up downgrades with the date on your invoice.
Contractors raise the same question from a different angle. A freelancer who only reviews documents rarely needs any paid seat, as paid SaaS seats for contractors and clients explains. Guest access to a Teams channel or a shared SharePoint link is often enough.
Three Files That Settle the Question
Before buying anything, ask each person to name the three files they open most often. That list will decide their licence faster than any feature chart.
If all three are emails, shared documents or simple spreadsheets, Basic covers them. If one is a macro workbook, an Access database or a document built on a heavy corporate template, that person needs a desktop licence.
Pay attention to files that arrive from outside the business too. An accountant who sends back workbooks with external links, or a client who sends protected worksheets for editing, can quietly turn a Basic seat into a daily annoyance.
The Copilot Bundle Changes the Price Gap
Since the July 2026 packaging change, Microsoft’s comparison page leads with Business Standard with Copilot at $23.50 per user per month. The plain Standard plan at $14.00 is still sold, but you may need to open its own plan page to see it.
That makes the gap between Basic and the featured Standard option $16.50 a seat, not $7. Buyers who click the first Buy button can end up paying more than three times the Basic price.
Basic users are not left without AI. Microsoft lists Copilot Chat with web grounding at no extra cost on Basic, while Copilot inside Word, Excel and Teams needs the Copilot Business add-on or a bundled plan. The add-on lists at $21.00, with a promotional $18.00 for the first year on annual terms through December 31, 2026.
Buy the bundle only for people who will use Copilot in their documents every week. For everyone else, plain Standard or Basic is the cheaper and easier renewal.
Monthly Billing Adds a Fifth to Every Seat
- ● Basic - $8.40 monthly
- ● Standard - $16.80 monthly
- ● Annual saves 20 percent
Every business plan is cheaper on an annual commitment. Basic moves from $7.00 to $8.40 when billed monthly, and Standard moves from $14.00 to $16.80, which is a 20 percent premium.
For the ten person split office above, monthly billing raises the annual bill from $1,092 to about $1,310. That extra $218 buys the right to drop seats month by month.
The flexibility has real value if your headcount swings with seasonal work or contractors. Annual against monthly SaaS billing walks through when that premium pays for itself and when it does not.
Which Plan Fits Each Role in the Office
Decide seat by seat, not company wide. These five situations cover most small offices.
Situation: Front desk, sales and field staff. Business Basic. They need mail, a calendar, Teams calls and the ability to edit a shared document, all of which the web and mobile apps handle.
Situation: The person who owns the finance spreadsheets. Business Standard. Macros, external data connections and large workbooks are exactly where Excel for the web stops being enough.
Situation: An office already paying for Slack or Zoom. Business Standard without Teams at $10.79 for the desktop users, with Basic for everyone else. Check that Basic without Teams is offered in your region first.
Situation: A marketing lead who runs customer webinars. Business Standard. Registration pages and attendee reporting in Teams come with Standard and not with Basic.
Situation: A regulated office that needs managed devices. Business Premium at $22.00. Device management through Intune and Defender for Business are what you are paying for, not the apps.
Test It Before the Annual Term Locks In
Microsoft offers a one-month free trial on its business plans, and a credit card is required to start it. Use that month to move your real work into the browser apps rather than clicking around the admin centre.
Give Basic to the people you think need it least, then watch for three signals. Look for macro workbooks that stop working, documents that keep bouncing back to one person with a desktop licence, and anyone quietly using a personal Office install.
Once the paid term starts, Microsoft’s terms give a 7-day window to cancel for a prorated refund. After that the annual commitment holds, so settle the Basic and Standard split before the trial ends, not after the first invoice.
Offices weighing the Google side face a stricter rule, since Workspace cannot mix Business editions in one organization. Google Workspace Business Starter vs Standard runs the same upgrade math for that case.
The next step up is a different kind of decision, because Business Premium adds no new Office apps at all. Business Standard vs Premium covers what the extra seat price buys in device management and sign-in control, and when buying those pieces separately costs more.
FAQ
How much more does Microsoft 365 Business Standard cost than Basic?
Business Basic is $7.00 per user per month on an annual commitment and Business Standard is $14.00, as of Sep 2026. Paying month to month raises them to $8.40 and $16.80. Confirm current pricing on the official site before you buy.
Does Microsoft 365 Business Basic include desktop Word and Excel?
No. Business Basic includes only the web and mobile versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook. The installed desktop apps start with Business Standard or the separate Apps for business plan.
Can I mix Business Basic and Business Standard licences in one company?
Yes. One tenant can hold Business Basic licences for most staff and Business Standard licences for the few who need desktop apps, as long as each plan stays within its 300 user limit.
Does Business Standard give more storage than Business Basic?
No. Both plans list 1 TB of OneDrive storage per user and a 100 GB primary mailbox with 50 GB of archive. Storage is not a reason to upgrade from Basic to Standard.
Is Microsoft 365 Business Standard with Copilot worth the extra cost?
Only if staff will use Copilot inside Word, Excel and Teams every week. The bundle is $23.50 per user per month against $14.00 for plain Standard, so it adds $9.50 per seat.
Sources
- Microsoft 365 business plans and pricing — checked 2026-09-27
- Microsoft 365 Business Basic — checked 2026-09-27
- Microsoft 365 Business Standard — checked 2026-09-27
- Microsoft 365 Apps for business — checked 2026-09-27
- Differences between using a workbook in the browser and in Excel — checked 2026-09-27
Some links may be affiliate links. We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
How this article was made: it was drafted with AI assistance from the official sources listed above, and its figures were checked against those pages on the dates shown. It is not based on personal hands-on testing.
Comments
Post a Comment