Microsoft 365 for Small Business: What You Actually Need
Microsoft 365 is sold as a menu of near-identical plans with unhelpfully similar names. Most small businesses end up on whichever one they first clicked, and either pay for capability they never use or lack something they needed.
Start with email
A proper business email address on your own domain is the baseline. Free consumer email on a business card undermines everything else you spend on presentation, and it makes you harder to trust at exactly the moment trust matters.
What the tiers genuinely differ on
The entry plan gives you hosted email, online versions of the Office apps, and cloud storage. It suits a business whose staff work mostly in a browser.
The next tier adds the desktop applications installed locally. If anyone works offline, handles large spreadsheets, or simply prefers proper Outlook, this is the one.
Higher tiers add device management and advanced security. Genuinely valuable if you handle sensitive data or manage many devices, and unnecessary for a team of three.
The steps most businesses skip
Multi-factor authentication is the single most valuable thing you can switch on, and it takes minutes. Email authentication records, SPF, DKIM and DMARC, decide whether your messages reach inboxes or spam folders, and are frequently left unconfigured for years.
Also worth knowing: Microsoft keeps your data available, but that is not the same as backing it up. A deleted mailbox is recoverable for a limited window, then it is not.
Mixing plans
You do not need everyone on the same tier. Assign the desktop apps to the people who need them and keep everyone else on the lighter plan. Over a year that difference is real money.
We set up and manage Microsoft 365 for businesses across Hertfordshire.