If you’re setting up Microsoft 365 for your business — or reviewing whether your current plan is still the right fit — the choice between plans can feel deceptively simple on paper. The price differences are relatively modest, but the gap in capability between plans is significant, particularly when it comes to security.

At Via Wire, we recommend Microsoft 365 Business Premium as the minimum standard for most businesses. Here’s why — and how the other plans compare.

The Microsoft 365 Business Plan Range

 

Microsoft offers four plans for businesses with fewer than 300 users:

• Microsoft 365 Business Basic
• Microsoft 365 Apps for Business
• Microsoft 365 Business Standard
• Microsoft 365 Business Premium

Each includes a different combination of Office applications, cloud services, and security features. Understanding what’s in each plan (and crucially what’s missing) makes the right choice much clearer.

Microsoft 365 Business Basic

 

Business Basic covers the essentials: business email through Exchange Online, Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive with 1TB of storage per user. Web versions of Office applications are included, but there are no desktop Office installations.

For most businesses, the absence of desktop Office applications alone makes Basic insufficient. Staff who spend their day in Word, Excel, or Outlook need locally installed applications that perform reliably — not browser-based versions that depend entirely on internet connectivity and offer a reduced feature set.

Basic also lacks the advanced security features that businesses need in 2026. It’s an entry-level plan that may suit very specific circumstances, but it shouldn’t be the default choice for a business that takes its IT seriously.

Microsoft 365 Apps for Business

 

Apps for Business is a niche option — it includes desktop Office application installations and OneDrive storage, but no business email and no Microsoft Teams. It’s designed for businesses that already have email hosted elsewhere and simply need Office applications and cloud storage.

For businesses building or reviewing their full IT stack, Apps for Business is rarely the right answer. The absence of Teams and Exchange Online means you’d need to source those services separately, which typically costs more and creates unnecessary complexity.

Microsoft 365 Business Standard

 

Business Standard is where the full desktop Office suite enters the picture — Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, and more, installable on up to five devices per user. It includes Teams, Exchange Online, SharePoint, and OneDrive, making it a complete productivity package for most day-to-day needs.

Standard is a significant step up from Basic and covers the core requirements of most business users well. However, it stops short of the security and device management capabilities that modern businesses genuinely need — and that’s where the real limitation lies.

Standard includes only foundational security features. There’s no endpoint detection and response, no Conditional Access, no device management through Intune, and no advanced threat protection for email. For businesses handling client data, operating hybrid or remote working models, or working towards Cyber Essentials certification, Standard leaves meaningful security gaps.

 

 

 

Microsoft 365 Business Premium: The Recommended Minimum

 

 

Business Premium includes everything in Standard and adds a comprehensive security and device management stack that transforms Microsoft 365 from a productivity suite into a fully managed, secure business platform.

This is why Via Wire recommends Business Premium as the starting point for all clients. The security additions aren’t extras — they’re the tools that allow us to properly protect your business, manage your devices, and respond to threats proactively rather than reactively.

Here’s what Premium adds:

 

Microsoft Defender for Business

Enterprise-grade endpoint detection and response (EDR) protection across all devices. Defender for Business goes well beyond standard antivirus — it detects threats based on behaviour, investigates incidents automatically, and provides your IT team or managed service provider with the visibility needed to respond quickly. For businesses that previously paid for third-party endpoint protection separately, this alone often justifies the Premium uplift.

 

Microsoft Intune

Full mobile device and application management for every device in your organisation — Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android. Intune allows security policies to be enforced across all devices, applications to be deployed remotely, and lost or stolen devices to be wiped immediately. It also enables Windows Autopilot, which allows new devices to be set up automatically without IT intervention — a significant time saving when onboarding new staff.

 

Microsoft Entra ID P1

Enables Conditional Access — the ability to define rules governing when and how accounts can be accessed. Blocking logins from unexpected locations, requiring compliant devices, or enforcing additional verification for sensitive applications are all managed through Entra ID P1. For businesses with remote or hybrid workers, this is an essential layer of identity security.

 

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Plan 1

Advanced threat protection for email — detecting and blocking sophisticated phishing attacks, malicious attachments, and unsafe links before they reach your staff’s inboxes. Standard plan users rely on basic email filtering; Premium users get a significantly more capable layer of email security.

 

Azure Information Protection and Microsoft Purview

Data classification, labelling, and loss prevention tools that help businesses understand what sensitive data they hold, where it’s stored, and who can access it. For businesses with UK GDPR obligations or industry compliance requirements, these tools provide the governance framework that regulators expect to see.

 

What Business Premium Means in Practice

 

For a business moving from Standard to Premium, the practical difference is substantial:

Every device accessing company data can be enrolled in Intune and managed centrally. Security policies are enforced consistently rather than relying on individual users to make the right choices. Conditional Access means that even if a password is compromised, an attacker cannot simply log in from an unmanaged device. Defender for Business monitors for threats across every endpoint and alerts your IT provider when something needs attention.

For businesses working towards Cyber Essentials certification — which is increasingly required by enterprise clients and the public sector — Business Premium provides the technical controls that underpin four of the five Cyber Essentials requirements out of the box.

 

 

Microsoft 365 Copilot

Microsoft’s AI assistant — available across Teams, Outlook, Word, Excel, and more — is available as a paid add-on to any Microsoft 365 Business plan. For businesses considering Copilot, Business Premium is the recommended base plan. The security and governance features in Premium ensure that Copilot operates within a properly controlled environment, with appropriate access permissions and data governance in place before AI starts surfacing information across your organisation.

 

 

 

Choosing the Right Plan With Via Wire

 

Microsoft 365 licensing decisions have a long tail — the plan you choose today shapes your security posture, your device management capabilities, and your ability to adopt new Microsoft features for years to come. Getting it right from the start is significantly easier than retrofitting security capabilities onto an under-licensed environment later.

As a Microsoft partner, Via Wire manages Microsoft 365 deployments for businesses of all sizes — from initial licence selection and configuration through to ongoing management, security monitoring, and user support. We recommend Business Premium as the standard starting point because it gives us — and you — the tools to keep your business properly protected.

Get in touch today to discuss Microsoft 365 licensing and find the right plan for your business.