Microsoft 365 for SMBs: Business Basic, Standard or Premium, which one to choose?

In short: Microsoft 365 for SMBs means three Business plans for companies with up to 300 users. Business Basic for email and online Office, Business Standard for Office installed on PC and Mac, Business Premium for security (device management, EDR, conditional access). These plans mix freely per user, and the mix almost always gives the best balance between cost and protection.

For a Moroccan SMB, Microsoft 365 is often one of the main software subscriptions, and one of the least often reviewed. Licences are bought when email is migrated, then renewed unchanged for years. The result: some employees pay for installed Office without ever opening it, while management and accounting work without serious protection against account takeover.

Pick the wrong plan and you either pay for unused features or end up without the protections you need. Here is how we read them for our clients.

Office 365 or Microsoft 365 for SMBs: what changed

Many managers still search for “Office 365 for small business”. In April 2020, Microsoft renamed its offers for small and medium-sized businesses. The mapping is as follows:

Former name	Current name	Main content
Office 365 Business Essentials	Microsoft 365 Business Basic	Email, Teams, OneDrive, SharePoint, web and mobile Office
Office 365 Business Premium	Microsoft 365 Business Standard	Basic, plus Office installed on PC and Mac
Microsoft 365 Business	Microsoft 365 Business Premium	Standard, plus advanced security and device management
Office 365 Business	Microsoft 365 Apps for business	Installed Office and OneDrive, no email

The trap is in the names: the old “Office 365 Business Premium” matches today’s Business Standard, not today’s Business Premium. If your invoice or an old quote says Premium, check which plan it really is.

The three Microsoft 365 Business plans for SMBs

All three plans share a common base: up to 300 users, a 50 GB Exchange mailbox, 1 TB of OneDrive storage per user, Teams, SharePoint and MFA. What sets them apart is the installed apps and security.

Business Basic: web and mobile

Exchange email with 50 GB, Teams, 1 TB OneDrive, SharePoint, and the Office apps in web and mobile versions only. Ideal for staff who do not need Word or Excel installed: reception, field, production, roles that only need email and Teams.

Basic is not a “cut-price” plan: email, storage and collaboration are the same as in the higher plans. What is missing are the desktop apps and the advanced security tools. For a technician who reads email and fills in a form on a tablet, it is enough.

Business Standard: desktop apps

Everything in Basic, plus Office installed on PC and Mac (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook) and Teams webinars. Each user can install the apps on several devices: according to Microsoft, up to five PCs or Macs, five tablets and five phones. This is the plan for most office desks.

Standard addresses productivity, not security. It includes neither Intune for full device management, nor conditional access to enforce access rules, nor EDR to detect an attack on a PC. A company entirely on Standard works, but it has to rely on third-party tools for these security needs.

Business Premium: security

Everything in Standard, plus Intune to manage PCs and mobiles, Defender for Business (EDR), Defender for Office 365 for advanced anti-phishing, Entra ID P1 for conditional access, and information protection. For anyone handling sensitive data or working outside the office, it is the plan we recommend.

In practice, Premium lets you, for example:

• block sign-ins from an unmanaged device or from a country where the company does not operate;
• remotely wipe business data from a lost phone without touching personal photos;
• isolate a compromised PC from the security console;
• scan links and attachments in emails before they are opened;
• label a confidential document to restrict who can open or forward it.

For the difference between the included EDR and a traditional antivirus, see our article EDR vs antivirus.

Business Basic, Standard and Premium compared

Feature	Basic	Standard	Premium
50 GB Exchange email, Teams, 1 TB OneDrive, SharePoint	Yes	Yes	Yes
Office web and mobile	Yes	Yes	Yes
Office installed on PC and Mac	No	Yes	Yes
Offline work in Word, Excel, Outlook	No	Yes	Yes
Teams webinars	No	Yes	Yes
PC and mobile management (Intune)	No	No	Yes
EDR on endpoints (Defender for Business)	No	No	Yes
Advanced anti-phishing (Defender for Office 365)	No	No	Yes
Conditional access (Entra ID P1)	No	No	Yes
Information protection	No	No	Yes
MFA	Yes	Yes	Yes
Maximum number of users	300	300	300

Microsoft adjusts the content of its plans regularly; depending on the region, some are also offered without Teams, and Microsoft 365 Copilot is available as a paid add-on. Check the exact SKU when ordering.

What about Microsoft 365 Apps for business?

The Business range has a fourth, often forgotten plan: Microsoft 365 Apps for business. It provides the installed Office apps and OneDrive, but neither Exchange email nor Teams. It only makes sense if email stays elsewhere, which is increasingly rare. In most cases, Standard is the more coherent choice.

Microsoft 365 Business Basic vs Standard: how to decide

This is the most common question, and the answer fits in one line: the difference between Business Basic and Business Standard is the installed Office apps. Everything else, email, storage, Teams and baseline security, is identical.

Choose Basic if the person:

• works mostly from a browser or a phone;
• reads and writes email, joins Teams meetings, opens shared documents;
• does not need Excel macros, large workbooks or advanced layout.

Choose Standard if the person:

• produces complex documents: heavy Excel workbooks, reports, presentations;
• uses Office add-ins or business software that relies on installed Outlook or Excel;
• needs to work offline, on the road or on an unstable connection.

When in doubt, start with Basic: moving to Standard is a simple licence change in the same tenant, with no data migration.

The mix that works

Licences combine per user within the same tenant. A typical SMB looks like this:

• Premium for management, finance, HR and any role with access to sensitive data or working remotely.
• Standard for regular office desks.
• Basic for field staff, reception and accounts that only use email and Teams.

Result: a controlled average cost, with security where it matters.

Two useful clarifications. First, a shared mailbox (contact@, invoices@) generally does not need its own licence as long as it stays within the limits set by Microsoft (size, archiving, litigation hold); there is no point paying for a user account for every generic address. Second, the 300-user limit applies across all Business plans in the tenant: beyond that, you move to Enterprise plans, which can also be mixed with Business plans and standalone services.

What drives the total cost

The listed price per licence is only part of the budget. What really weighs:

• The split between plans: putting everyone on Premium for simplicity is expensive; putting everyone on Standard to save money leaves sensitive roles exposed.
• Orphaned licences: accounts of former employees, generic mailboxes paid as users, interns who have left.
• The commitment chosen: monthly for flexibility, annual for stable headcounts.
• Configuration: Premium’s security features require initial setup, then ongoing follow-up.
• Add-ons: third-party backup, archiving or specific options depending on your business.

Microsoft 365 for SMBs in Morocco: buying, data and Law 09-08

In Morocco, licences are bought from a Microsoft CSP partner, on a monthly or annual subscription. ALLSAFE SOLUTIONS supplies Microsoft 365 licences on their own, or together with the setup: email migration, security configuration, backup and support.

One point deserves planning: Microsoft 365 data is hosted in data centres outside Morocco. If your mailboxes and files contain personal data about customers, employees or patients, that storage is a transfer under Law 09-08 and must be framed before the migration. Your tenant’s data location is shown in the Microsoft 365 admin center, in the organisation profile. Our article on Law 09-08 and the CNDP details the obligations.

Rolling out Microsoft 365 in an SMB, step by step

1. Inventory the accounts: who uses what, which mailboxes are generic, which accounts belong to people who have left.
2. Classify each role with two questions: does it need installed Office? Does it access sensitive data or work outside the office?
3. Assign the plan: Premium if the answer to the second question is yes, otherwise Standard or Basic depending on the first.
4. Migrate email if it still sits with a traditional host; our guide to migrating email from cPanel to Microsoft 365 describes the method without losing messages.
5. Turn on baseline security everywhere: MFA for everyone, security defaults or conditional access rules depending on the plans. Our list of 10 settings to secure Microsoft 365 is a good starting point.
6. Plan the backup of email, OneDrive, SharePoint and Teams with a third-party tool.
7. Review the allocation regularly, with every arrival, departure or change of role.

If you are still unsure about the platform itself, our Microsoft 365 vs Google Workspace comparison sets out the decision criteria.

Common mistakes with Microsoft 365 licences

1. Believing Microsoft backs up your data. The recycle bin is not a backup. Third-party backup remains necessary; we explain why in our article on Microsoft 365 shared responsibility.
2. Forgetting MFA. It is available on all plans and must be enabled everywhere from day one. Our MFA rollout guide details how to do it without locking anyone out.
3. Buying annually without review. Needs change; the monthly CSP model lets you adjust every month.
4. Buying Premium and configuring nothing. Intune, conditional access and Defender protect nothing until they are set up. An unconfigured Premium licence is like paying for an alarm and never plugging it in.
5. Mixing up old and new names. An “Office 365 Business Premium” renewed without checking does not bring the security of today’s Business Premium.
6. Giving a licence to every generic address instead of creating shared mailboxes.

Checklist before renewing your licences

• Does every assigned licence match an active employee?
• Are generic mailboxes set up as shared mailboxes rather than paid accounts?
• Who really needs installed Office?
• Are management, finance and HR on Premium?
• Is MFA active on every account, including administrators?
• Are the Premium features you pay for actually configured?
• Does a third-party backup cover email, OneDrive, SharePoint and Teams?

For the practical steps of an order, from domain verification to activation, read buying Microsoft 365 in Morocco.

We supply these licences as a Microsoft CSP partner, with or without installation, and we can administer them within our managed cloud service: plan allocation, security configuration, backup, regular review and a response within 24 business hours. The initial audit of your licences is free: to take stock, contact us.