Many small businesses start their journey with Microsoft 365 Business Standard. It costs around £10/user and gives you the desktop apps (Word, Excel, Outlook) and email. It is a great product.
But as you grow, you realise you need more security. You need to protect your laptops from ransomware. You need to stop phishing emails. You need to control company data on employee phones.
So, typically, businesses go shopping for 3rd party add-ons:
- Antivirus (e.g., Sophos/ESET) - £4/user
- Spam Filtering (e.g., Mimecast) - £3/user
- Device Management (MDM) - £4/user
- Single Sign-On Tools - £3/user
Suddenly, your £10 user now costs £24, and you have 5 different portals to manage.
Enter Business Premium
Microsoft 365 Business Premium (approx £18/user) was designed to solve this 'tool sprawl'. It includes everything in Standard, plus a massive suite of enterprise-grade security tools (we include this in our Managed IT Support).
What do you get?
- Microsoft Defender for Business: This isn't the free Windows Defender. This is enterprise-grade EDR (Endpoint Detection & Response). It detects behavioural threats (like ransomware encrypting files) and stops them instantly. Read more about EDR on our Cyber Security page.
- Intune (Endpoint Manager): The holy grail of IT management. It allows us to remotely wipe lost laptops, push WiFi passwords to all staff, and force encryption on disks. Perfect for Zero Touch Deployment.
- Azure AD Premium P1: This unlocks Conditional Access. You can create rules like "Only allow login if the user is in the UK AND their device has up-to-date antivirus". This effectively blocks 99.9% of overseas hacker login attempts.
- Defender for Office 365: An AI-powered spam filter that scans attachments and links in real-time to stop phishing attacks.
The Verdict
If you value security, Business Premium is actually cheaper than buying Standard + Antivirus + Spam Filtering separately. It simplifies your billing, integrates perfectly with Windows, and reduces the number of agents running on your PC (speeding it up).
It is, pound for pound, the best value licence in the IT world right now.
Check out our interactive comparison tool below to see exactly how much you could save by switching.