Microsoft 365 versus Office 365: An overview and what are the differences?

Office 365: Productivity

Office 365 is a collection of applications that improve productivity. On the one hand, these are the long-standing Office tools Like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Access, as well as many more tools that support communication and collaborationThese include SharePoint, OneDrive, Teams, Planner, Flow, Delve, Yammer and Skype for Business. Finally, Office 365 also includes clear monitoring and analysis tools like Power BI. These allow you to generate clear insights from your data.

Microsoft 365 Business, E3 or E5?

New licensing formulas

Microsoft has recently revamped its licensing formulas. Office 365 is increasingly disappearing from the stage & making way for Microsoft 365. More about this in our extensive blog post. Compare which license(s) you need!

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Microsoft 365: Productivity + Windows 10 + Management & Security

Microsoft 365 Enterprise E3 is a more complete suite that, in addition to Office 365, also includes Enterprise Mobility & Security (EMS) and a Windows 10 Enterprise license. With the end of Windows 7 support early 2020 The great added value of Microsoft 365 compared to Office 365, however, lies in Microsoft EMS. It essentially stands for the easy management and protection of different devices and users at different locations. You can write a book about this solution, but a few main blocks within EMS are among others Microsoft Intune, Advanced Threat Protection and Azure Active Directory.

The most important features that distinguish Microsoft 365 from Office 365 are

Feature	Description	Example
Intune	Allows you to manage all your devices regardless of the operating system on which they run	Push updates Automatically Configure Devices Creating containers
Azure Active Directory	Useful tools that make your work safer without getting stuck in your own passwords and encryption	Multi-Factor Authentication Self-Service Password Reset Single Sign-On
Conditional Access	Manage access to certain files based on the user's location and time of logon	Restricting access to a server for someone who works from home Push password reset after suspicious log-in
Azure Information Access	Automates access rights to documents depending on their content	Label files as ‘confidential’ or‘sensitive’ so no one can print, copy or forward them.

Overview of the main features of Office 365 and Microsoft 365

	Features	Office 365 Enterprise E3*	Microsoft 365 Enterprise E3*
	Max. number of users	unrestricted	unrestricted
Office Apps	License Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Access; to be installed on 5 devices PC's/Mac's, tablets and/or smartphones per user.
Email & Calendar	Outlook, Exchange Online	100GB	unrestricted
Hubs for teamwork	Teams
Storage	OneDrive for Business	unrestricted	unrestricted
Social, Video, Sites	Yammer, SharePoint Online, Planner, Stream
Business Apps	Scheduling App, Booking
Threat Protection	Windows Exploit Guard Enforcement
Identity & Access Management	Azure AD: SSPR Cloud & Hybrid Identities, MFA, SSO, Conditional Access, Cloud App Discovery, ADD Connect Health, Credential Guard & Direct Access
Device & App Management	MS Intune, Windows Autopilot, MS Desktop Optimization Package, VDA
Information Protection	Exchange Archiving	100GB	unrestricted
	Office 365 Data Loss Prevention, Azure Information Protection P1, Bitlocker Enforcement
On-Prem CAL Rights	ECAL Suite (Exchange, Sharepoint, Skype for Business)
	ECAL Suite (Windows, SCCM, Win. Rights Management)
Compliance	Litigation Hold, eDiscovery, Compliance Manager, Data Subject Requests

*The Enterprise E3 suite contains for most companies all the necessary tools and features. Besides E3 there is also a lighter Business suite available. The differences between Enterprise E3 and Business can be discovered in the overviews below (These also include the prices!) Furthermore, there is also an Enterprise E5, but this is only rarely applicable.

The added value of Microsoft 365 over Office 365 is in EMS, which essentially stands for the easy management and protection of different devices and users in different locations.”