Standard runs your office. Premium also protects it.

The short answer

As of July 1, 2026, Microsoft lists Business Standard at $14 per user per month and Business Premium at $22 per user per month (annual commitment, versions that include Teams). Both are for businesses with up to 300 users, and both include the desktop Office apps, Exchange email, OneDrive, SharePoint and Teams.

The $8 difference buys security and device management: Microsoft Intune to manage laptops and phones, Defender for Business to protect computers, Entra ID P1 for Conditional Access, plus stronger email and data protection. If you handle sensitive client data, have staff working remotely, or fill out cyber-insurance applications, Premium usually pays for itself. If you are very small, have few company devices and already pay for good security tools elsewhere, Standard can be enough.

2026 prices at a glance

Microsoft’s July 2026 pricing update raised Business Basic and Business Standard and left Business Premium unchanged. The figures below are US list prices per user per month on an annual commitment.

• Business Basic: $7 with Teams, $5.40 without. Web and mobile Office apps only.
• Business Standard: $14 with Teams, $10.79 without. Adds desktop Office apps, webinars and more collaboration features.
• Business Premium: $22 with Teams, $18.79 without. Everything in Standard plus the security tools described below.

Microsoft says existing customers keep current pricing until renewal and that prices vary by country and currency. The same update added 50 GB of extra mailbox storage to all three plans and gave Basic and Standard time-of-click link protection, which narrows the email security gap slightly. Resellers may also charge differently for monthly billing, so compare the total on your actual invoice.

What Premium adds, in plain English

Intune: manage every laptop and phone

Microsoft’s Business Premium documentation states it includes Intune Plan 1. That lets you push settings and apps to company computers, require encryption and passcodes, set up new laptops with Windows Autopilot, and remotely wipe a lost device. For personal phones, app protection policies keep work email and files inside managed apps without taking over the whole phone.

Defender for Business: protect the computers

Defender for Business is Microsoft’s endpoint security for companies up to 300 users. Microsoft’s overview lists next-generation antivirus, endpoint detection and response, automated investigation and remediation, and vulnerability management. It is included in Premium and sold separately for other plans.

Conditional Access: control how people sign in

Every plan can turn on multi-factor authentication through security defaults. Premium adds Entra ID P1, which enables Conditional Access policies such as requiring a compliant company device, blocking sign-ins from countries you do not do business in, or requiring stronger checks for admins. Microsoft describes Conditional Access as its Zero Trust policy engine.

Email and data protection

Premium also adds Defender for Office 365 Plan 1, which includes Safe Attachments and Safe Links, organization-wide retention policies from Microsoft Purview, and mailbox archiving for mailboxes that outgrow their quota.

When Premium is worth it

Premium tends to make sense if two or more of these apply.

• You handle health, financial, legal or other sensitive client information.
• Staff work from home, travel or use personal phones for work email.
• Your cyber-insurance application asks about multi-factor authentication, endpoint detection and response or device encryption.
• You own more than a handful of company laptops and want to set them up and wipe them consistently.
• You want to block sign-ins from unmanaged devices or unexpected locations.
• You are currently paying separately for antivirus and a device management tool that Premium could replace.

For a 30-person office, the gap is $240 a month, or $2,880 a year at list price. Compare that with what you pay today for antivirus, device management and email filtering. Many businesses find the overlap covers a good part of the difference.

When Standard is enough

• A small team with few company-owned devices and no sensitive data.
• You already pay for a managed security stack, such as separate endpoint protection and email filtering, that your IT provider monitors.
• Most staff work at shared desks in one office and do not access email on phones.
• You are on a tight budget this year and plan to move to Premium when you renew.

If you stay on Standard, at least turn on multi-factor authentication for everyone through security defaults and make sure every computer has endpoint protection. Our guide to Microsoft 365 security settings lists the free settings worth enabling first.

Questions to ask before you renew

• Which of our current security tools would Premium replace, and what do they cost today?
• How many of our devices are company-owned, and how many people read work email on personal phones?
• What does our cyber-insurance application ask about, and can we answer yes to each item today?
• Who would set up and watch Intune, Defender and Conditional Access once we have them? Tools nobody configures add cost without adding protection.
• When does our current term end, and does a mid-term upgrade change our renewal date?

Want to know which plan fits your setup? Licensing is one of the areas where small businesses most often overpay or underprotect. Our free Technology Health Assessment takes about 30 minutes of data collection. The next day you get a plain-language report rating your IT operations, cybersecurity, applications, business continuity and technology spending, with a short list of next steps in order. It is yours to keep, with no obligation. Book your assessment.

Can you mix plans?

Yes. Microsoft 365 business plans can be combined in one tenant, and each business plan is designed for up to 300 users. A common pattern is Premium for office staff who handle client data and Basic for people who only need email and Teams on the web. Two cautions:

• Security policies such as Conditional Access and Intune only cover users who hold a license for them. A partly protected office leaves gaps an attacker can use.
• Mixing makes renewals and audits more complicated. Keep a simple list of who has which plan and why.

How to switch from Standard to Premium

1. Count users and devices, and note which devices are company-owned versus personal.
2. Buy Premium licenses and assign them. Microsoft lets you change to a higher business plan in the admin center, and it limits automatic changes to plans with the same or more data-related services so users do not lose data.
3. Turn on Defender for Business and onboard computers in small groups.
4. Set up Intune enrollment for company devices and app protection for personal phones.
5. Build Conditional Access policies in report-only mode first, then switch them on once you see who would be blocked.
6. Remove the separate tools you no longer need so you stop paying twice.

JLB USA handles this as part of managed IT for businesses with roughly 25 to 100 employees, including Microsoft 365 administration, endpoint protection and help with cyber-insurance questionnaires. We reply within 5 minutes by email or phone, with on-site help in Atlanta, Birmingham and Chattanooga and remote support everywhere else.

Keep reading

• How to migrate from Google Workspace to Microsoft 365 with minimal downtime
• Microsoft Teams Phone for small business: can it replace your phone system?
• SharePoint vs OneDrive: where should your business files live?
• Managed IT services in Birmingham, AL: a practical guide for growing businesses

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• Managed IT services
• Microsoft 365 security settings
• Cyber insurance requirements in 2026
• Cybersecurity services