Microsoft 365 Business PremiumBusiness Premium is the right licence for most SMEs. Only if someone switches the security on.
Microsoft 365 Business Premium bundles the Office apps, email and Teams with the security tools a small business would otherwise buy separately: Defender, Intune, Conditional Access and sensitivity labels. At £16.90 per user per month it is the licence we recommend to nearly every business of 10 to 250 people. The catch is that almost all of that security is off until somebody configures it. We supply the licences, do the migration and switch it on.
Who this is for
Businesses on Business Standard or Basic who have been told by an insurer, a customer or a Cyber Essentials assessor that they need MFA, device management and email protection; businesses already on Premium who suspect they are not using it; and anyone moving off Google Workspace or an old Exchange server.
What Premium adds over Standard
Business Standard gives you the desktop Office apps, Exchange email, OneDrive, SharePoint and Teams. Business Premium includes all of that and adds the security and management layer: Microsoft Defender for Business for every device, Defender for Office 365 Plan 1 for email, Intune Plan 1 for device management, Entra ID P1 with Conditional Access, Purview Information Protection for sensitivity labels, Exchange Online Archiving, and Windows Autopilot.
At Microsoft's UK prices on 2 October 2026, Standard is £10.80 per user per month and Premium is £16.90, both on an annual commitment and excluding VAT. The £6.10 difference buys the tools that insurers and Cyber Essentials assessors ask about by name, and that you would otherwise pay more for as separate add-ons.
Microsoft also sells both plans without Teams (£8.30 and £14.40) for businesses that use another meetings platform, and bundles with Copilot at £18.10 and £24.60.
Source: Microsoft 365 Business Premium (Microsoft UK), Microsoft 365 Business Standard (Microsoft UK), Security benefits of Business Premium (Microsoft Learn)
The 300-user limit
The Business plans are capped at 300 users per plan. That covers every business we work with. Above that, or where a specific capability such as Defender for Endpoint Plan 2 is needed for everyone, the Enterprise E3 and E5 plans apply, and they cost considerably more. The subscription suites guide below compares them.
A business that needs E5-grade security for a few people and Premium for the rest can mix plans in the same tenant, or add the Defender and Purview Suites for Business Premium at £11.50 per user for just those people.
Source: Security benefits of Business Premium (Microsoft Learn), Add-on plans and pricing (Microsoft UK)
The security is off until it is on
A Premium tenant straight out of the box has MFA at Microsoft's security defaults, no Conditional Access policies, no devices enrolled in Intune, Defender for Business not onboarded, no Safe Links or Safe Attachments tuned, no sensitivity labels and no retention policies. The licence has been paid for; the protection has not been delivered.
Our job is the delivery. We configure Conditional Access so that only compliant, managed devices reach company data, onboard every device to Defender, set the email protection policies, label the documents that matter, and set retention so that a deleted mailbox is not a lost mailbox. Then we run it, review it each quarter and show the evidence when someone asks.
Moving to Premium from somewhere else
From Business Standard or Basic, it is a licence change and a configuration project; mailboxes and files do not move. From Google Workspace, an on-premises Exchange server or another provider's hosted email, it is a migration: mail, calendars, contacts and files moved with permissions intact, cut over at a weekend, and the old system switched off once everyone is in.
Either way the sequence is the same: discovery, a pilot group, then everyone else in waves, with Conditional Access enforced last so that nobody is locked out on a Monday morning.
Azure Virtual Desktop and Windows rights
Business Premium includes the Windows licence rights for Azure Virtual Desktop, so a business that needs a hosted Windows desktop for a legacy application or for contractors can run one without buying extra Windows licences. Azure compute and storage are billed separately, and we size and run it as an Azure project.
What is included
The licences
Business Premium per user, bought through our partner distributor, on monthly or annual terms, reviewed each quarter so that leavers' seats are released and nobody is on a plan they do not need.
Migration
Mail, calendars, contacts, OneDrive and SharePoint moved from Google Workspace, an Exchange server, or another provider, with a pilot, a weekend cutover and the old system retired.
Identity and access
MFA for everyone, Conditional Access policies staged and enforced, self-service password reset, and admin accounts separated from everyday ones.
Devices
Laptops, Macs and phones enrolled in Intune with encryption, compliance policies and Autopilot for new kit. See the Intune and device management page.
Email and endpoint protection
Defender for Office 365 Safe Links, Safe Attachments and anti-phishing policies tuned for your domain, and Defender for Business onboarded on every device and reporting.
Data protection
Sensitivity labels for the documents that matter, retention policies and litigation hold where a regulator expects them, and Exchange Online Archiving for the mailboxes that fill up.
Ongoing management
Joiners and leavers same day, licence reviews, Secure Score followed up, and the configuration kept current as Microsoft changes things, which it does monthly.
What is not included, and why
- Teams Phone. Business Premium includes Teams for meetings and chat but not calling to the phone network. That is a separate add-on from £7.70 per user per month; see the Teams Phone page.
- Copilot. Microsoft 365 Copilot is a separate licence or a Premium bundle. Our Copilot readiness page covers the permissions work that should come first.
- Backup. Microsoft's retention policies live inside the tenant. A copy outside it is our Microsoft 365 backup service at £3 per user per month.
- The Defender and Purview Suites. The Defender Suite upgrade for Business Premium is a separate add-on, configured and monitored under our Defender Suite service.
What it costs
Business Premium is £16.90 per user per month, or £14.40 without Teams, at Microsoft's UK price on 2 October 2026, on an annual commitment and excluding VAT. Monthly terms cost more and are available where headcount changes often. The configuration and migration work is quoted as a fixed project based on users, devices and where you are moving from, and the ongoing management is included in managed IT support or Microsoft 365 management from £35 per user per month.
How it starts
- 1Free IT Health CheckA short online check that benchmarks your security and business risk and tells you where you stand.
- 2Discovery callAn engineer, not a salesperson. What you have, what is broken, what it would cost to fix, in writing.
- 3OnboardingEverything moves across on a plan, with no gap in cover and nothing lost.
Questions people ask before signing
How much is Microsoft 365 Business Premium in the UK?
£16.90 per user per month on an annual commitment, excluding VAT, at Microsoft's UK price on 2 October 2026. The version without Teams is £14.40, and the bundle with Microsoft 365 Copilot is £24.60. Microsoft changes prices from time to time, so we confirm the figure on your quotation.
Is Business Premium worth it over Business Standard?
For most businesses of 10 to 250 people, yes. The £6.10 difference buys Defender for Business, Intune, Conditional Access and email protection that you would otherwise pay more for separately, and that insurers and Cyber Essentials expect. Where it is not worth it is a business with no laptops that leave the building and no sensitive data, which is rare.
What is the maximum number of users?
300 per Business plan. Larger organisations move to the Enterprise plans, and a business can mix Premium with a few E5 licences in the same tenant if specific people need more.
Does Business Premium include Teams Phone?
No. Teams for chat and meetings is included, but calling to and from normal phone numbers needs the Teams Phone add-on, from £7.70 per user per month, plus a way to connect to the phone network. See our Teams Phone page.
We already have Premium. Are we using it?
Probably not fully. The tell-tale signs are Conditional Access with no policies, Intune with no devices and Defender for Business with no onboarded machines. We run a configuration review against your tenant and show you what is on, what is off and what it would take.
Can we move from Google Workspace?
Yes. Mail, calendars, contacts and Drive files are migrated with a pilot group first and a weekend cutover, and Google is switched off once everyone is in. Shared drives map to SharePoint sites, and we design that structure with you first.
Do we need a backup if we have Premium?
Yes. Retention policies and Exchange Online Archiving keep data inside the tenant, administered by the same accounts an attacker would target. A separate backup outside Microsoft is £3 per user per month.