Productivity
Microsoft 365
Office apps and cloud services.
What it is
Microsoft 365 bundles the Office desktop and web apps — Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote — with cloud services such as OneDrive storage and Teams. For businesses it adds Exchange mailboxes, SharePoint, and security and device management through the admin center, so accounts, licenses and policies sit in one place. The apps run on Windows, macOS, web and mobile, and documents stay in sync across them. It is the default productivity stack in many companies.
Microsoft 365 pricing
Microsoft 365 does not publish a plan ladder we could verify. Pricing not verified.
Prices read from the vendor's own pricing page on 2026-09-03. Vendors change plans without notice — check the source before you budget.
Key features
Office apps
Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook on desktop, web and mobile.
OneDrive and SharePoint
File storage, sharing and team sites with version history.
Teams
Chat, meetings and collaboration connected to the rest of the suite.
Admin and security
Central license, policy and device management for organizations.
Strengths and trade-offs
What works well
- Desktop Word and Excel remain the most capable
- Enterprise identity and compliance tooling
- Teams included at no extra cost
Where it falls short
- Licensing tiers are hard to compare
- Teams is heavy on resources
- Web versions lag the desktop apps
Who it is for
Organisations with document-heavy work or existing Windows infrastructure.
Our verdict
Still the reference point for serious documents and spreadsheets. The licensing maze is the main cost you do not see coming.
Frequently asked questions
- Do I need Microsoft 365 to open Office files?
- No. The web versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint are free with a Microsoft account, and files open in other vendors' apps too. Subscriptions add the full desktop apps, storage and Teams.
- Can Microsoft 365 be used without OneDrive?
- Yes — documents can stay on disk, though sharing, version history and sync assume cloud storage. Business plans include OneDrive whether it is used or not.
- Who is Microsoft 365 best for?
- Organisations with document-heavy work or existing Windows infrastructure.
- What are the main drawbacks of Microsoft 365?
- The trade-offs we noted: Licensing tiers are hard to compare; Teams is heavy on resources; Web versions lag the desktop apps.
What we checked
- Public APIOffers a documented API you can build against.Yes
- Mobile appHas a native app for iOS or Android, not just a mobile website.Yes
- Open source / self-hostableSource is open and the tool can be run on your own infrastructure.No
- SSO (SAML)Supports SAML single sign-on on at least one plan.Yes
“Not checked” means exactly that — we have not verified it, and we do not guess.
Evidence and freshness
Status: Official sources reviewedReviewed: 2026-09-03
- Microsoft 365 — Pricing ↗
Checked 2026-09-03 · Supports: An automated check confirmed this vendor pricing page was reachable on the date shown. No plan name, price or limit was extracted from it.
Limit: This record's price has NOT been verified line by line by an editor: the only evidence is an automated reachability check of the vendor pricing page. Treat the figures as unconfirmed until an editor reviews the page. Automated check: the pricing page was fetched on this date and contained pricing information. An editor has not read it line by line.
Tools that do the same job as Microsoft 365
Same job, different pricing. Verified starting price first.
More Productivity tools: see the full Productivity category