With Microsoft 365, you work from home as if you were at the office

Microsoft 365 gives you access to email, documents, Teams and the Office apps from anywhere, on your computer, your phone or in the browser, with the same files and the same permissions as at the office. Unlike Office Home & Business 2024, which you buy once, for a single computer, Microsoft 365 is a monthly or annual subscription that always includes the latest version of the apps and the cloud services a company needs.

Whatever your line of business, an office suite has become indispensable for every company. And the trend in recent years has been to move email and documents to the cloud, a technology that is mature enough for any kind of company, at a reasonable cost.

In small and medium-sized companies, the most widely used suites are Office Home & Business and Microsoft 365. In April 2020, the Office 365 business plans were renamed Microsoft 365, so you’ll come across them under both names. But what’s the difference between them?

Office Home & Business: a license you buy once

The Office Home & Business license is perpetual: you buy it once, and it doesn’t work on a subscription basis. The current version is Office Home & Business 2024, released on October 1, 2024, which installs on a single Windows or Mac computer and includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote.

The product receives security updates until October 2029, but not new versions: for a new major version, you have to buy a new license. Nor does it include cloud services for businesses, such as email on the company’s domain, OneDrive storage or SharePoint.

If you’re still using older versions, be careful: Office 2019 has not received security updates since October 14, 2025, and Office 2021 since October 13, 2026. See also the article on the problem of end-of-life (EOL) technologies.

Microsoft 365: a subscription with apps that are always up to date

Microsoft 365 licenses renew monthly or annually, depending on how they were purchased, and they are assigned to each user, not to each computer.

The major difference from Office Home & Business is that the subscription always includes the latest app updates, new versions included, plus cloud services: email (Exchange Online), storage (OneDrive and SharePoint) and, depending on the plan, Teams.

From a security standpoint, it’s best to always use the latest versions of the apps, to reduce the number of vulnerabilities.

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Which Microsoft 365 plans are there for businesses?

Microsoft has three main plans for companies with up to 300 users:

• Microsoft 365 Business Basic: business email, OneDrive, SharePoint, Teams and the web and mobile versions of the Office apps. The desktop versions of the apps aren’t included. Suitable for employees who work mostly with email and in the browser.
• Microsoft 365 Business Standard: everything in Business Basic, plus the desktop Office apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote and, on Windows only, Access), on up to 5 computers, 5 tablets and 5 phones per user.
• Microsoft 365 Business Premium: everything in Business Standard, plus advanced security: Microsoft Intune for device management, Microsoft Entra ID P1 (formerly Azure Active Directory) for access rules, Microsoft Defender for Business against threats, and Microsoft Purview, formerly Azure Information Protection, for protecting documents.

All three plans include:

• 50 GB mailboxes;
• 1 TB of OneDrive storage per user, for storing and sharing files;
• email protection against spam and malware, with Exchange Online Protection;
• the web and mobile versions of the Office apps;
• a 99.9% uptime guarantee, which Microsoft commits to in the contract.

Two recent changes: as of October 2026, Publisher is no longer part of Microsoft 365, and since October 2023, in the European Economic Area, Romania included, Microsoft has also sold the plans in versions without Teams, at a lower price, with Teams available separately.

Current prices are on Microsoft’s page comparing the Business plans. Not every employee needs the same plan: a mix of plans suited to each role often costs less than the same plan for everyone.

What do you gain when you work from home with Microsoft 365?

Microsoft 365 enables collaboration through Teams, OneDrive and SharePoint. With Teams, you can hold meetings, chat and work alongside colleagues as if you were at the office, share your screen, or give a colleague control if you need help.

You can open files and edit them at the same time as your colleagues, without emailing versions back and forth.

SharePoint is the equivalent of a file server in the cloud: it lets you add files and manage users and permissions from a central console. The big advantage is that the company’s files can be accessed from anywhere, not just from the office.

Exchange Online, included in all Business plans, syncs your email, calendar and contacts across all your devices and lets you create events and meeting invitations.

From a security standpoint, Microsoft 365 supports two-step verification: on top of your password, you confirm access in the Microsoft Authenticator app, which is more secure than codes received by text message. With Business Premium, you can also set access rules, for example so that company data can be opened only from managed devices.

Compared with servers kept at the office, the cloud has a few clear advantages:

• Microsoft manages the servers, the updates and the redundant copies, so the company no longer has to maintain its own email server;
• the apps don’t depend on the office’s internet connection or power supply;
• email and files can be accessed without a VPN connection.

In practice, with Microsoft 365 you give employees the same tools at home and at the office. We also wrote about the advantages for remote work in the article why the Office 365 suite is ideal for working from home, and about organizing work in the article on the hybrid work environment.

What should you watch out for?

1. Turn on two-step verification for every account, especially administrator accounts.
2. Keep a separate backup. The Microsoft 365 recycle bin keeps deleted files and messages for only a limited time. A separate copy, for example through Backup as a Service, protects you against accidental deletions and ransomware.
3. Manage licenses when employees leave. When someone leaves, the account is blocked, the data is handed over and the license is reused.
4. Choose the right plan for each person, not the same plan for the whole company.

We can help you move email and documents to Microsoft 365, configure security and support your employees. We set up accounts for new hires and close access for those who leave. See IT outsourcing or request a free IT audit.

RezolvIT is an IT outsourcing company experienced in implementing cloud technologies and making it easier for companies’ employees to work from home. If you’d like a quote for your company, contact us.