At only $8 a month per user, Office 365 E1 sets your company up with an enterprise-class productivity suite. Each user gets access to email, secure storage, collaborative platforms, and a host of tools designed specifically for large-scale businesses to thrive. It’s entirely cloud-based.
Of course, there are some drawbacks along with the affordability. We’ll cover the highs and the lows, as well as how E1 stacks up against the more bare-bones Office 365 Business Essentials and the other Enterprise plans, E3 and E5.
Nov 26, 2019 Solution: Office 365 E1 does not include a license for the desktop apps, so you can't install Hi,I experienced E3 license and it was really easy, once you're able to login to the office portal, you clicked on the drop down and there's an option to install applications bu. Office 365 Enterprise E5 $35/user/month – Annual commitment. Preferred by: The costliest Office 365 plan. Enterprises that need all the features of E1 and E3 plan. With the E5 plan, you get all the consolidated features available in Office 365. All the features of Enterprise E1 & E3 plan are included in Enterprise E5 plan as well. Microsoft Office 365 comes in three different flavors for Enterprise: E1, E3, and E5. With each successive level, you get more features — but what is included, exactly? The short table below gives you a quick overview.
Depending on what you’re looking for, the lightweight nature of Office 365 E1 might be good enough. You get access to web-based versions of the core office apps, which include:
The web-based apps aren’t as feature-rich as their desktop counterparts, and without wifi, they limit you to read-only access to Office files. In terms of the core apps, what you’re essentially getting with E1 is the free Office 365 plan known as Office for the Web.
So you can see why the Office 365 E1 plan is less than half of the cost E3, the next level up in Microsoft’s Office 365 Enterprise productivity suites.
But, if you’re not worried about advanced functions in Word or Excel, or needing constant internet access, then these tradeoffs aren’t terrible. After all, you do also get access to Microsoft’s core collaborative services:
That’s a good deal for less than $10 per user per month. You will get more robust versions of these products with E3 and E5 plans, but Office 365 E1 provides more than enough business-critical functions.
Here are some of the chief reasons people depend on it:
Supported by OneDrive, Exchange, and Office 365 Groups, your employees can collaborate safely and securely with whoever they need to, wherever they are.
An Office 365 E1 license lets a single user install Office mobile apps on up to five phones and five tablets (with a screen size of 10.1” or less). The Office desktop apps aren’t included.
E1 is part of the Enterprise family of Office 365 plans, which are built for larger businesses with concerns about security and compliance.
Considering the switch from an Office 365 Business plan? As a general rule, that makes sense if you need to accommodate more than 300 users. If not, Office 365 Business might meet your needs for now.
Here’s how they compare in terms of price and whether desktop apps and collaborative platforms (like Teams and SharePoint) are included:
Note that Office 365 ProPlus technically falls under the Enterprise family of plans—you can compare it to the others here—but we don’t generally recommend it. You don’t get the collaborative platforms, which are arguably essential.
I mention it because it’s the enterprise equivalent (not an exact match) of Office 365 Business. Similarly, you can think of E3 as the analog of Office 365 Business Premium, and of E5 in its own league with features that aren’t available with any Business subscription.
For Office 365 E1, its “matching” plan is Business Essentials—no desktop apps, but all the collaborative platforms.
It’s not uncommon for growing businesses on a budget to choose between Business Essentials and E1. Here’s how those compare:
As you can see, there are only a few features that separate Office 365 E1 from Business Essentials. You can save a little cash per user each month if you’re not worried about the user limit. Here’s more on the total feature availability for each plan.
Office 365 E1 is the lightest version in the Enterprise family. It’s an affordable, scalable option that you might as well stick with for as long as it meets your business needs.
As you choose between the three levels, know that you have some flexibility in purchasing licenses.
Your admins might need E5 for the advanced security and administrative features, whereas your typical end user might be fine with an E1. The key to choosing the right plan is to accurately forecast your user needs. How much OneDrive storage will they need this year? What level of control at the admin level?
Here’s a quick breakdown on the tradeoffs that come with the affordability of Office 365 E1:
More detail here on all the features included, and note the available add-ons.
It’s important to keep the cost of add-ons in mind. Are you having to rely on third-party apps or outsourcing for security, compliance, or business analytics? Are people worried about their inbox size or the amount of large files they have saved to OneDrive?
If you’re trying to save money per user with an Office 365 E1 subscription, but budgeting separately for options included with E3 or E5, you might want to take a second look.
On the other hand, you might also want to adjust your licensing if you’re paying for the upper-level enterprise subscriptions but only a fraction of your users are using the advanced features. Could most people get by on E1?
Of course, what works for you now might not be the right fit forever. But that’s the beauty of Office 365. You can always think about upgrading as your business needs evolve. If in doubt, never compromise on this: your team should feel empowered by the tools you use.
-->OneDrive for work and school accounts is online storage space in the cloud that's provided for individual licensed users in an organization. Use it to help protect work files and access them across multiple devices. OneDrive lets you share files and collaborate on documents, and sync files to your computer. Learn more about OneDrive features, functionality, and pricing.
OneDrive is included in Microsoft 365 and Office 365 plans, in SharePoint plans, and can also be purchased as a standalone plan.
For detailed plan information on subscriptions that enable users for OneDrive, see the full subscription comparison table and Compare OneDrive for Business plans.
Note
OneDrive standalone plans include Office for the web.
To review the requirements for the OneDrive sync app and mobile app, see OneDrive system requirements.
2 GB
1 TB
Beyond 1 TB, to unlimited
1 TB per user for subscriptions with fewer than 5 users. For subscriptions with 5 or more users (can be any combination of qualifying plans), Microsoft will initially provide 1 TB per user, which admins can increase to up to 5 TB per user. (To learn how, see Set the default storage space for OneDrive users.) To request additional storage, admins must contact Microsoft Support.
Note
You must assign at least one license to a user before you can increase the default OneDrive storage space.
When you need cloud storage for individual users beyond the initial 5 TB, admins can open a case with Microsoft technical support to request it. Additional cloud storage will be granted as follows:
When a user has filled their 5 TB of OneDrive storage to at least 90% capacity, Microsoft will increase your default storage space in OneDrive to up to 25 TB per user (admins may set a lower per user limit if they want to).
For any user that reaches at least 90% capacity of their 25 TB of OneDrive storage, additional cloud storage will be provided as 25 TB SharePoint team sites to individual users. Contact Microsoft technical support for information and assistance.
To see the storage space and usage for an individual user, go to Manage storage in the OneDrive sync app. To see how much storage users across the organization are using, go to the OneDrive usage report in the Microsoft 365 admin center.
OneDrive storage is provisioned on a per user basis and is designed to serve the needs of individual users.
Storage of data other than an individual user's work files, including system back-ups and departmental and organizational level data, is not supported, nor is the assignment of a per user license to a bot, department, or other non-human entity. SharePoint is the best solution for more advanced content management and collaboration, including storing and managing files, communications, and intranet sites across a team or organization.
To learn about file and sync limits, see SharePoint limits and Invalid file names and file types.
For plans that include unlimited cloud storage for individual users, note that limits may apply on non-storage features.
Anyone whose plan includes OneDrive can use the OneDrive sync app unless their IT department explicitly disables it. To install the latest sync app, go to the OneDrive download page.
Unless otherwise noted, the following features are available across all plans that include OneDrive, and all OneDrive standalone plans:
Unless otherwise noted, the following features are available across all plans that include OneDrive, and all OneDrive standalone plans:
Unless otherwise noted, the following features are available across all plans that include OneDrive, and all OneDrive standalone plans:
Unless otherwise noted, the following features are available across all plans that include OneDrive, and all OneDrive standalone plans:
For info about these features, see the SharePoint service description.