Today, Microsoft Cloud offers a wide range of productivity, security, and collaboration tools through various subscriptions, each with different rights. With over 250 different features, it can be challenging to determine which subscription best fits the needs of different employees within your organization.
In this blog, we will break down these features and explain which ones are included in each subscription. We will also highlight any limitations, such as a maximum screen size of 10.9 inches or the use of a primary device.
Microsoft 365: Desktop OS, Office 365, Enterprise Mobility and Security
The Microsoft solutions and features are bundled in bundles. Let’s break it down from top to Bodem.
The first level in the Microsoft 365 subscriptions is:
Office 365 The productivity and Collaboration tools such as email, video, chat and conferencing services, Storage, etc.
Enterprise Mobility and Security Tools for authentication, device- and user management, security and compliance
Windows Operation System The Operating System
The second level in the Microsoft is a bit more complicated where we will breakdown the services.
Office 365
Within the different bundles you get different use rights. We will highlight these different use rights for Office 365 below.
Microsoft 365 Apps Office Applications, Word, Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote
Key differences:
Microsoft 365 F1 and Microsoft 365 F3 only has the right to use the Office Apps on shared mobile devices or mobile devices with a screen size of 10.9 inch or less.
Office 365 E1 bundle doesn’t have any limitation to use the Office Apps on a mobile device.
Microsoft 365 E3 and E5 are having the full functionalities including the installation of the applications on a desktop or laptop.
Personal Storage: OneDrive
Key differences:
Microsoft 365 F1 and Microsoft 365 F3 have a smaller personal storage space and don’t have the right for desktop synchronization.
Office 365 E1 has 1TB of storage space
Microsoft 365 E3 and E5 are having the full functionality, have unlimited personal storage and are having additional features like DLP and In-Place Hold.
Shared Storage SharePoint
Key differences:
Microsoft 365 F1 and Microsoft 365 F3 are having access to SharePoint and can view and edit documents.
Office 365 E1 has a bit more functionality and user can share files, synchronize SharePoint sites with their desktop, organize and manage content libraries.
Microsoft 365 E3 and E5 are having the full functionality and adds Enterprise Search, DLP and in-place holds.
In addition to that only the E-Plans are increasing the storage amount per user with 1GB.
E-mail Exchange Online
Key differences:
Microsoft 365 F1 doesn’t have the right to use email.
Microsoft 365 F3 has a mailbox of 2 GB and could access the email via the Outlook app on a mobile device and a mobile device only.
Office 365 E1 has a mailbox of 50 GB and can use the service via a desktop or laptop, can access a shared mailbox and has archive rights.
Microsoft 365 E3 and E5 are having the full functionality which includes 100 GB Mailbox, Unlimited Archive, In-Place Hold and Litigation Hold, In-Place eDiscovery, Voicemail support and Data Loss Prevention (DLP).
Video, Chat and Conferencing Microsoft Teams
Key differences:
All Microsoft 365 subscriptions do support Microsoft Teams for existing customers. New customers should buy Microsoft Teams as a stand-alone service.
Microsoft 365 E5 has the right to use the PBX functionality to make, receive and transfer calls.
Premium features of Microsoft Teams are available as standalone products. The services could be bought as add-ons to the Microsoft 365 subscriptions:
Calling Plan
Communication Credits
Teams Premium
Teams Shared Device
Teams Rooms Basic and Pro
Business Intelligence Power BI
Key differences:
All Microsoft 365 subscriptions do support the free version of Power BI. Users can create their own visualizations of their data.
Microsoft 365 E5 has the right to use the Pro version of Power BI. With the Pro version users can share dashboards with other Pro users, and has embedded APIs.
Workflow Automation Power Automate
Key differences:
All Microsoft 365 subscriptions do have seeded rights for Power Automate. Which means users could automate flows within the Office 365 environment.
Lo-Code / No-Code Power Apps
Key differences:
All Microsoft 365 subscriptions do have seeded rights for Power Apps. Which means users could built Apps within the Office 365 environment.
Other Apps Microsoft Sway, ToDo, Planner, Whiteboard, Viva Engage, Climpchamp, Lists, Visio, Stream, Bookings, Insights and Connections.
Key differences:
All Microsoft 365 subscriptions do have a lot of other apps and services like Microsoft Sway, ToDo, Planner, Whiteboard, Viva Engage, Climpchamp, Lists, Visio, Stream, Bookings, Insights and Connections.
Enterprise Mobility and Security
Within the different bundles you get different use rights. We will highlight these different use rights for Enterprise Mobility and Security (EM+S) below.
EM+S is a bit different in terms of the licensing rights than the Office 365 services. All Microsoft 365 subscriptions are having the basic EM+S rights. This doesn’t count for Office365 E1, since Microsoft doesn’t have a Microsoft 365 version of this bundle yet.
Only Microsoft 365 F5 and Microsoft 365 E5 are having additional features.
Entra ID P2: Azure ID Protection, MFA Registration Policy, Risk-Based Conditional Access, Access Reviews and Entitlement Management, Privileged Identity Management.
Information Protection P2: Automated labeling based on rules-based classification.
Defender for Cloud Apps: Security and Protection to your 3rd part SaaS applications.
Defender for Identity
Information Protection and Governance: Customer Key, Double Key Encryption, Data Lifecycle management, Exact Data Match, Message Encryption, Records Management, Teams DLP
Insider Risk Management Comm Compliance, Customer Lockbox, Information Barriers, Privileged Access Management
eDiscovery and Audit: eDiscovery- and Audit Premium
Defender for Endpoint P2: Automated Investigation & Response, Endpoint Attack, Threat Analytics, Vulnerability Management, Endpoint Detection and Response.
Windows Operation System
Within the different bundles you get different use rights. We will highlight these different use rights for Windows OS below.
The Enterprise upgrade for the Windows Operation System is available in Microsoft 365 F3, E3 and E5 subscriptions. The Microsoft 365 F3 subscriptions has his limitations. Below additional features are only with the Microsoft 365 E3 and E5 subscription.
KMS/MAK activation
Latest and Past LTSC
On premise access to virtual Desktops
Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP), which will go end of life by April 2026
Application Virtualisation (App-V)
User Experience Virtualization (UE-V)
Advanced Group Policy Management (AGPM)
BitLocker Administration and Monitoring (MBAM)
Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset (DaRT)
Defender for Endpoint Plan 1
Microsoft 365 E5 has one additional features and that is Defender for Endpoint P2.
