
4 minute read
Microsoft 365 Comparison: E1 vs. E3 vs. E5
Topics: Microsoft 365
By Calligo on 18 November 2020
Microsoft offers three levels of Microsoft 365 for enterprise: E1, E3, and E5. But how do you decide which is most relevant to your business? And are they really only suitable for enterprises?
As always, it all depends what you need to achieve. Of course, the key difference between enterprise and standard packages is that only enterprise packages can support more than 300 users within a single organization. But this is far from an absolute rule. Many of our sub-300 employee customers use enterprise packages because of the applications and capabilities they include. And many others mix and match their packages across the organization according to their local, individual or departmental needs.
E1 v E3 v E5: Feature Comparison
See our easy-to-use diagram of the features and capabilities of the three packages side by side.
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The basicsAll enterprise packages include the recognized Office applications - PowerPoint, Word, Excel and OneNote - plus Outlook and Exchange.
E1 only includes web and mobile versions of the Office applications, not the full desktop versions that can be used offline, meaning E1 users are largely dependent on continuous internet connectivity.
E3 and E5 also include Bookings, a scheduling app for your customers to book appointments, Access, a database for creating business applications from templates or from scratch, plus an additional 50GB of storage within Exchange (100GB in total).
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Meetings and VoiceAll three plans include Microsoft Teams - the heart of Microsoft 365’s collaboration platform which has arguably been the main cause of Microsoft 365’s wide adoption through 2020.
The only difference between the plans in this area is that E5 - the largest of the plans - includes Phone System, which provides PBX capabilities in the cloud and is the foundation of Enterprise Voice.
Enterprise Voice allows Microsoft 365 users to make and receive calls from anywhere and, together with Microsoft Teams, delivers an all-in-one communication solution bringing together calls, chat, and meetings into a single application.
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Files, content and intranetAll Enterprise packages includes SharePoint and OneDrive for business-wide and employee-specific data storage, plus Yammer, an internet app, Stream, which makes video content available across your organization, and Sway, an innovative platform for presentations. E3 and E5 also include Lists which helps users track and organize their tasks.
The core differences however in the available storage. E1 allows 1TB OneDrive cloud storage per user, while E3 and E5 provide 5TB initially and have the ability to expand to 25TB.
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Task managementHere, all four packages are identical, with the jewels in the crown being Power Apps and Power Automate.
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Advanced analyticsE1 and E3 both include MyAnalytics - a tool that provides personal productivity insights based on your work patterns, examining focus, network, wellbeing and collaboration.
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Device and app managementE3 and E5 include InTune, a key application for the control of the organization’s data. It ensures that all company-owned and enrolled personal devices that process corporate data are fully managed, overseen and up-to-date.
It provides crucial insights into the status of all enrolled devices, from security, efficiency and performance perspectives, while also allowing Microsoft 365 data to be protected even when accessed from non-enrolled devices. It is a key component of any Microsoft 365 data protection strategies. |
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Threat Protection, data protection and access managementE1 is arguably limited in its security functionality, providing simply Active Directory sync capabilities that underpin Single Sign On, plus the usual anti-malware, and mail filtering privacy and security features found in most Microsoft 365 packages.
Meanwhile E3 includes Azure Information Protection - a suite of important tools that allow data to be classified based on sensitivity, and for those tags to permeate through the Microsoft 365 environment so that data is always responsibly used. It also provides eDiscovery, mailbox hold and other email archiving capabilities, plus Defender - a complete endpoint security solution.
E5 however also adds Advanced Threat Protection, which scans links within any Office documents or Teams chats, and attachments within mailboxes for any malware or viruses. It will also scan documents opened in Protected View. ATP also uses machine learning to continuously look for phishing attempts, and provides real-time reporting on detected. |
Microsoft 365
E1
Best for businesses that need easy remote solutions, with Microsoft Teams, secure cloud storage, and Office Online (desktop versions not included), and with continuous proactive managed services and support from Calligo.
Premium Office apps included
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![]() Word |
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Web and mobile versions only |
Secure cloud services included
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Microsoft 365
E3
Best for businesses that need full remote work and collaboration tools including Microsoft Teams, secure cloud storage, business email, and premium Office applications across devices, plus continuous proactive managed services and support from Calligo.
Premium Office apps included
![]() Outlook |
![]() Word |
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Secure cloud services included
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Microsoft 365
E5
Best for businesses that require secure, remote work solutions with everything included in Business Standard, plus advanced cyberthreat protection and device management and continuous proactive managed services and support from Calligo.
Premium Office apps included
![]() Outlook |
![]() Word |
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Secure cloud services included
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IT Security features & services | |||
Intune |
Azure Information Protection |
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Defender |
Conditional Access |
Many of our customers find that the security tools within E3 and E5 outperform the security products they already had in place. Similarly, all the enterprise packages offer capabilities that are duplicated in other tools, such as conferencing platforms, file-sharing portals and communication apps.
Find out more about the savings you can make with Microsoft 365 by removing potentially $1000s of unnecessary cost by clicking the button below. |