O365 questions

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Evan

Well-Known Member
Jan 6, 2016
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Thought I wound ask the brains trust here before I go about testing this (would cost some $$ if it doesn’t work although maybe monthly could work to try)

Anyway is it possible to at the same time;
- o365 home for the software (excel, word, outlook, etc)
- o365 business essentials for the services (exchange, Sharepoint, OneDrive, SfB)

Yes i know one is commercial and the other not but it’s not for commercial use, however domain name etc must be possible.

Any other ways that make sense to do this for 2-4 people that’s maybe cheaper than the $12.5 a month per person of o365 business premium.

I looked at action pack but you get 5 seats E3 or you get the extra software like Visio, project, etc if you choose on-prem and that would be useful if spending the bigger $$ but don’t really want on-prem email etc.
 

amalurk

Active Member
Dec 16, 2016
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My small biz has the cheapest $4/seat O365 biz email only. You could do that and then buy the home under another account for the software.
 

Blinky 42

Active Member
Aug 6, 2015
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I guess do you need Publisher, OneDrive or Sharepoint? If you do that limits your options.

You have probably found the 3 different compare plans pages:
* Exchange online Compare Microsoft Exchange Online Plans
* Office365 Home Compare All Microsoft Office Products | Microsoft Office
* Office365 Business Compare All Microsoft Office Products | Microsoft Office

In theory the Non-business licensed versions that include Outlook for the desktop won't allow you to connect to an Exchange server, however the 1-year subscription to Office365 Personal that came included on a small HP laptop that I got for travel didn't complain at all connecting to Exchange online E1. YMMV of course, and they may change it in the future but hasn't been a problem so far. If you only need what is included in O365 Personal then you can try that for + adding the E1 plan for Exchange online only.
If you If you have domain(s) registered elsewhere no problem to set it up with Exchange online in any variation, no need to register it or have it controlled within Microsoft's framework - you just need to add a few DNS records to change the MX, SPF and auto discovery features on so it is easy to setup.

Over the past few months I moved a few organizations from self-hosted email or GSuite over to E1 plans and they all were able to use their mix of current office products installed on laptops/desktop with exchange online just fine. And if it is a problem, you just upgrade the user that needs something to > E1 at that time - you buy the licenses as needed and assign them to users in the Admin console, so you can have users at all sorts of different levels no problem. Email only real users for just $4.99/mo up to everything for$12.50/mo for the software + exchange.
 
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Evan

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Jan 6, 2016
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@Blinky 42 thanks for that info, more or less what I assumed was possible, I didn’t see how or why they should limit the software on a system to connecting to different types of mail services etc. guess I will give it a go.

Business essentials at $5 a month is good value with 50G mail and 1TB OneDrive / Sharepoint but for family use there is cheaper software options rather than stepping up to the $12.5 plan

Why would you use E1 email @$4 only instead of the business essentials @$5 which is as far as I can tell the same except you get all the OneDrive, OneNote, Sharepoint with it (limited to 300 seats though) or just a case of they already had enterprise o365 elsewhere or really only needed just the mail part ?

Guess I will try it out over Christmas when I have some time to play and will see them, worst case it’s $100 wasted on the office products and step up to the ones included in plan if needed.
 

Blinky 42

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In all of the cases so far, stuck with E1 because everyone already had all the software needed. No reason to spend extra $ on another license of Office that isn't needed. Trivial to upgrade on a per-user basis as needed down the line too.
 

Evan

Well-Known Member
Jan 6, 2016
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In all of the cases so far, stuck with E1 because everyone already had all the software needed. No reason to spend extra $ on another license of Office that isn't needed. Trivial to upgrade on a per-user basis as needed down the line too.
What I mean is not the software that the small business options (only applicable to 300 users) for a dollar extra include 1TB OneDrive & Sharepoint + SfB, and teams.
Also seems to include the office on iPad etc which means some people can even get office for that price with the web version also. I assume this is really just a special deal for small business but seems like a pretty good option.

If your over 300 users then sure not an option.