Here's an overview of the three subscription tiers: There is an option to pay on a month-to-month basis but you'll end up paying more overall, so we recommend going the annual route. As with many software-as-a-service products, the fees for Office 365 are per user per month, but they're billed annually. This article focuses on the business line, but freelancers and contractors often get the personal version for dual usage. Microsoft offers business-focused and personal-use versions of Office 365. If you do go forward with adopting Office 365, here's what you can expect.
However, if you've never been a software admin and you don't have the time to learn about the admin portal – or if you have a very small team that doesn't need all of the cloud services Microsoft offers – you may be better off checking out alternatives such as Google's G Suite. Microsoft rolls out updates regularly, and the Office 365 admin portal makes it easy to manage user permissions and enforce updates. Small business owners like Office 365 because it's affordable and comes with lots of extras. Office 365 is a subscription-based cloud version of Microsoft Office that also offers access to cloud tools such as OneDrive, Skype for Business and Microsoft Teams.
