Microsoft 365 is six SKUs, eight major component products, and now Copilot, Entra Suite, and Agent 365 layered on top of E5 to produce the new E7 Frontier Suite. Buying the wrong one is expensive. Buying the right one and operating it badly is more expensive. We do both — license optimization AND ongoing operation — for Canadian and US mid-market businesses every day.
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Honest comparison of Business Basic, Business Standard, Business Premium, E3, E5, and E7. What\'s included, what\'s NOT included, and which plan fits which org size + compliance posture.
Read the page →The 2026 question
The May 1, 2026 launch. The $99 vs $117-à-la-carte math. The decision framework: when E7 wins, when E5 + standalone Copilot wins, when to wait. The July 2026 E5 price reset.
Read the page →Security architecture
The four-pillar Microsoft security architecture in 2026. What each pillar does. How they integrate. Which licensing tier you need for each. The compliance posture this stack delivers.
Read the page →Cross-link
The full Copilot mini-site — capabilities, industries, custom agents, and the comparison to ChatGPT / Claude / Gemini. Required reading if you are evaluating Copilot or E7.
Read the page →Bundled in E5 + E7
Cloud calling on Teams. Three deployment models (Calling Plans, Operator Connect, Direct Routing). 100+ certified carriers. Bundled in M365 E5 and E7 — most clients on E5 are already paying for it but not using it.
Read the page →GA May 1, 2026
The agent control plane bundled into E7. Agent Registry, Entra identities for agents, Defender runtime protection, Purview data governance, observability dashboard. Manages agents from Microsoft, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Workday, custom builds, open-source.
Read the page →$6/user/mo · Up to 300 users
When it wins: Smallest organizations, fully cloud-native, willing to live in browser-only Office.
$14/user/mo · Up to 300 users
When it wins: The most common SMB starting point. Productivity stack without the security and management depth.
$22/user/mo · Up to 300 users
When it wins: The right SMB choice for any business that needs to pass a SOC 2 / cyber insurance questionnaire. The "default" for most Kootechnikel clients under 300 seats.
$36/user/mo · Unlimited (Enterprise)
When it wins: The Enterprise floor. Most large mid-market organizations land here for the unlimited seats and the deeper security stack.
~$60/user/mo (rises from $57 starting July 1, 2026) · Unlimited (Enterprise)
When it wins: The enterprise default for security-conscious mid-market and up. Required for genuine SOC 2 compliance with the full audit trail.
$99/user/mo · Unlimited (Enterprise)
When it wins: The new default for any client refreshing licensing in 2026. Saves ~$18/user/mo vs buying components separately. Includes Cowork (Anthropic Claude inside Copilot) on Frontier rollout.
Email + calendar + contacts. 50 GB mailbox on Business tiers, 100 GB on Enterprise. Anti-spam + anti-phishing baseline. Defender for Office 365 P1 adds advanced threat protection (Safe Links, Safe Attachments, anti-phishing) — bundled into E3 since 2024.
Intranet + document libraries + the foundation Copilot grounds against. Default storage 1 TB + 10 GB per licensed user. SharePoint Advanced Management (SAM) — included with Copilot — provides Permission State Reports, Site Lifecycle Management, Restricted SharePoint Search.
Personal cloud storage for each user. 1 TB on Business tiers, up to 5 TB on Enterprise (auto-expandable to 25 TB on E5). Included with Defender for Office 365 P1 if Business Premium / E3 / E5. Sync client + mobile.
Chat + meetings + voice + collaboration. Channels backed by SharePoint sites. Teams Phone optional (included in E5 + Calling Plan/Operator Connect/Direct Routing — see /teams-phone). Apps + connectors for 1,500+ third-party services.
Defender for Endpoint (XDR for endpoints), Defender for Office 365 (email + Teams threat protection), Defender for Identity (on-prem AD threat detection), Defender for Cloud Apps (CASB), Defender XDR (cross-domain correlation). E5 needed for the full stack.
Information governance, eDiscovery, DLP, sensitivity labels, Records Management, Insider Risk Management, Communication Compliance, AI hub for Copilot oversight. Full suite in E5; partial in lower tiers. The compliance backbone.
Endpoint management — Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, ChromeOS, Linux. Device + app + configuration management, compliance policies, Conditional Access integration. Bundled into Business Premium / E3 / E5.
Identity + access management. P1 (Business Premium / E3): Conditional Access, MFA enforcement, group-based licensing. P2 (E5): Privileged Identity Management, Identity Governance, risk-based Conditional Access. The Microsoft Entra Suite (added 2024, bundled into E7) adds Internet Access, Private Access, Verified ID.
Microsoft 365 E5 is rising from approximately $57 to $60 per user per month on July 1, 2026. The new Microsoft 365 E7 Frontier Suite launches May 1, 2026 at $99 per user per month (bundling E5 + Copilot + Entra Suite + Agent 365). Several other adjustments roll through the catalog. The right time to engage on a renewal is BEFORE July 1, when the lower E5 pricing can still be locked into a multi-year EA term — and BEFORE making any tactical decisions about whether to bundle Copilot via E7 vs buy it standalone.
It depends on whether you already have Copilot, Entra Suite, and need agent governance. E7 saves about $18/user/month versus buying E5 + Copilot ($30) + Entra Suite ($12) + Agent 365 ($15) separately. If you already have Copilot deployed and Entra Suite licensed, the math favors E7 immediately at renewal. If you do not have Copilot deployed yet, the right sequence is: deploy E5 first, run a 3-6 month Copilot pilot on a subset of seats, then transition to E7 across the org once adoption justifies it. We do this analysis explicitly in the licensing review portion of the free 90-minute IT health check.
Business Premium ($22/user/mo) caps at 300 users and includes desktop Office, Defender for Business (entry-level endpoint protection), Defender for Office 365 P1, Intune, Entra ID P1, and Information Protection P1. E3 ($36/user/mo) is unlimited seats and includes Defender for ENDPOINT P1 (a bigger product than Defender for BUSINESS), the full Office Enterprise apps, larger mailboxes (100 GB vs 50 GB), and the Enterprise SharePoint/OneDrive footprint. The crossover decision usually triggers around 250-300 seats or when the security depth of Defender for Endpoint becomes required (not just helpful).
E5 is the enterprise default for security-conscious mid-market. It adds Defender for Endpoint P2, Defender for Identity, Defender for Cloud Apps, Defender XDR (cross-domain detection), the full Purview suite (DLP, Information Protection P2, Records Management, Insider Risk, eDiscovery Premium, Communication Compliance), Entra ID P2 (PIM, Identity Governance, risk-based Conditional Access), Power BI Pro, Audio Conferencing, and Phone System (Teams Phone — see /teams-phone). It is required for genuine SOC 2 Type II compliance with the full audit trail. Most regulated mid-market organizations end up here.
Only in E5 (and now E7). It is NOT included in Business Standard, Business Premium, or E3. If you need Power BI Pro on a Business Premium tenant, license it separately at $14/user/mo. This is a common gotcha — buyers assume Power BI Pro is bundled because Microsoft markets the analytics story, but the licensing catalog does not match the marketing.
Several material changes. Defender for Office 365 P1 was bundled into E3 in 2024 (a real value-add — it was previously a separate $1.50/user/mo line item). Standalone SharePoint and OneDrive consumption-only SKUs were retired (now bundled into M365 plans). Teams was rebundled back into Microsoft 365 plans worldwide after the EU antitrust decision (Teams had been unbundled in EEA in 2023). The Microsoft Entra Suite launched as a new bundle in 2024 (Internet Access, Private Access, Verified ID, Identity Governance). And Copilot Chat ($5/user/mo) was added as the lower-tier Copilot SKU in early 2025.
Microsoft 365 baseline data residency is in Canadian data centers (Toronto, Quebec City). Pricing is in CAD with FX adjustments. PIPEDA-aligned by default; Quebec Law 25 compliance available with proper configuration of cross-border transfer disclosures. The full Microsoft compliance suite supports PIPEDA, PHIPA (Ontario), and the new federal Artificial Intelligence and Data Act (AIDA — proposed legislation). Canadian Copilot inference is announced for 2027; until then, prompts and grounding queries leave Canadian borders for inference, which requires documented cross-border transfer disclosures. We handle this as part of the Phase 2 governance pre-flight in any Canadian deployment.
Our free 90-minute IT health check includes a Microsoft 365 license review: tier-by-tier cost analysis, optimization recommendations, the E7 decision framework, and a deployment roadmap if you are migrating from another platform. Yours to keep either way.
