For almost any UK business with employees and data worth protecting, Business Premium is worth the extra £9 per user per month. You get Defender for Business (EDR), Intune, Azure AD Premium P1, Conditional Access and Windows 11 Pro upgrade rights. Adding the same controls separately costs more. Premium also gets you most of the way to Cyber Essentials v3.3 compliance out of the box.
The quick price comparison
Microsoft 365 Business pricing in 2026 (annual commit, per user per month, ex VAT):
- Business Basic — around £5. Web and mobile Office apps, Exchange, SharePoint, Teams.
- Business Standard — around £11. Adds desktop Office apps.
- Business Premium — around £20. Everything in Standard plus security and device management.
- Apps for Business — around £7. Desktop Office only, no Exchange.
Premium is £9 per user per month more than Standard. For a 15-user business that's £1,620 per year.
What Business Premium actually adds
Five paid components sit on top of Standard:
- Defender for Business — endpoint detection and response. Behavioural protection, automated remediation, attack-surface reduction rules, device inventory, vulnerability management. Microsoft's own Defender for Business overview covers the detail.
- Defender for Office 365 Plan 1 — Safe Links and Safe Attachments, impersonation protection, anti-phishing with machine-learning models on inbound mail.
- Intune — mobile device management and app management. Push Windows settings, enforce BitLocker, restrict copy-paste on mobile, wipe lost phones.
- Azure AD Premium P1 (Microsoft Entra ID P1) — Conditional Access, self-service password reset, group-based licensing, company-branded sign-in.
- Windows 11 Pro upgrade rights — entitles every user with a Windows 10/11 Home device to upgrade to Pro. Useful if you inherited consumer-spec laptops.
The honest maths
Stacking equivalent third-party products costs more:
- A managed EDR from SentinelOne, Huntress or similar: £4–£8 per device per month.
- A mail security product like Mimecast or Proofpoint Essentials: £3–£5 per user per month.
- A standalone MDM such as Jamf or Kandji: £3–£6 per user per month.
- A decent SSO/Conditional Access product: £3–£5 per user per month.
Even modestly, that's £13–£24 per user per month to approximate what Business Premium adds for £9. The savings are real, and integration is cleaner because it all lives in one tenant.
Where Premium is obviously worth it
- You handle client data under regulation. Solicitors, accountants, healthcare, financial services. Conditional Access alone justifies the upgrade.
- You need Cyber Essentials or Plus. The v3.3 rules expect MFA on every cloud service, EDR on every endpoint and device management. Premium ships all three.
- You're hybrid or remote. Conditional Access, device compliance and Safe Links are materially more valuable when staff log in from home Wi-Fi and airport lounges.
- You've had a scare. If a phishing email landed, or a laptop went missing, the decision is already made.
Where Standard is still fine
- A two-to-four-person business with no regulated data, all working in-office, shared Wi-Fi behind a known-good firewall.
- A team using third-party security tooling you already pay for and don't want to duplicate.
- Very early-stage startups on tight cash — but plan the upgrade within 12 months.
Mixing licences — smart or sloppy?
Microsoft allows mixed tenants. You can licence directors and finance on Premium and the rest of the business on Standard. It saves money on paper but dilutes security: Intune policies and Conditional Access are most valuable when applied to every user. Attackers target receptionists and juniors precisely because those accounts have fewer controls.
We usually recommend whole-business Premium. If budget is tight, move everyone to Premium at renewal rather than splitting now — the licence break-even is weeks, not months, once you factor in not needing a separate EDR.
Getting the most out of it
A Business Premium licence you haven't configured is a £20 copy of Standard. The features that matter require deliberate setup:
- MFA enforced through Conditional Access, not per-user toggles.
- Device compliance policies in Intune, with a "block non-compliant" Conditional Access rule.
- Defender for Business onboarded on every Windows device, with attack-surface reduction rules in warn-then-enforce mode.
- Safe Links and Safe Attachments applied to all users.
- Admin accounts separated from daily accounts and covered by stricter Conditional Access.
Our Microsoft 365 service does this configuration on every onboarding. We also run a gap check against the cyber security baseline so you don't carry unused features you've paid for.
FAQs
What's the price difference?
In 2026, Business Standard is around £11 per user per month and Business Premium around £20 per user per month, on annual commitment. That's an extra £9 per user per month — roughly £108 per user per year.
What do you get for the extra £9?
Defender for Business (EDR), Defender for Office 365 Plan 1, Intune for device management, Azure AD Premium P1 for Conditional Access, Windows 11 Pro upgrade rights, and Autopatch.
Can I mix licences?
Yes. A common pattern is Premium for admins, finance and directors, Standard for the rest. Works, but dilutes the security benefit — Intune and Conditional Access are best applied to everyone.
Does it replace a third-party antivirus?
Defender for Business is a credible EDR and enough for most SMEs. Some regulated sectors prefer SentinelOne or CrowdStrike because their managed SOC partner integrates with them.
Is backup included?
No. Microsoft 365 has retention and recycle bins, not backup. You still need a third-party SaaS backup (Keepit, Datto, Dropsuite) to cover long-term retention and ransomware recovery.