Office 365 Midsize Business

Office 365 Midsize Business delivers most Office 365 services at an attractive price for organizations of up to 300 users. It could be of interest to businesses of that size, but larger businesses will use it only in limited circumstances.

Midsize Business provides Microsoft-hosted Exchange, SharePoint, and Lync services similar to those in Office 365 level E1. It also delivers the Office suite on a subscription basis, like the E3 plan. However, it is priced at US$15 per user, per month, compared to US$8 per month for E1 and US$20 per user, per month for E3.

Midsize Business limits the overall number of users at 300 and imposes other limits: For example the number of SharePoint users is capped at 250. Some Exchange Online features of E1 are not available in Midsize Business; for example, it does not offer address book policies (which enable large organizations to segment their global address lists) and hybrid e-mail routing (which enables mail transport rules, journaling, and antispam policies to apply across both an on-premises Exchange Server installation and an Exchange Online installation). Similarly, some capabilities for central deployment of the Office suite (such as deployment from an organization’s on-premises servers) are not supported for Midsize Business customers. Technical support policies differ for Midsize business from the E plans; for example, Midsize offers 24/7 phone support only for critical issues versus all issues for E plans.