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A plain-English overview of Microsoft 365 — what's included, how the apps work together, and whether it's the right choice for your business.

If you use Outlook for email, Word to write documents, or Teams for video calls, you are probably already using Microsoft 365. It is a subscription service from Microsoft that bundles together email, file storage, and office apps — all connected under one account.

Quick summary

Microsoft 365 is a monthly or annual subscription. On the usual business plans, every person on your team gets a business email address, 1 TB of OneDrive storage, and apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams. What exactly you get depends on which plan you buy. Most of it is managed from one admin center, and it works on computers, phones, and in a web browser.

What's included in Microsoft 365?

Microsoft 365 is not just one app. It is a collection of tools that work together. Here are the main ones:

App	What it does
Outlook	Business email and calendar
Word	Writing documents
Excel	Spreadsheets and data
PowerPoint	Presentations
Teams	Chat, calls, and video meetings
OneDrive	Personal cloud file storage
SharePoint	Shared file libraries for your team
OneNote	Digital note-taking

You reach these apps in a web browser at microsoft365.com — which now opens at m365.cloud.microsoft — and sign in with your work email address. On the plans that include them, you can also install the desktop versions on your computer.

How does it work as a business service?

When you subscribe to Microsoft 365 for business, you get:

A domain-based email address — like you@yourcompany.com — rather than a generic @outlook.com or @hotmail.com address.
A central admin center where you can add or remove people, reset passwords, and handle billing. A few settings sit in their own admin centers — multi-factor authentication, for example, is managed in the Microsoft Entra admin center.
1 TB of OneDrive storage per user for files and documents.
Automatic updates — the subscription keeps giving you the latest version of the apps, and an admin can control when updates reach everyone.

One person in your team — usually the owner or office manager — has the admin role. They manage everyone else's accounts.

Microsoft 365 vs Microsoft Office

You may have heard of "Microsoft Office". Microsoft still sells buy-once versions of the apps — currently Office Home 2024 and Office Home & Business 2024 — so "Office" is not simply an old name. Those get security updates but no new features. Microsoft 365 is the subscription instead: the same familiar apps, kept up to date, plus the cloud services around them (business email, OneDrive storage, Teams).

Microsoft 365 vs Google Workspace

Many businesses compare Microsoft 365 to Google Workspace. Both do similar things — email, file storage, and collaboration tools — but with different apps and interfaces.

Microsoft 365 is often a good fit if:

Your team already knows Word, Excel, and Outlook
You work with a lot of complex spreadsheets or documents
You use Windows PCs
You need Microsoft Teams for internal communication

Google Workspace may suit you better if:

Your team prefers working in a browser
You rely heavily on Google Docs or Sheets already
You want fewer admin settings to work through

For a detailed side-by-side comparison, see Google Workspace vs Microsoft 365.

Is Microsoft 365 the same as Office 365?

Almost, but not quite. The small-business plans were renamed: Office 365 Business Essentials became Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Office 365 Business Premium became Microsoft 365 Business Standard, and Office 365 Business became Microsoft 365 Apps for business. "Office 365" was not retired, though — it is still the name Microsoft uses for its enterprise plans, Office 365 E1, E3, E5 and F3.

So when a small business says "Office 365," they almost always mean their Microsoft 365 subscription. On a licensing document or an invoice, it may mean one of those specific enterprise plans instead.

Common questions

Can I use Microsoft 365 without installing anything?

Yes. Every app — Outlook, Word, Excel, Teams, and more — has a web version. Microsoft builds them for the current version of Edge, Chrome, Safari or Firefox on a computer. One thing to watch: Microsoft's own pages disagree about Firefox and Teams meetings — one says Firefox does not fully support them, another says meetings work but only with the OpenH264 plugin installed — and both name Edge and Chrome as fully supported, so join a Teams meeting in one of those. You do not need to install software. The web apps are slightly simpler than the full desktop versions, but they cover everything most people need day to day. On a phone or tablet, use the apps rather than a browser: Teams for the web is not supported in mobile browsers.

Do all my team members need their own subscription?

Yes. Each person needs their own licensed account — until a license is assigned, they cannot use email or the other apps. So the number of licenses you need matches the number of people on your team.

You buy more licenses in the admin center under Billing → Your products (or Subscriptions, if you are on the Simplified view). Removing licenses is more restricted: you have to unassign a license from a person before you can take it off the subscription, and on some billing accounts you can only reduce the count within seven days of buying or renewing. Check the rules that apply to your own subscription before you plan around it.

What happens to my email if I cancel?

Nothing disappears the moment you cancel. A subscription moves through stages. For most subscriptions it is Expired for 30 days, and everybody keeps normal access to mail, files and apps. Then it is Disabled for 90 days: your team loses access, but an admin can still sign in and download the data. After that the data is deleted, and adding a new subscription later will not bring it back.

The exact number of days differs depending on how you bought the subscription — direct from Microsoft, through a reseller, or on a volume licensing agreement — and some accounts skip the Expired stage altogether, so confirm yours in the admin center. Always export important data before canceling.

Is Microsoft 365 secure?

Microsoft 365 has useful protection built in. Exchange Online Protection guards your mailboxes by default, filtering spam and malicious mail, and you can require multi-factor authentication on every account. The most important thing you can do is turn on multi-factor authentication for everyone.

Need a hand?

If you're stuck, email support@chykalophia.com and we'll help. Include your website address and a screenshot if you can.

What is Microsoft 365?