Business Premium vs E3
An honest comparison of Microsoft 365 Business Premium and Microsoft 365 E3 for small businesses: July 2026 pricing, security differences, where E3 wins, and a decision checklist.
Guides
Step-by-step Microsoft 365 setup guides for small businesses, written from hands-on enterprise experience.
Topics: Licensing · Identity & Security · Devices & Intune · Email & data · Teams Phone · Migration
Licensing
Which Microsoft 365 plan to buy, what each one includes, and what you'd have to add.
Identity & Security
Sign-in protection, MFA, Conditional Access, passwords, and closing access when people leave.
Conditional Access starter policies
Eight Microsoft Entra Conditional Access policies a 5–50 person business should start with, including break-glass accounts, report-only testing, and common mistakes.
Offboarding an employee
A step-by-step Microsoft 365 offboarding checklist for small businesses: cut off access fast, keep the mailbox without paying for a license, save OneDrive files before the 30-day clock runs out, and clean up devices.
Password manager for M365
What Microsoft does and doesn't do for passwords now, why Entra ID SSO and automatic provisioning matter, and how Keeper, NordPass, 1Password and Bitwarden describe their own Entra support.
Security defaults vs Conditional Access
What Microsoft's free security defaults do, what Conditional Access adds with Entra ID P1, which fits a 5–50 person business, and how to switch without leaving a gap.
Devices & Intune
Managing company PCs and protecting work data on personal phones with Intune.
Intune setup for a 10-person office
A practical, ordered walkthrough for setting up Microsoft Intune on Microsoft 365 Business Premium for a small office: licensing, enrollment, compliance, BitLocker, updates, apps, and Autopilot.
App protection for BYOD phones
Set up Intune app protection policies for personal iPhones and Android phones on Business Premium: Microsoft's Level 2 settings, the Conditional Access rule, testing, and selective wipe.
Email & data
Email authentication, deliverability, and keeping copies of your data.
SPF, DKIM, and DMARC
Set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC for your Microsoft 365 custom domain step by step: the exact SPF record, where to turn on DKIM in the Defender portal, and a safe DMARC rollout from p=none to p=reject.
Microsoft 365 backup
Microsoft 365's recycle bins and retention windows explained in plain English, where they stop, what Microsoft 365 Backup costs, and how to decide whether a 5–50 person business needs separate backup.
Teams Phone
Replacing a small office's phone system with Teams: carriers, licensing, call flows, numbers, quality, and hardware.
Calling Plan vs Operator Connect vs Direct Routing
The four ways to connect Teams Phone to the phone network, explained for a 5–50 person office: Microsoft Calling Plans, Operator Connect, Teams Phone Mobile and Direct Routing, and how to choose.
Teams Phone licensing
What Business Premium and E3 do and don't include for calling, the Teams Phone add-ons, the free resource account licenses for auto attendants and call queues, and what's easy to miss.
Auto attendant and call queue setup
Build a main-line menu in Teams step by step: free resource account licenses, call queues with the right routing and overflow settings, business hours and holidays, and testing.
Port your number to Teams
Move your existing business numbers to a Microsoft Teams Calling Plan: what to get from your current carrier, full vs partial ports, the porting wizard, lead times, and cutover.
Teams call quality basics
A small-office troubleshooting order for Teams call quality: look up the actual call, check bandwidth, fix firewall and VPN basics, consider QoS, and rule out the headset.
Teams headsets and desk phones
What Certified for Microsoft Teams means, how to choose headsets and desk phones, checking certification end dates, and the license shared lobby or warehouse phones need.
Migration
Moving your Microsoft 365 subscription or tenant without losing email.
Move M365 off GoDaddy
The official GoDaddy and Microsoft process for moving a GoDaddy-bought Microsoft 365 tenant to Microsoft or another reseller: what to know first, the order of steps, and the cleanup afterward.