This evolved to getting rid of items but keeping some that are important.

At that time, the focus was mostly on removing items. Evolving Complianceīefore plunging into the details of licensing, it’s worth recalling that compliance and data governance is a much bigger area now than it was when Microsoft started along the path with solutions like Messaging Records Management in Exchange 2007. In this comparison, I focus on the two Office 365 plans, guided by Microsoft’s feature and cost comparison for the plans and add-ons it offers. And if you’re really interested, they’d like you to move to Microsoft 365 E5, a snip at $57/month to access even more compliance and data governance capabilities, notably in device and identity management. After all, this helps to increase the average revenue per user (ARPU) figure beloved by market analysts and cited in every Microsoft quarterly earnings. Of course, Microsoft will say that you should upgrade from Office 365 E3 to E5. The question is whether the extra $15 uplift is worthwhile. In the U.S., a monthly subscription for Office 365 E3 is now $23 while Office 365 E5 runs to $38. Microsoft increased subscription fees in March 2022 and bumped up the monthly cost of both Office 365 E3 and E5 by $3, or $36 per user annually.

However, I believe that its conclusion was that Office 365 E5 is a relative bargain for organizations interested in compliance because the cost of buying add-on licenses for compliance features is higher than the cost differential between Office 365 E3 and E5. Despite my best efforts to hunt it down, I can’t find the document anymore. Some years ago, I recall someone ran the numbers to decide if the extra cost to buy Office 365 E5 licenses was worthwhile. Running the Numbers to Search for Value.

Upgrading office 365 from e3 to e5