Home › Licensing › Compare plans › Microsoft 365 E3 vs Microsoft 365 E5
Microsoft 365 E3 vs Microsoft 365 E5
Everything in E3 is in E5. The step up adds identity protection, the full Defender suite, the premium Purview tools, Power BI Pro and a phone system. Whether it pays depends on a count, not a feeling: price the components you would actually switch on, and compare.
…
Security is handled by another product or a managed service. Nobody has asked for eDiscovery Premium, insider risk or communication compliance. Reporting lives in something other than Power BI. Phones are elsewhere. Then E3 plus one or two add-ons — Entra ID P2, Defender for Endpoint Plan 2 — is the cheaper estate, and the E5 Security or E5 Compliance mini-suites sit in between if you need half of E5.
Microsoft 365 E3 in full, with every buying option →…
You would buy at least three of the E5 components separately: at Microsoft’s prices the suite is cheaper from roughly that point. You are regulated and audit, eDiscovery Premium and retention labels are requirements. You want one security stack under one licence rather than four add-ons with four renewal dates. Or you are moving telephony into Teams.
Microsoft 365 E5 in full, with every buying option →| Feature | Microsoft 365 E3… | Microsoft 365 E5… |
|---|---|---|
| Apps and productivity | ||
| Desktop Office apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Web and mobile Office apps | ✓ | ✓ |
| Install on 5 PCs or Macs, 5 tablets, 5 phones per user | ✓ | ✓ |
| Microsoft TeamsIn the EEA, most plans are also sold without Teams at a lower price. Teams is then bought separately. | ✓ | ✓ |
| SharePoint | ✓ | ✓ |
| Microsoft Bookings | ✓ | ✓ |
| Email and storage | ||
| Business email hosting (Exchange Online) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Mailbox sizeBusiness Premium moved from 50 GB to 100 GB in summer 2026. | 100 GB | 100 GB |
| Auto-expanding archive mailboxBasic and Standard include a 50 GB archive that does not expand. Business Premium (through Exchange Online Archiving), E3 and E5 expand up to 1.5 TB. | ✓ | ✓ |
| OneDrive storage per user5 TB+ applies from five seats and can be raised on request to Microsoft. | 5 TB+ | 5 TB+ |
| Identity and devices | ||
| Microsoft Entra ID P1This is the line that most often decides between Office 365 E3 and Microsoft 365 E3. | ✓ | ✓ |
| Microsoft Entra ID P2 (identity protection, PIM)Microsoft 365 E5 only | — | ✓ |
| Conditional Access | ✓ | ✓ |
| Microsoft Intune Plan 1 | ✓ | ✓ |
| Windows 11 Enterprise upgrade rights | ✓ | ✓ |
| Security | ||
| Defender for Office 365 Plan 1 (Safe Links, Safe Attachments)Included in Microsoft 365 E3 from July 2026, with the E3 price change; earlier E3 had Exchange Online Protection only. | ✓ | ✓ |
| Defender for Office 365 Plan 2 (attack simulation, threat hunting)Microsoft 365 E5 only | — | ✓ |
| Defender for Business (endpoint protection)The SMB endpoint product. Enterprise plans use Defender for Endpoint instead. | — | — |
| Defender for Endpoint Plan 2Microsoft 365 E5 only | — | ✓ |
| Defender for IdentityMicrosoft 365 E5 only | — | ✓ |
| Defender for Cloud AppsMicrosoft 365 E5 only | — | ✓ |
| Sensitivity labels and information protection | ✓ | ✓ |
| Compliance | ||
| Data loss prevention for email and files | ✓ | ✓ |
| Retention policies and litigation holdLitigation hold is a feature of Exchange Online Plan 2, and of Plan 1 with Exchange Online Archiving, which Business Premium includes. Basic, Standard and E1 need the Archiving add-on, around EUR 2.60 per user per month. | ✓ | ✓ |
| eDiscovery (Standard) | ✓ | ✓ |
| eDiscovery (Premium)Microsoft 365 E5 only | — | ✓ |
| Insider Risk ManagementMicrosoft 365 E5 only | — | ✓ |
| Communication ComplianceMicrosoft 365 E5 only | — | ✓ |
| Customer LockboxMicrosoft 365 E5 only | — | ✓ |
| Voice and analytics | ||
| Power BI ProMicrosoft 365 E5 only | — | ✓ |
| Teams Phone (phone system)Microsoft 365 E5 onlyA calling plan or direct routing is still needed on top, and is bought separately. | — | ✓ |
| Limits | ||
| Maximum usersThe 300-seat cap is the most common reason a growing company has to move off the Business plans. | No limit | No limit |
highlighted rows differ included. The same rows, for every plan at once, are on the full comparison; prices are Microsoft’s list per user a month on a one-year commitment, in the currency of the region chosen at the top of the page.
Yes: Microsoft 365 E5 Security and E5 Compliance are add-ons to E3 that carry the security half or the compliance half of E5. Many estates land there.
No. E5 includes the Teams Phone system; calls to the public network need a calling plan or a carrier, bought separately.
No. Copilot is the same add-on on either; E5 adds nothing to it.
A written answer with the arithmetic, in your currency, usually within one business day.