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Microsoft 365

Microsoft 365
Formerly Office 365

Overview

What is Microsoft 365?

Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) is a Microsoft Cloud subscription service that includes Microsoft Office products (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher, and Access). The software can be installed across multiple devices and ensures that users always have the most…

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Recent Reviews
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Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

Reviewer Pros & Cons

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Pricing

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Business Basic

$5.00

Cloud
Per User Per Month

Individual

$5.84

Cloud
*Per Month

Business - Apps

$8.25

Cloud
Per User Per Month

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services
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Product Details

What is Microsoft 365?

Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) is more than just Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. It provides business-class email, online storage, and teamwork solutions that users can access from anywhere.

The vendor says key benefits include:
  • Bring teams and resources together with solutions like Microsoft Teams and Skype for Business that make working together more productive and enjoyable regardless of where participants are located.
  • Easily implement security and privacy controls to help protect business data and devices against malicious threats and help you meet your compliance obligations.
  • Automatic updates ensure your employees will always have the latest features and security updates.

Microsoft 365 Video

When you need to write a document, crunch numbers on a spreadsheet, or work up a presentation - office suite software is your solution. Apache OpenOffice offers free word processing, spreadsheet, or any other office needs and here we compare it to Microsoft Office 365 and it's Word, Excel, and more.

Microsoft 365 Competitors

Microsoft 365 Technical Details

Deployment TypesSoftware as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo

Frequently Asked Questions

Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) is a Microsoft Cloud subscription service that includes Microsoft Office products (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher, and Access). The software can be installed across multiple devices and ensures that users always have the most up-to-date version of the included Office applications.

Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 are common alternatives for Microsoft 365.

Reviewers rate Support Rating highest, with a score of 8.9.

The most common users of Microsoft 365 are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(6387)

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-5 of 5)
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Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Previously in our company we used a POP3 mail service based on Web Hosting, due to the growth of our company and the need to centralize services and facilitate communication between our workers, we decided to migrate our email to Microsoft 365. This has been the first step of many, since our medium-term goal is to migrate our infrastructure to the cloud and thus use more and more services such as OneDrive and SharePoint as well as their different Apps to manage our business. One of them, which has made communication much easier for us and has completely changed us, has been Microsoft Teams.
  • Email Managment with Exchange technology
  • Centralize very useful business apps
  • Microsoft Teams
  • OneDrive share technology
  • Too many management consoles (old, news..)
  • Too many ways for manage resources (messy)
  • Microsoft Teams behavior (Temporaly files managment)
  • Microsoft Teams performance software
I think that most of the scenarios are recommended for the use of Microsoft 365 as long as the company that wants to incorporate it is not a very small company, I think that from 50 workers it can already be interesting for management, organization and development. of the company's activities. However, if a company has less than 50 workers, the cost, development and implementation of Microsoft 365 may not be as interesting or at least not take advantage of all its features.
  • Email with Outlook
  • Microsoft Teams
  • Microsoft One Drive
  • In a near future: Sharepoint in replacement of our File Server
  • better comunication between departments and users
  • better email tracking and managment
  • greater transparency of costs
  • cost management easier to manage
200
They are commonly used by all departments.
2
Windows system administrator with knowledge of Microsoft 365
  • Communication
  • Files Sharing and Managment
  • improve the communication of all teams
  • as a file manager replacing our File Server
we are very happy with Microsoft 365 and will be using it for years to come
Yes
POP3 Email Manager in a Web Hosting page. (Nominalia.com)
  • Product Features
  • Product Usability
  • Product Reputation
I wouldn't change it, I think we made the right decision
  • Implemented in-house
  • Third-party professional services
Altair Networks and later Softeng
No
Change management was a big part of the implementation and was well-handled
  • Since we were in an email with pop3, the main problem was migrating all the accounts and emails from that technology to Microsoft 365 technology
No
In the past, at the beginning, we had some incidents/doubts that were resolved very quickly and efficiently
We do not buy it because we have a provider that gives us incidents and offers us premium support included in the purchase of licenses (Softeng)
No
We have never needed direct support from Microsoft as we have requested it from our licensing provider.
I think it is a tool that with some training the user can handle without any problem.
  • Outlook email managment
  • Microsoft Teams communication
  • Microsoft Teams (Teams Managment)
  • Microsoft One Drive (Correct Share Permissions)
Yes
We only use Microsoft Teams, One Drive and Outlook apps and we are very happy with their functionality.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
The City takes advantage of several Microsoft 365 offerings. The entire city uses Microsoft 365 email and Teams. Several departments use Sharepoint and one drive. I like the features and searchability of Onenote. We are also beginning to use Wikis, however, that is only for the IT department so far. There are many more features we have not even touched but we are slowly working towards better use of all Microsoft 365 products.
  • The email solution is easy to manage for both onboarding and off boarding
  • Teams are amazing for messaging, video calling, screen sharing, and overall City collaboration.
  • Sharepoint takes a little bit to learn but is a well constructed product
  • Most issues I have found steam from security management and the multitude of selections
  • When you make a change to the user rights to SharePoint it sends them an email which makes testing difficult.
  • There are not enough how to documents or videos.
I will always recommend it for email especially for smaller businesses that are still stuck using Gmail. I like Premise SharePoint over the Microsoft 365 offering but the management trade-off is worth it. I would also recommend Teams for everyone.
  • The most positive effect we have seen is usability and collaboration
  • I have not seen a negative impact to our business yet
From a management standpoint, Microsoft 365 is far easier to use than Exchange. No, it is not as robust but for day-to-day use, I would choose Microsoft 365 every time.
700
All City departments. City manager, Police, Fire, HR, Legal, IT etc.
3
3 Systems Administrators with varying experience.
  • Email
  • Teams
  • Sharepoint
  • Sharepoint collaboration with one drive
  • Teams video call and screen sharing
  • Employee management
  • More extensive use of Sharepoint and one drive
  • Utilizing more of the available applications.
We so widely use Microsoft 365 I could not see going to another product.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Microsoft 365 as our standard productivity and communication application for the whole organization. We use Outlook for email and Word, Powerpoint, and Excel as needed to prepare documents for winning new business and managing existing business. We use Teams for internal and external communications. And we use Planner as our internal project/task tracking tool.
  • Outlook is a great email application. We have the client tool for our laptops, but use the cloud version for mobile devices.
  • Teams is a great live, audio and document sharing tool.
  • SharePoint is a great collaboration, document management tool.
  • MS Word, Excel, and Powerpoint allows us to document, share, and report information.
  • Planner is a great tool for simple small project or task tracking.
  • Planner definitely could have more features to compete against Asana, Monday, and Airtable
  • Teams could be a little more visually pleasing and have a simpler interface
  • Outlook client and OWA could have a more similar interface to make transitioning between the two and maintaining folders and information easier.
I really don't think there is any other solution that can beat MS 365. All the tools are integrated and maintained well at a ridiculously affordable price point. I've worked at much larger organizations (100,000) and it works well there too. Teams, SharePoint, Planner, and OneDrive integrated with the original Office Suite of Word, Excel, PPT, and Outlook is just really hard to beat. Personally, I would say impossible to beat at the price point offered by Microsoft.
  • Planner for task and project management
  • Teams for audio and visual sharing and communication
  • Outlook for email
  • SharePoint for document repository and collaboration
  • One Drive for document back up and sharing.
  • MS 365 has had a positive ROI because it is available everywhere, all the time, and does not require any hardware, infrastructure requirements.
  • Also, it integrates all the core productivity tools required to run our business
  • It is ridiculously affordable given all the tools, applications, and functionality.
  • Included email support and continuous fixes and functionality release keeps everything up to date and continuously adds more value/functionality without more cost.
Basically, Planner is nowhere as good and has nowhere as much functionality as Airtable, but Planner is included with MS 365 and good enough for us with no additional cost. Dropbox is actually really good and integrates well with MS 365. We actually use both Dropbox and OneDrive, although personally, I think we could get rid of Dropbox and just use OneDrive.
20
HR, Sales, Marketing, Procurement, Accounting, Finance, etc.
1
You don't need a technical resource to support MS 365 since it is super user-friendly and mostly intuitive and since MS provides the technical support. You can find most things through MS 365 knowledge base or just by searching on Google.
  • Outlook for email communication.
  • Teams for live audio and visual communication.
  • Word, Excel, and PPT for internal and external documentation, reporting, and presentations.
  • SharePoint for internal and external document management and document collaboration.
  • We use Teams and Planner for daily standups.
  • Probably use some of the power apps to automate some processes.
There's no better, affordable, easy to maintain and use productivity solution suite out there.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I use one or more programs included with Microsoft 365 almost every day. I make extensive use of Outlook for emails, Excel for spreadsheets, and Word for preparing the text of reports. I have a forensic accounting practice and have to frequently prepare memos and or reports. A typical report contains a series of Excel spreadsheets that I call schedules and a text that explains in detail the schedules and my findings regarding certain analyses that I conduct. I can easily convert both the text of a report and the schedules into PDF form directly without scanning, and then add information to the PDF such as consecutive page numbers and paste an actual image of my signature into the PDF. This allows me to complete a report directly from my computer without scanning anything. I have issued reports when I am out of town including foreign countries. All I need is access to the internet. I also use PowerPoint to make certain presentations and often prepare graphs to explain complex findings in court. Having Microsoft 365 facilitates these tasks with ease. For example, sometimes in the text of a report, I describe certain findings and include a copy of a graph directly in the Word file. While I prepare the graph using Excel, I can copy and paste the graph from Excel into Word. It really produces a very professional-looking product. For me, Microsoft 365 is an absolute necessity.
  • Easy to link Excel information into Word.
  • In Excel, linking of cells makes it easy to do analysis that when changed, updates everything.
  • Excel is very powerful. You can use it to sort data and create really professional-looking schedules for reports and presentations.
  • Excel makes creating graphs really easy. Great for explaining financial concepts to individuals with limited financial backgrounds.
  • Excel has some really powerful tools, such as rounding of results of computations, using at if formulas to analyze certain data and the grouping function which can help make a really complex schedule simpler by hiding certain rows and or columns.
  • Many programs that contain databases of information can export reports directly into Excel eliminating the need for data entry.
  • I like the editor function in Word, which helps one create better reports. It picks up errors such as punctuation and makes suggestions for better use of words.
  • I would like to see the editor function that Word has included in Excel.
Microsoft 365 is well suited if one has to prepare memos and or reports. Excel is very useful for analyzing data and creating exhibits that explain and help one manage their business. Outlook is great for keeping your calendar and managing your emails. PowerPoint is great for making professional presentations of various kinds.
  • Preparing analysis of data using Excel.
  • Preparing texts for reports using Word.
  • Keeping colander using Outlook.
  • Managing emails using Outlook.
  • As far as I am concerned, Microsoft 365 makes it possible for me to conduct business [at] such a small cost. It [saves] me hours of time.
I am not aware of another product that has all of the features of Microsoft 365.
1
I use Microsoft 365 every working day for managing emails and my calendar, to prepare various types of financial analysis using Excel, preparing written reports using both Excel and Word, and preparing charts using PowerPoint.
I use Dell Computer for tech support.
  • Managing emails and my calendar.
  • Preparing various types of financial analysis using Excel.
  • Preparing reports using both Excel and Word.
  • Preparing presentations using PowerPoint.
  • Keeping track of my time and Expenses for billings to clients using Excel.
  • Using Excel, I developed a system to keep track of my time billable to clients. I also use Excel to keep track of my expenses billable to clients.
  • Using Excel, I keep track of my other expenses for tax purposes. I have developed a system for going through my credit cards and identifying business charges on my credit cards and reimbursing myself for them.
  • I have taught certain courses and made presentations in slide show formats for that purpose.
  • I am considering using Excel to keep track of business deadlines.
I use the product almost every day. Not sure how I would be able to operate without it.
No
  • Product Features
  • Product Usability
  • Product Reputation
  • Prior Experience with the Product
I have used this product and it's former versions for as long as I can remember.
Not sure I have any suggestions at the moment.
  • Implemented in-house
Yes
I worked with Dell to set up Microsoft 365. They provide me the entire suite and provide me email hosting and backup services. I first set up email, contacts, and my calendar. Then, I started using Excel and Word and later PowerPoint.
Change management was minimal
  • Migrating my old Pop email system to the new online linked system.
Everything works and I use it all the time.
I have used online FAQ and articles or done searches online for explanations on how to use certain functions. There are good resources available online. I have never had to contact Microsoft and talk to them live.
No. I have never needed to contact them.
No
No
It seems to me to be such a useful and necessary tool in my business.
  • Cell linking in Excel.
  • Keeping tract of my Calendar.
  • Managing emails.
  • Certain advanced functions in Excel such as nested at if statements.
Yes
It works well for emails. For some reason, if I set up an appointment in Outlook on my phone, that does not link to my computer. If I set it up on my computer, it links to my cell phone instantly. I have not tried this issue lately. It may be an issue caused by how my set-up on my computer has been done.

I also read Word and Excel attachments on my phone, but due to the screen size, I sometimes wait until I am at my computer.
Rebecca T Barber, MBA, PHD | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Office 365 is being rolled out to staff, students and faculty on our campus. It offers the ability to work with the products online, but also to download and install it on desktop computers for ease of use. That flexibility makes it exceptional for some of our senior leaders with small machines that don't have the disk space for full installs. The real strength appears to be the mobile versions of the tools, with the ability to collaborate an added bonus.
  • When installed on a desktop, it is indistinguishable from prior versions in terms of performance and features.
  • Brings nearly equal functionality to mobile platforms as on a deskop, making it possible to work with spreadsheets, presentations and word docs in a native IOS app.
  • Includes online storage to make collaboration and mobile access possible.
  • Integrated access to Dropbox.
  • Mobile versions don't do EVERYTHING that the desktops can do, so you can't necessarily live just in those.
  • Mac versions are STILL missing many of the features that Windows users take for granted.
  • Subscription model (rather than purchasing the software) can result in higher costs over time.
  • Particularly well suited to organizations that have a lot of staff traveling or working off tablets or mobile devices.
  • Could be useful where real-time collaboration in Word or PowerPoint is a feature that an organization would like.
  • Office 365 has allowed me to be productive at conferences on my iPad. That means no lugging a heavy laptop with a short battery life. Anything that makes travel less painful is a positive impact on my work.
Office remains the leader in the business productivity market. Apple's alternatives (Pages, Numbers, and Keynote) are nowhere near as powerful and Microsoft incorporates any good ideas they have very quickly (keynote's presentation mode). Google Docs/Sheets are convenient for simple tasks, but they can only do the basics of those types of applications. I work in Excel all day every day and could not do what I do in either numbers or sheets. The tools just don't have the capabilities. And now that those capabilities are more available in mobile versions, Microsoft has locked me in.
10000
Nearly all employees, all faculty and all students use Office. Not all have converted to Office 365 yet, but more are moving over every day due to mobile friendliness and new features available. Every function within the university is represented.
50
Desktop support, the student help desk and other technical support folks provide some support for Office, but frankly that is primarily in terms of installation. Once the tool is installed, we have no real support function for the tool other than one another and the internet. That generally hasn't been an issue.
  • Financial planning and analysis (Excel).
  • Writing research papers and other documents (Word).
  • Constructing presentations for class, professional groups, etc., (PowerPoint).
  • As it becomes ubiquitous, I expect to see more collaborative work going on. Right now that function is used only by a few people, but the level of co-authoring and team projects in a university invariably mean there are more opportunities.
There are many features of Office that we cannot replicate in any other tool. Plus people know it already. It's not going away anytime soon.
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