vs Microsoft 365
Biza Email vs Microsoft 365 — for teams who don't need the Office bundle
Microsoft 365 Business Basic is $6/user/month — $72/user/year. Biza Email is $50/year flat for unlimited mailboxes. If you're not using Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Teams daily, the math is one-sided.
Pricing
What you pay at each team size
Microsoft 365 Business Basic is $6/user/month, billed annually. Biza Email is $50/year flat regardless of team size.
- 5 mailboxes: M365 ≈ $360/year — Biza Email $50/year
- 10 mailboxes: M365 ≈ $720/year — Biza Email $50/year
- 25 mailboxes: M365 ≈ $1,800/year — Biza Email $50/year
- 50 mailboxes: M365 ≈ $3,600/year — Biza Email $50/year
- 100 mailboxes: M365 ≈ $7,200/year — Biza Email $50/year
Microsoft 365 Business Basic pricing as of 2026, annual commitment. Business Standard with desktop Office apps is $12.50/user/month.
Worked example
What the bill looks like at 25 seats over 3 years
Microsoft 365 Business Basic at $6/user/month, annual commitment, for a 25-person team — versus Biza Email's flat $50/year.
- Year 1 M365 Basic: 25 × $6 × 12 = $1,800
- Year 1 Biza Email: $50 (flat, regardless of team size)
- Year 1 saving: $1,750
- 3-year total on M365 Basic: $5,400
- 3-year total on Biza Email: $150
- 3-year saving: $5,250 — and the gap widens if you'd otherwise upgrade to Business Standard for desktop Office
Microsoft 365 Business Basic pricing as of 2026, annual commitment. Business Standard with desktop Office ($12.50/user/month) more than doubles the gap; E3 enterprise tier pushes it further.
Honest take
If you need Office, stay on Microsoft 365
Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, and SharePoint are the reason most teams pay the Microsoft tax. If your finance team lives in Excel, the bundle is reasonable.
- Desktop Word / Excel / PowerPoint (Business Standard tier)
- Microsoft Teams video and chat
- SharePoint and OneDrive for documents
- Tight integration with Windows desktop and Active Directory
The case for switching
Email plus the workspace essentials — without the Office tax
If your team's working in Notion, Linear, Slack, or Google Docs, Microsoft 365 is paying for a stack you don't use. Biza Email ships the email layer — plus calendar, contacts, notes, and tasks.
- Flat $50/year vs $6/user/month — meaningful savings past 8 users
- Unlimited mailboxes per domain, no seat-tier renegotiations
- Built-in Calendar, Contacts, Notes, and Todo — covers what most teams use Outlook's calendar and contacts for
- AI reply suggestions and AI-powered automations included — Microsoft sells Copilot as a paid per-user add-on
- EU data residency available for customers who need it
- Standard IMAP / SMTP — works with every mail client, including Outlook
Beyond the mailbox
A full email workspace with AI built in
Biza Email stopped being 'just email' a while ago. The plan includes the workspace apps teams reach for daily — and AI assistance with real provider choice.
- Calendar with month, week, and day views — events link directly to BIZA App customers, orders, and quotations
- Contacts with categories, full history, and smart suggestions
- Notes with rich text, tags, and instant auto-save — plus a built-in Todo list and Bookmarks
- AI reply suggestions in compose — connect Claude or Gemini, use managed biza.ai, or run fully local with Ollama for complete privacy
- Automations engine: natural-language rules, JavaScript snippets, webhooks, and AI-powered classification — well beyond legacy mail filters
- Direct BIZA App integration — emails and calendar events carry CRM context (customers, orders, quotations) no other email host offers
Decision framework
Microsoft 365 or Biza Email — a quick way to choose
If you can answer most of these with 'yes' for Microsoft 365, the bundle is the right call. Otherwise Biza Email cuts the bill without losing anything your team actually uses.
- Choose Microsoft 365 if your finance team lives in Excel and needs desktop Office apps (Business Standard or higher)
- Choose Microsoft 365 if Teams is your primary chat and meeting tool
- Choose Microsoft 365 if you're already on Windows + Active Directory and the integration value is high
- Choose Biza Email if you've moved chat to Slack, Discord, or Linear and need mail, calendar, and contacts without the bundle
- Choose Biza Email if you run multiple domains and want them under one plan
- Choose Biza Email if you want AI assistance included — with provider choice, including fully local models — and EU data residency
Migration
Most teams migrate from Microsoft 365 in a week
M365 exposes standard IMAP for mailbox export — the same protocol Outlook already uses to talk to M365. Our tooling handles the import cleanly. Here's a typical cutover plan.
- Day 1: Add your domain to Biza Email, follow guided DNS steps for SPF, DKIM, DMARC. MX stays on M365 for now
- Day 2-3: Trial-import one or two non-critical mailboxes; verify folders, categories, read state, and attachments arrive intact
- Day 4-5: Full IMAP import in the background. M365 and Biza Email accept mail in parallel — no inbox downtime
- Day 6: Switch MX records to Biza Email. New mail starts arriving at Biza; existing mail history is already migrated
- Week 2: Reconfigure Outlook clients to point at Biza (same IMAP / SMTP endpoints), then drop the M365 mail seats
- Migration support is included in your plan — no professional-services charge
Frequently asked: Biza Email vs Microsoft 365
Can my team keep using Outlook?
Yes. Biza Email speaks standard IMAP and SMTP, which is how Outlook talks to Microsoft 365 today. Configuration is straightforward — your team keeps the same Outlook app, pointed at Biza Email instead.
What about Teams and SharePoint?
Those aren't part of Biza Email. If Teams is your primary communication tool, Microsoft 365 makes sense. If you've moved to Slack, Discord, or Linear for communication and Notion or Google Docs for documents, Microsoft 365 is paying for tools you don't open.
Does Biza Email integrate with Active Directory?
Indirectly, via SAML 2.0 or OIDC SSO. If your AD environment exposes a SAML / OIDC endpoint — Microsoft Entra, Okta, or another federation layer — Biza Email works with it. We don't directly join an on-premises AD.
What happens to my Outlook calendar?
It has a home. Biza Email ships its own built-in Calendar — month, week, and day views — so your team's scheduling moves with the mailbox. Calendar data is stored separately from mail in M365, so most teams simply start their working calendar in Biza after cutover. Biza calendar events can also link to BIZA App CRM records (customers, orders, quotations) — something Outlook's calendar can't do.
Can I keep my Exchange-style distribution lists?
Yes — Biza Email supports shared inboxes and aliases that replicate the distribution-list pattern. A 'team@ourcompany.com' role address can be configured so multiple people receive and reply from it. Setup is faster than configuring Exchange distribution groups.
How does this affect Microsoft Entra (Azure AD) SSO?
Biza Email supports SSO via standard SAML 2.0 / OIDC, so if you're using Entra for sign-on across many apps, the experience can stay consistent for your users. You'd deauthorize the M365 mailbox app and authorize Biza Email in Entra — the same admin workflow as adding any other SaaS app.
Does Biza Email have AI features?
Yes. AI reply suggestions are built into compose, and the automations engine can classify incoming mail with AI. You choose the provider: connect Claude or Gemini with your own key, use the managed biza.ai option, or run a local model via Ollama so your mail never leaves your infrastructure.
See the math for your team size
Calculate the actual cost on the pricing page. 14-day free trial, no card required.