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Microsoft 365 Business vs Microsoft Office SharePoint Server comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft 365 Business
Ranking in Content Collaboration Platforms
9th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
244
Ranking in other categories
Mobile Device Management (MDM) (2nd)
Microsoft Office SharePoint...
Ranking in Content Collaboration Platforms
10th
Average Rating
7.6
Number of Reviews
23
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Content Collaboration Platforms category, the mindshare of Microsoft 365 Business is 1.7%, up from 1.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server is 7.9%, down from 9.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Content Collaboration Platforms
 

Featured Reviews

Luca Turco - PeerSpot reviewer
Subscription model ensures continuous updates and connectivity across devices
The subscription model of Microsoft 365 Business is beneficial since it provides continuous updates, including functional updates and transformations of the product. This contrasts with older perpetual licenses that rarely received updates. The overall suite is very complete, and being tied to a vendor that improves week by week is of great value. Implemented features like sharing calendars and access to emails on multiple devices enhance basic functionalities that were previously lacking.
Mehdi Hasankhan - PeerSpot reviewer
Easy to use but offers poor integrations with Oracle and has inflexible security configuration
I can't configure the current security I want. There are a lot of bots in it. Sharepoint doesn't integrate well with Oracle, and we use a lot of Oracle products at our company. Therefore, it makes more sense for us to go to Oracle instead of continuing to use Sharepoint.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The platform is stable and easy to use."
"Microsoft Teams is most valuable. It is a great product, and it has really been very valuable for us during the pandemic. It enabled good collaboration. Even after the pandemic, we will continue to use Microsoft Team in our organization. They are continuously improving the product, which is a very positive thing."
"I would like to use different tools than Microsoft 365 Business but I am working in the IT industry and it is quite easy to use some of the editors. For my wife and sons, it is more comfortable and easier to use Office 365. I encourage them to use some kind of editor directory in the browser."
"The solution is easy to use and has good performance."
"Microsoft 365 Business has an abundance of features."
"It is easy to use."
"It is an excellent and powerful program."
"Since most of our employees are familiar with Microsoft solutions Microsoft 365 Business is very easy to use for everyone."
"The solution is pretty easy to use for the most part."
"The most valuable aspect of the solution is the fact that it doesn't require coding. You just need to configure it. You don't need to code before getting something running. It makes it very fast."
"The collaboration, the ability for multiple users to work on a single document."
"The solution's most valuable aspects are its collaboration capabilities, its communications site and the innovation within the product itself."
"The forms aspect of the solution, for example, the creation of surveys, is its most valuable aspect."
"The software is friendly to use for mixing data and analyzing it."
"The solution's most valuable features is its document management. It allows sharing with external users and integrates well with Office apps and Microsoft Flow."
"It is a decent tool for collaboration, especially if you are already using other Office products."
 

Cons

"Microsoft 365 Business could improve by being more secure."
"I thought that Skype was a part of the product's offering, however, it's my understanding that that is not the case."
"Excel is sometimes slow, particularly when working with large files."
"The solution could improve by being more secure."
"As an example, there isn't a clean transfer to a Google Doc outside of hosting it as a .docx file."
"Pricing is something they could improve in general."
"The user interface could be better."
"It would help, if, in the beginning, there was an onboarding process to show how to set it up properly or how to set up the things properly, or how to have the support they need or the guidance on how they should deploy it. In some cases, there are things that are not so crystal clear."
"The GUI is outdated."
"I think these tools do a pretty good job. There is only one area of improvement. Maybe Microsoft can invest a little bit more into the ease at which integration can be done with other third party applications."
"The search feature needs improvement. I can never find the information I need when I use it."
"The ability to preview files in different formats should be expanded to include formats such as embedded postscript (EPS), AutoCAD, and Adobe Acrobat PDF."
"This solution is not very stable. It is useful to arrange data but it's not the best for big data. Sometimes we have issues with our reports as a result."
"The permission management features need improvement."
"Sharepoint doesn't integrate well with Oracle, and we use a lot of Oracle products at our company. Therefore, it makes more sense for us to go to Oracle instead of continuing to use Sharepoint."
"Workflows could be simplified."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We pay regular licensing fees to continue using Microsoft 365 Business."
"The solution is not very expensive."
"There is a subscription needed for this solution."
"It is basically software as a service. So, you pay for the software subscription. The price is based on the plan you choose. You can also leverage the help of cloud service providers."
"The solution costs approximately $20 per month per user."
"We pay for a corporation license."
"The price of its license should be improved. We have a contract for three years, but we pay on a yearly basis."
"I think that the price is fair."
"Pricing plans may be flexible depending on volume usage and your corporate relationship with Microsoft."
"One of the reasons why we don't recommend the cloud version of SharePoint is the cost. With the on premise version, you pay for the license once. For the cloud version, there is a recurring fee. It is very expensive. They expect everyone to pay $20 or $30 per user per month."
"It can be expensive for on-premises deployments, especially when you have to support SQL Server as your backend database. That's where the cost comes into play. SQL Server has its own licensing, which Microsoft keeps on changing. Therefore, it can become costly. In the earlier versions of SharePoint, version 2007 or 2010, they had an express version where the SQL Server licensing was free. It wasn't like a full-blown SharePoint. It was only a slimmed-down version. It used to be whatever your hardware costs. You would install the free software and work with it, but you were very limited in what you could do in SharePoint. If you wanted the SharePoint Enterprise Server with all the bells and whistles, then you had to pay more to get the SQL Server license based on the number of users or servers. The subscription model is different for cloud deployments. Licensing is per user and per month. The cost also depends on the storage required. If you have a lot of sites or documents, then you need to expand it based on your needs."
"There are some aggressive discounts offered by Microsoft for organizations that are not for profit, which we are, and it makes it quite attractive to consider."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Healthcare Company
7%
Government
7%
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Microsoft 365 Business?
The product's initial setup phase was straightforward.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft 365 Business?
The solution might be considered pricey for some, however, the comprehensiveness of the suite justifies its cost. It is generally still worth the money and is cost-effective when considering the pr...
What needs improvement with Microsoft 365 Business?
Price is an area for improvement, as spending less money would always be preferable. However, the comprehensive nature of the solution justifies the cost.
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Also Known As

Microsoft 365 E3, Microsoft 365 E5, Microsoft 365 F1, MS 365 Business
Office SharePoint Server, MS Office SharePoint Server
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Urban Agriculture Co., The Detroit Wallpaper Co., TransBlue Facility Management, Garner Food Company
Del Monte Foods, Unicredit Leasing, Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council, Nokia Czech Republic, Perkins Eastman, JLL, ICA, óxito Software, Dorset Software, PKP Cargo, Arcapita Bank B.S.C., AVE CZ, Chesapeake Energy
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft 365 Business vs. Microsoft Office SharePoint Server and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
850,491 professionals have used our research since 2012.