Microsoft 365 Business Premium costs more than Business Standard. The difference buys a security and device management stack that would cost far more bought separately. Yet in most small-business tenants I review, Premium is licensed and almost none of it is turned on. Everyone gets the price increase and none of the protection.
Here's what's in the box, and what to switch on first.
What Premium adds over Standard
| Feature | What it does | Usually switched on? |
|---|---|---|
| Entra ID P1 (Conditional Access) | Sign-in rules by user, app, device, and location | Rarely |
| Microsoft Intune | Device management, Autopilot, app deployment, compliance | Sometimes, partly |
| Defender for Business | EDR and next-gen antivirus for devices | Rarely onboarded |
| Defender for Office 365 P1 | Safe Links, Safe Attachments, anti-phishing for email | Often on defaults only |
| Purview Information Protection | Sensitivity labels and encryption for documents and email | Almost never |
| Data loss prevention (DLP) | Detects and blocks sharing of sensitive data | Almost never |
| Exchange Online Archiving | Auto-expanding archive mailboxes | Sometimes |
| Windows Business upgrade rights | Enterprise-grade Windows features on Pro devices | Unknowingly |
Switch these on first
These give you the most protection for the least effort, in roughly this order:
- Conditional Access: MFA for everyone, and block legacy auth. Most account takeovers stop here. See MFA without lockouts.
- Defender for Office 365 presets. Apply the Standard preset security policy to all users. It's a few clicks and covers Safe Links, Safe Attachments, and anti-phishing with Microsoft's recommended settings.
- Defender for Business onboarding. Real EDR on every Windows device, managed from Intune. See onboarding guide.
- Intune enrollment and compliance. Once devices are managed and compliant, you can require a compliant device in Conditional Access, so company data stays on company devices.
- BitLocker through Intune, with recovery keys escrowed (guide).
Then these
- Autopilot for new hardware, so laptops ship straight to employees (setup order).
- App protection policies for phones, so email on personal devices stays protected without full device enrollment.
- Sensitivity labels for your truly confidential documents. Start with one or two labels, not twelve.
- Update rings so patching actually happens (update rings).
Is Premium worth it?
For most small businesses with sensitive data, remote staff, or a cyber insurance policy, yes, if you use it. Buying the pieces separately (an EDR product, an MDM, email filtering, and an identity provider with conditional access) costs well over the difference, and means more consoles to manage.
If you're paying for Premium and can't say which of the features above are on, it's worth finding out. Start with the free Microsoft 365 Security Quick Check.