Microsoft's product naming has improved compared with the height of the Office-365-vs-Microsoft-365 confusion, but the question still comes up in nearly every onboarding. The short version: Microsoft 365 includes everything Office 365 does, plus Windows 11 licensing and Enterprise Mobility + Security (which for SMBs means Intune and Azure AD/Entra capabilities).
For most Australian SMBs in 2026, Microsoft 365 Business Premium is the right answer. It bundles the Office apps, Exchange, SharePoint, Teams, Defender for Business, Intune, Conditional Access, and Azure Information Protection. The per-user cost is higher than Business Standard, but the security stack alone justifies the difference for any organisation that takes its data seriously.
The wrong move is staying on Business Standard or Office E1 "to save money" while paying separately for an endpoint protection product, a device-management tool, and an identity service that Business Premium already includes. Add it up before the next renewal.