How much does it cost to migrate to Office 365?
Understand what goes into pricing a Microsoft 365 migration
Please note: Office 365 is now called Microsoft 365 and that’s how we’ll refer to it here on in
How much does it cost to migrate to Microsoft 365?
Many factors go into determining the price of a Microsoft Office 365 migration that will work for your business.
Costs can vary based on your current email hosting, the number of users, the number of mailboxes, how many devices they use, and which license you choose. Generally speaking, a migration ranges between $50 – $225 per user.
But first, is Microsoft 365 right for your business?
Generally speaking, yes, Microsoft 365 is a logical progression for most businesses. Your infrastructure is already Microsoft based, you use Windows, Word, Outlook, Excel, etc.
Microsoft 365 hosting your email and possibly using SharePoint to host your files makes sense. However, if you don’t use Outlook as your primary email client, a different solution could be more in line with your needs. Perhaps Google Workspace?
Whatever you do, don’t stay on the email hosting that came for free with your website hosting!
Here are some factors that can affect your migration price:
1. The number of users
This one is pretty straightforward. The more mailboxes you have to migrate, the cheaper the overall cost is for you. We discount based on tiers. For example, if you have less than 10 mailboxes, then the cost per mailbox is $225 ex GST.
However, if you have over 100 mailboxes to migrate, that falls to $50. See the table below for the breakdown.
| Number of Mailboxes | Price per Mailbox ex GST |
|---|---|
| 10 – 20 | $170 |
| 21 – 50 | $168 |
| 51 – 99 | $160 |
| 100+ | $50 |
2. The type of licenses you choose
Which licensing option you choose will depend on how your business prefers to work. The more sophisticated the licensing you to purchase, the more there is to set up, so it will take longer. Of course, you don’t need to set them all up. You can delay the setup of some of the features to a later date, but seeing as though you’re paying for it, you should have them configured.
Business Basic
If you and your team prefer to work within our browser and don’t feel the need to have Outlook and Word installed on your computer, then Business Basic could be the right choice for you.
Business Standard
Most businesses will decide on the Business Standard licensing. This is because you and your team will be most comfortable using your email and accompanying programs the way you always have. With this package, you will have access to the latest versions of Word, Excel, etc.
Business Premium
The 3rd option is Business Premium. This will be important for businesses that are serious about their data security. You’ll be protected against sophisticated threats hidden in email attachments and links, and help stop ransomware, and other advanced malware attempts with Microsoft Defender for Office 365. You can restrict the copying or saving of company information and control who has access to company information by applying restrictions
| Microsoft 365 Business Basic | Microsoft 365 Business Standard | Microsoft 365 Business Premium |
|---|---|---|
| AU$8.20 user/month (annual commitment) |
AU$17.20 user/month (annual commitment) |
AU$30.20 user/month (annual commitment) |
| Best for businesses that need easy remote solutions, with Microsoft Teams, secure cloud storage, and Office Online (desktop versions not included). | Best for businesses that need full remote work and collaboration tools including Microsoft Teams, secure cloud storage, business email, and premium Office applications across devices. | Best for businesses that require secure, remote work solutions with everything included in Business Standard, plus advanced cyberthreat protection and device management. |
| Web and mobile versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint are included. Microsoft Teams Microsoft Exchange Microsoft OneDrive Microsoft SharePoint |
Microsoft Outlook Microsoft Word Microsoft Excel Microsoft PowerPoint Microsoft Publisher (PC only) Microsoft Access (PC only) Microsoft Teams Microsoft Exchange Microsoft OneDrive Microsoft SharePoint |
Microsoft Outlook Microsoft Word Microsoft Excel Microsoft PowerPoint Microsoft Publisher (PC only) Microsoft Access (PC only) Microsoft Teams Microsoft Exchange Microsoft OneDrive Microsoft SharePoint Microsoft Intune Microsoft Azure Information Protection |
3. Where your existing mail is hosted
Without getting too technical here, where your current email is stored can make a big difference to your migration experience. Let’s go through some of the options by posing a question.
“When you send an email to someone, can you access that sent email from a different device?”
If you answer yes to this question, then this is good news. it usually means that your email is hosted centrally. Centrally hosted email means it’s on a server, and migrating email from a server is relatively straightforward.
If you answered no, then this might mean your email exists only where you read it and wrote it. This means you might have email spread out across all your devices and part of the migration would be to try and consolidate it, which is much more time-consuming. You are most likely hosting your email with your website package and it’s definitely time to move off.
If you’d like to confirm where your email is hosted, take a look at mxtoolbox.com. Visit this site, pop in your domain and look for the text “Your email service provider is….”
Migrating more than email
Microsoft 365 is more than just email. With SharePoint, you can store all your business files in one place. Documents, spreadsheets and presentations don’t need to be stored on a server in the office (or in the cloud). It can all be stored within your Microsoft tenant. Just like your email, where your files are stored will make a difference to the cost of your migration.
Here is a list of all the possible information you can migrate to Microsoft 365:
- Personal Email
- Group mailboxes
- Email signatures
- Calendar
- Contacts
- Public folders
- Word processor documents (Word, Google Docs)
- Spreadsheets (Excel, Google Sheets)
- Slide decks (PowerPoint, Google Slides)
- Other files
- Forms
- Security permissions on folders and files
Some of these above items may require manual work to configure correctly to your business needs. Depending on the amount and complexity, this can affect the cost of the migration. So keep this in mind when we begin discussing the requirements in more detail.
How Intuitive IT Microsoft 365 migrations are priced?
Example scenarios:
- A financial services business with 4 users that already had Microsoft applications so they just needed the Business Basic licenses and migration of email. The email was served via their website hosting. This means that their email was stored in multiple locations that we needed to compile and then upload. No other data or files were required for migration. The cost of migration was $1,164 ex GST.
- A manufacturing company with 19 users was purchased by another manufacturing company. These 19 users were to be migrated to the existing Microsoft 365 tenant plus forwarding of emails needed to be set up due to company restructuring. The email was migrated from an in-house server of Microsoft Exchange which makes migration straightforward. The cost of migration was $3,048 ex GST.
- An architectural peak body needed to migrate 39 mailboxes (21 current staff, 13 departed users mailboxes and 4 shared mailboxes) from Google Workplace. In addition, approximately 800 GB of files needed to be converted and then migrated to SharePoint. This client also asked for a training session on the feature set of OneDrive and SharePoint. The cost of migration was $8,787 ex GST.
What are the next steps?
You can read more about the Microsoft 365 migration process here. You can also find the migration cost estimator here. Answer 3 to 5 questions to get an estimate of how much it will cost to move to Microsoft 365. There’s a lot to take in here and each business has its own nuances when it comes to its email and files. give us a call or fill in the form, or chat with us for a FREE consultation.
About the author
Yener is the founder and Managing Director of Intuitive IT. Prior to running his own business Yener worked for a number of corporate organisations where he gained invaluable experience and skills, as well as an understanding of how IT can complement and improve business outcomes.