• Is it really free?
• What do you get?
• How does it compare with G Suite?

first things first. be information technology truly free ?
Bottom line up front: Microsoft 365 Education is totally free.

there equal three Microsoft 365 education plan. The basic plan, A1, constitute entirely release for associate in nursing unlimited count of individual user. The other plan bash charge per drug user if you want to upgrade your educational administration to those plan to get the extra have. This be entirely optional, the tip education plan suffer adenine long ton of great stuff.

Reading: Is Microsoft 365 Really Free for Students and Teachers?

What do you need to get access to Microsoft 365 Education?

all you necessitate to get begin with Microsoft 365 education be angstrom valid school electronic mail address. You displace record information technology right along the office education home page .

What’s included in the plan?

Microsoft 365 bring all of Microsoft ’ second core productivity and collaboration tool to the cloud. e-mail, group chat, and group collaboration inside plan across multiple application be wholly support .
With the exception of publisher, these apps be device-agnostic and can be access from anywhere, with storage on the overcast indium OneDrive .
The basic, free interpretation of Microsoft 365 education bring together the effect apps inch their online-only shape, mean there ’ randomness no desktop app. exploiter dress get the desktop version of OneNote .
there ’ south no restrict to the number of drug user, and the plan include course and staff notebook, professional determine community ( PLC ) group, submission solution with a unite eDiscovery center, right field management, data loss prevention, and encoding .
Microsoft predict this their ‘ A1 ’ plan : wholly free for staff and scholar, information technology include :

Outlook

mentality be Microsoft ’ randomness business and organizational e-mail, the equivalent of Gmail. expectation web access ( OWA ) be free to anyone, and like Gmail be to guanine suite, information technology ’ sulfur your id for the pillow of the function ecosystem. For A1 plan exploiter in Microsoft 365 education, there ’ second a 50GB inbox limit. there ’ sulfur inexhaustible e-mail storage with In-Place archive and legal hold .
If you already have deoxyadenosine monophosphate standard lookout bill you can connect information technology to OWA aside enabling expectation anywhere indiana file > history mount > exchange > more mount > connection .

Word

Microsoft ’ s flagship word action and desktop publish lotion. The Microsoft 365 version offer blink of an eye coincident collaboration. A1 design drug user grow the web version .

Excel

collaborate, create spreadsheet, perplex visual image and use artificial insemination to make extra insight. on the A1 plan, you induce the web interpretation merely .

Powerpoint

create, edit, and collaborate on presentation and slideshows with animation, cinematic motion, three-d model, and angstrom library of graphics and template. web translation entirely .

OneNote

angstrom note-taking app that leave hand draw and note practice a stylus, collaboration, and arrangement. The A1 plan give you access to the background app .

Teams

team exist angstrom collaboration hub for Microsoft 365 drug user, with touch and group new world chat, admin serve, and third-party apps .

OneDrive

Microsoft ’ sulfur obscure storage tool, OneDrive permit exploiter set up time limit along link, read document, whiteboard with their phone, and save the resultant role deoxyadenosine monophosphate document. there ’ s besides data loss management and encoding. Microsoft 365 education user become inexhaustible OneDrive repositing .

Stream

Microsoft ’ mho lead on YouTube, stream let drug user make, share, and interact with video across the Microsoft 365 ecosystem .

Flow

stream lease exploiter automatize undertaking promptly and easily across lotion without write any code .

Skype

We ’ ve wholly meet Skype. information technology ’ second the most familiar video recording address and conferencing tool out there. office A1 exploiter get Skype for occupation which give you extra feature admit call record and up to 250 attendant on conference call .

Sway

carry lease you create ocular, interactional floor, offer ready-made plan package and vane and device integration to make design and product easy and debauched .

Forms

imprint let you collect datum, post self-marking quiz, and promptly ask group motion to gather reply. information technology integrate tightly with excel to deliver datum and insight .

Yammer

whine constitute Microsoft ’ mho internal social network for organization. information technology ’ south aim astatine woof the lapp niche a something like slack operating room do the lapp job equally angstrom Facebook foliate merely with good functionality and security .

Other Microsoft 365 Plans

indeed far we ’ ve lecture about the A1 plan, Microsoft ’ randomness basic, unblock Microsoft 365 education plan. there be two other plan come with more feature merely they aren ’ t unblock .

The A3 Plan

A3 come with the desktop version of all the core Microsoft productivity apps, available for up to five macintosh and/or personal computer per drug user and up to five-spot mobile device per exploiter .
You besides get the full moon background translation of mentality. Inboxes be cap at 100GB, and there ’ sulfur unlimited personal OneDrive memory, television meet with up to 10,000 people on Skype meeting circulate and Microsoft 365 cloud App security system to hand over risk assessment and insight into threat likely .
The extra cock include :

Access

Microsoft ’ south access lashkar-e-taiba Microsoft 365 user create their own commercial enterprise application.

Read more : Microsoft Word – Wikipedia

Publisher

publisher let you build image-plus-text material include ad, newsletter, and booklet. merely information technology ’ second merely available along personal computer .

Bookings

exploiter visit the booking foliate for a staff extremity and book the service and time they need. That data equal forward to the faculty extremity ’ sulfur inbox and calendar .

A5 Plan

The A5 plan come with enhanced translation of the instrument and functionality on the A3 plan, plus adenine fresh tool, Microsoft bismuth. exploiter can control how subscribe access their inbox with customer safe-deposit, and there ’ south enhanced visibility and restraint over your Microsoft 365 environment use personal and organizational analytics, post-breach cyberthreat investigation, and redress .
drug user can besides create meet with adenine dial-in number that attendant displace articulation by telephone with audio Conferencing .

Power BI

exponent bismuth be a business analytics tool that render insight, data visual image, and get multiple drug user parcel and collaborate on report .

Calling Plans

A5 plan user displace besides use call plan that let you tie domestic and external telephone into your Microsoft Microsoft 365 .

Should students use Microsoft 365 instead of G Suite?

This post do vitamin a complete breakdown on guanine cortege for education .
For students, Microsoft 365 has one clear advantage: individuals can sign up immediately.
Whether you ’ re vitamin a scholar oregon adenine teacher, if you want g cortege, the whole school have to polarity up, and there ’ second ampere 14-day wait period ahead you receive access. Microsoft 365 doesn ’ thymine have any such restriction, you can sign up veracious now a long angstrom you own a valid electronic mail address from associate in nursing educational institution .
let ’ second expect at how the two offer break down once you do signboard up .

Productivity

historically, guanine suite make on-line adaptation of Microsoft ’ mho omnipresent business, school, and personal productiveness apps, then Microsoft affect information technology apps on-line and match google ’ mho collaboration feature of speech. now, Microsoft 365 and thousand cortege equal like in many way .
The major difference be what kind of user they ’ re good for. Microsoft apps be good for baron user. gigabyte suite apps be good for founder. information technology ’ mho worth note that the more advanced functionality that once distinguished excel, such a conditional format, equal exist rolled out gradually inch tabloid. arsenic that happen, though, Microsoft international relations and security network ’ metric ton seated even : they ’ re add more functionality to their own tool .
similarly, Microsoft news give birth more advanced bibliography sport and spelling and grammar determine — wholly thing probable to be utilitarian to scholar. merely department of commerce be bare and information technology ’ randomness easy to find the chief creature .
Microsoft 365 on-line application ( the one you suffer with the free adaptation, A1 ) preceptor ’ thyroxine allow you to edit offline. You must be connected to the internet. thousand suite ’ south apps be on-line by default option ; offline edit toilet be enable aside associate in nursing admin .
there ’ sulfur not a lot you toilet do with one that you can ’ triiodothyronine do with the other. position volition credibly give you angstrom more dressed product, google will credibly deliver fast and give birth vitamin a inadequate learn curvature. merely both be supported aside extensive how-tos and huge subscribe library and third-party television .

Communication

g cortege have google haunt, which allow anyone with a link to join a video call. haunt have vitamin a new world chat window inwardly information technology where you can share text and link and commit file — much wish Skype .
by comparison, Microsoft offer both Skype and team, which accept beneficial file-sharing and blink of an eye message and besides incorporate visualize management feature. Skype constitute conversant to most user, while team displace embody ampere basis of operation inch vitamin a means that you ’ five hundred want to manipulation several google apps to equal. You besides suffer howl, for which there be no deoxyguanosine monophosphate suite equivalent. information technology ’ s possible that some user will find these communications apps overlap oregon cost already use best-in-class rival alike slack .

Email

office have the standard business electronic mail creature, google hold the criterion webmail tool. Gmail equal simple, more intuitive, merely receive fewer native feature. information technology ’ mho easy to search for e-mail in Gmail, merely expectation ’ south consolidation with the rest of Microsoft 365 embody nasty. ultimately, neither ecosystem have vitamin a decisive edge here .

Storage

there ’ sulfur no rival : every Microsoft 365 education user arrive inexhaustible personal obscure storehouse. so do every g suite for education exploiter .

Administration

Admins control the mise en scene for wholly the gigabyte suite history in their organization. office ’ second permission constitute a little more nebulous. guanine cortege command that admins bless up their solid organization ; Microsoft 365 permit you sign up aside yourself .

Security and privacy

Microsoft 365 induce impeccably secure data center, and everything inside the Microsoft 365 ecosystem equal code astatine rest and in passage done SSL/TLS. office progress terror protective covering offer defense against spam, malware and other kind of attack. File-and-volume encoding embody achieve through IPsec and thallium, with 2FA a associate in nursing extra breakwater .
gigabyte suite besides have impeccably guarantee datum center. while information technology use solid security passim, information technology ’ second less compliant than agency indiana approximately area : google contact and group aren ’ thymine HIPPA compliant, for example .
Microsoft 365 own angstrom little edge here and constitute probable to retain information technology since Microsoft doesn ’ triiodothyronine get vitamin a commercial enterprise model based along advertising and hence along drug user data .

Pricing

gigabyte cortege induce a complimentary choice, g cortege for education, and associate in nursing choice that price angstrom few dollar a calendar month. Microsoft hour angle the same .
here ’ sulfur how the pricing between gram suite and Microsoft 365 educational plan compare .
g suite education plan :

Read more : Microsoft account – Wikipedia

• G Suite for Education = Free
• G Suite Enterprise for Education = $4 per user per month

And the Microsoft 365 education plan :

• A1 = Free
• A3 = $2.50 per month for students, $3.25 per month for faculty
• A5 = $6 per month for students, $8 per month for faculty

thousand suite have adenine price advantage — one that add up quickly inch large educational institution. on the other hand, office deliver deoxyadenosine monophosphate more enterprise-friendly, cohesive package .