It all started two years ago…Office 365 will be renamed to Microsoft 365! But…when you read more, it was only the Business Plans that were renamed along with one enterprise plan. The renames were as follows:

  • Office 365 Business Essentials -> Microsoft 365 Business Basic
  • Office 365 Business Premium -> Microsoft 365 Business Standard
  • Microsoft 365 Business -> Microsoft 365 Business Premium
  • Office 365 Business -> Microsoft 365 Apps for business
  • Office 365 ProPlus -> Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise

That’s in, Office 365 E1 -> Office 365 E1, Office 365 E3 -> Office 365 E3, and so on. However, Microsoft 365 E3 and Microsoft 365 E5 were added as new products. Unfortunately, for the last two years, a bad habit has developed of using the two terms interchangeably. The Microsoft 365 vs. Office 365 battle has raged for the last two years.

Then, at Ignite 2022…it happened again!!

“Office is becoming Microsoft 365” – https://www.microsoft365.com/

And the countless articles I’ve seen from 9to5mac to the Verge, to Twitter posts claiming Office 365 has been renamed to Microsoft 365, or Office 365 is officially dead, Office 365 is no more. You get the picture. But, go read the FAQ here, and it tells a different story – https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/microsoft-365-faqs 

  • What is changing? “In the coming months, Office.com, the Office mobile app, and the Office app for Windows will become the Microsoft 365 app, with a new icon, a new look, and even more features.”
  • Is Office going away? “No, as part of Microsoft 365, you will continue to get access to apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. We will also continue to offer one-time purchases of those apps to consumers and businesses via Office 2021 and Office LTSC plans.
    Additionally, there are no changes to Office 365 subscription plans.“

Let me say that again…”there are no changes to Office 365 subscription plans”. The Office 365 Enterprise (Education, Gov, Non-profit, Frontline worker) will stay the same, Office 365. And the Microsoft 365 Enterprise (Education, Gov, Non-profit, Frontline worker) will stay the same, Microsoft 365. So in the Microsoft 365 vs. Office 365 battle, it should be which name one, but it’s purely a comparison of what are the the various feature sets in Microsoft 365 vs. Office 365.  There is even a really good resource for comparing them at https://m365maps.com/Microsoft%20365%20Enterprise%20-%20Venn.htm

The remaining two different products, two different SKUs, and two vastly different feature sets, with the same names. The more we keep ignoring Office 365 and Microsoft 365 being two different products in those realms, the more we are confusing people that purchase and use them. If you do want to see this explained in more detail, and how/why these remain two separate products, I went so far as to record a video the other day all about the fact that Microsoft 365 is not Office 365 that you can check out below.