For founders, Microsoft 365 at $3/user (industry average: $5–10/user) is one of the smartest investments you can make at the early stage. Here’s everything you get — and the alternatives it replaces:

What’s Included

📚
Microsoft Bookings Create personal/team/embedded booking pages and automate scheduling with ease.
Alt alternatives start at $12/month
🎥
MS Teams Video calls with recording, transcripts, and good data control — plus usage insights.
Alt alternatives start at $12/month
💼
MS Planner Plan, schedule, and execute your projects with a Kanban/task-board interface.
Alt alternatives start at $5/user/month
✍️
MS Lists Simple list-based tracking for anything from tasks to inventory to event management.
Alt alternatives start at $20/user/month
🕸️
SharePoint Business-grade OneDrive — centralises all data and lets you set up custom intranet sites with a click.
🗄️
MS Office Web Apps Word, Excel, PowerPoint in the browser — under your org umbrella for seamless collaboration.
🔗
Power Automate Comes with Copilot support — describe your automation in a prompt and it builds it for you.
Alt alternatives start at $20/month
🎛️
Complete Admin Control Separate admin panels for licenses, users, Teams rooms, custom branding, SSO via Entra, and more.

The best part: You can create multiple shared accounts (like tech@yourdomain.com) at no extra cost, give access to multiple team members, and collaborate seamlessly — all under your org umbrella.

There’s more too — MS Sway, Visio, Viva Engage, Viva Learning, Loop, and the entire Power Apps series — features you’ll grow into as you scale.

⚠️ Cons

Doesn’t support Google SSO. 😢

Am I getting anything for this post? No. My intention is simply to help bootstrap founders invest in a good ERP at the best pricing. You’re saving a minimum of $100 and only spending $3. ✌️