Microsoft 365 is a remarkably well-engineered product. It ships email, calendar, file storage, video calls, identity, device management, security, and an expanding set of AI features in one billable bundle. For a 10,000-person enterprise standardising on a single vendor, it's the right answer and probably the cheapest.
For an Indian MSME under 500 employees, it's usually the wrong answer. Not because it's bad — it's good — but because a large fraction of what you're paying for is machinery built for companies with procurement teams, central IT departments, and audit committees. If you don't have those, you don't need the plumbing designed for them.
This article makes the honest case for an unbundled, rupee-first stack. It's not "Microsoft bad". It's "you can build an equivalent stack for a third of the cost, with pieces you can swap individually, and support that answers in Hindi".
What Microsoft 365 actually includes (and costs)
A typical Business Standard plan in India includes:
- Exchange Online (email + calendar + custom domain)
- Microsoft Teams (video, chat, collaboration)
- OneDrive (1 TB per user)
- SharePoint (document libraries, intranet)
- Office apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook desktop + web + mobile)
- Entra ID Free (basic identity + SSO)
- Basic security and compliance controls
Approximate 2026 India pricing (excluding GST):
- Business Basic: ~₹125/user/month (no desktop Office)
- Business Standard: ~₹650/user/month (full stack, most-chosen for MSMEs)
- Business Premium: ~₹1,300/user/month (+Intune MDM, Defender)
- Enterprise E3 / E5: ~₹2,500–₹4,500/user/month
For a 20-person team on Business Standard, that's ~₹13,000/month or ~₹1.56 lakh/year excluding GST. Business Premium doubles that.
What an unbundled Indian stack looks like
The honest equivalent capabilities, priced rupee-first, for a 20-person MSME. Monthly per-user figures:
| Capability | Microsoft 365 component | Unbundled equivalent | Monthly cost (per user) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business email with AI | Exchange + Copilot | Nectr | ₹199 |
| Identity + VPN + AD | Entra ID + AD on-prem | Warden | ₹449 |
| Face/biometric attendance | Not included; buy separately | Vision | ₹99 |
| IT asset management | Not included; buy separately | AMS | ₹199 |
| Corporate password manager | Not included on mid-tier | Unit | ₹149 |
| IT hardware repair | Not included | Fixr | Free (platform) |
| Video calls | Teams | Google Meet free / Zoom Basic / Jitsi | ₹0–₹150 |
| File storage | OneDrive / SharePoint | Google Drive / Dropbox / Nextcloud | ₹120–₹450 |
| Office suite | Word/Excel/PowerPoint | Google Workspace / LibreOffice | ₹0–₹500 |
| Chat | Teams | Slack Free / Mattermost | ₹0–₹700 |
The important observation: Microsoft 365 bundles capabilities you'd otherwise pay for separately (email, SSO, storage, Office). That bundle looks expensive line-by-line but cheap when you factor what it includes. Two things change that calculation for Indian MSMEs:
- You don't use everything in the bundle. Most small Indian teams use 30–50% of what Business Standard ships.
- The unbundled alternatives for what you actually use have caught up or surpassed on AI, face attendance, asset management, and IT repair — areas Microsoft 365 doesn't cover or covers weakly.
A real 20-person cost comparison
Assume a 20-person Indian MSME that needs: email, identity + VPN, file sharing, video, chat, face attendance, asset tracking, passwords, and an occasional laptop repair.
Path A — Microsoft 365 Business Standard (+ buy the gaps separately)
| Item | Cost per user / mo | 20 users / mo |
|---|---|---|
| MS 365 Business Standard | ₹650 | ₹13,000 |
| Face attendance (separate vendor) | ₹150 | ₹3,000 |
| Asset management (separate vendor) | ₹250 | ₹5,000 |
| Password manager (separate vendor) | ₹500 | ₹10,000 |
| On-demand IT repair (paid per incident) | Varies | ~₹3,000 avg |
| Total monthly | ~₹34,000 | |
| Annual | ~₹4.08 lakh |
Path B — Unbundled Hives.cloud stack + free/cheap collaboration
| Item | Cost per user / mo | 20 users / mo |
|---|---|---|
| Nectr (email) | ₹199 | ₹3,980 |
| Warden (identity + VPN) | ₹449 | ₹8,980 |
| Vision (attendance) | ₹99 | ₹1,980 |
| AMS (asset management) | ₹199 | ₹3,980 |
| Unit (passwords) | ₹149 | ₹2,980 |
| Fixr (IT repair platform) | Free | ₹0 |
| Google Workspace Starter (docs + drive + meet) | ₹125 | ₹2,500 |
| Slack (free) / Mattermost | ₹0 | ₹0 |
| Total monthly | ~₹24,400 | |
| Annual | ~₹2.93 lakh |
Both exclude GST. Path B assumes vendor repair fees are pay-per-incident (same as Path A's Varies line) and excluded from the subscription total.
Path B is materially cheaper — but the bigger story is capability coverage. Path B gives you four capabilities Microsoft 365 doesn't ship (face attendance, asset management, password manager, IT repair platform) bundled into the total you already paid. On Path A, you either buy those separately (inflating total cost past ₹34,000/month) or leave those capability gaps unfilled and explain the absence to audit later.
What you give up going unbundled
Honest trade-offs:
- Teams. There's no free replacement that's as well-integrated with email and calendar. For external-heavy teams, Slack + Google Meet is better; for internal-heavy teams, Teams is genuinely the strongest option.
- Office desktop apps. If Excel is the air your finance team breathes, Google Sheets / LibreOffice are close-but-not-identical. Power-user macros and pivot tables don't always round-trip. Keep a couple of Microsoft 365 Business Basic licences for the Excel power users if this matters.
- Single vendor relationship. Four vendors instead of one means four admin panels, four bills, four support relationships. In exchange you get the ability to swap any one piece without disrupting the others.
- Advanced security tools. Business Premium bundles Intune MDM and Defender. For many MSMEs, Warden's AD + a good password manager + disk encryption covers 80% of the same ground; the remaining 20% is enterprise territory.
When Microsoft 365 is genuinely the right call
Three scenarios:
- Your entire industry runs on Excel + Outlook. Real estate, certain finance subsegments, trading desks. Fight the battle you can win.
- You need seamless external collaboration with large enterprises already on Microsoft. Teams federation matters.
- You're growing past 500 and will need Entra ID P1/P2 + Intune soon. The enterprise path is smoother than unbundling later.
Outside those, the calculus favours unbundling.
A phased migration off Microsoft 365
If you're currently on Microsoft 365 and considering unbundling:
- Audit usage. Run 30 days of telemetry — which seats actually use Office desktop, Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive?
- Identify the core stay-on-Microsoft seats. Finance power users are the usual suspects; keep 2–5 Business Basic licences for them.
- Pilot email migration for one department (see our Zoho Mail migration playbook — the steps are the same leaving Microsoft).
- Add identity next — Warden for AD + VPN; decommission Entra ID dependencies.
- Fill the gaps Microsoft didn't cover — attendance, assets, passwords, repair — as discrete projects over 60 days.
- Downgrade or drop Microsoft 365 only when every capability is covered elsewhere.
Realistic calendar: 3–6 months end-to-end for a 50-person company.
FAQs
Isn't it simpler to just use one vendor? Simpler on the billing page. Not necessarily simpler operationally — a single outage at one mega-vendor takes your entire business down. Multi-vendor architecture has resilience benefits most IT writeups undersell.
What about AI — isn't Microsoft ahead? Copilot is strong, but the AI features most employees use in email (compose, summarise, priority sorting) now ship in purpose-built products at a fraction of the cost. AI in spreadsheets is the category Microsoft still leads. If Excel is your critical tool, Copilot may be worth it there specifically.
How do I handle Teams for external calls? Most external participants join Teams from browsers. Host with Google Meet or Zoom instead — no external guest has a preference. The internal team adjusts faster than the clients do.
Is unbundling harder for compliance? Sometimes. If your compliance regime mandates "single SOC 2 Type II vendor for all productivity tools", then yes. For most Indian MSMEs, it's neutral — you document each vendor's certifications separately.
What about device management (MDM)? This is the real gap. Intune (in Business Premium) is genuinely good. Alternatives: Jamf for Apple, Kandji, or a lighter approach with Warden's group policies for Windows. If MDM is critical, keep Business Premium for the users who need it.
What if I just want to reduce Microsoft 365 cost without unbundling? Audit which users actually need Business Standard vs Business Basic. Many don't need desktop Office and can run on Basic at ₹125/user instead of ₹650. The savings alone often pay for an Indian add-on like Vision or Unit.