Office 365 Education A1 vs. A3 vs. A5: What are the differences?

What is Microsoft 365 Education？

Microsoft educational licensing allows educational institutions to provide access to Microsoft products and services at a more affordable cost. 

When an organization agrees to buy in volume under the agreement guidelines, they get a flexible method for purchasing the products and services they need—a tailor-made tech solution. 

With several different licensing options available, institutions should base their decision both on their size and how they would like to acquire the services.

In 2020, Microsoft made significant changes to their education licensing model. The new Microsoft 365 education licences are available in different tiers – A1, A3, and A5 – and are assigned based on user classification. 

Essentially, each user is now licensed individually for the products they use. 

Office 365 Education can provide the basic needs for every schools and universities, therefore this solution is suitable for all kinds of education institution.

Why choose Microsoft 365 Education?

Education is some of the most important work in the world. Microsoft products are available free or at a discount to verified educational institutions. Some highlights include:

• Unlimited Free Office 365 A1 licenses for staff and students

• Deep discounts on Office 365 A3 and A5 licenses and 40 free student licenses issued for every staff license purchase.

  
  

How much are Microsoft 365 Education Licenses?

Comparison for Microsoft 365 for Education

In the name of computers, Microsoft is a name to be reckoned with and their education platform has it all, including options. There are three different plan options available through Microsoft 365 Education. They include: 

Office 365 A1 - Provides a free online version of Office. Office 365 A1 cannot be used with the Microsoft 365 Apps product for Community Connect 4 (CC4) as it does not include support for desktop Office applications.

Office 365 A3 - Provides all the features as in Office 365 A1, plus full access to the Office desktop applications and additional management and security tools.

Office 365 A5 - Provides all the features as in Office 365 A3 (including Office desktop applications), plus Microsoft's intelligent security management, advanced compliance and analytics systems. 

Office 365 A1

Price:

• Students: Free

• Faculty/Staff: Free

Office 365 A1 comes with:

• Word (online only)

• Excel (online only)

• PowerPoint (online only)

• Outlook (online only)

• OneNote

• Exchange

• OneDrive

• SharePoint

• Skype for Business

• Teams

• Sway

• Forms

• Stream

• Flow

• Yammer 

• Power Apps

• School Data Sync

Benefit:

This version of Office 365 is free. Included in this package are information protection, compliance tools, email, Microsoft Teams hub for class collaboration, and video conferencing. 

You would need a school email address, then you could access the core components of the program via the Microsoft cloud services.

The A1 license includes Office 365 with popular web apps like Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and OneNote.  In the A1 option, you must use the online version only.  

The license includes:

• 50 GB Lobomail mailbox (accessible through Outlook on the web).

• Online access to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. The documents you create are stored in OneDrive, so you can access them from anywhere.

• Access to popular Office 365 services like OneDrive, SharePoint, Teams, Sway, Forms, Stream, Power Automate, and Power Apps. 

These features enable users with an A1 license to:

• Work together with real-time coauthoring, autosaving, and easy sharing in your favorite web apps, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel.

• Leverage Microsoft Teams, your digital hub that integrates the meetings, conversations, calls, content, and apps your school needs to be more collaborative and engaged.

• Keep organized with OneNote, your digital notebook.

• Inform and engage with communication sites and team sites throughout your intranet using SharePoint.

• Create, manage, and share videos securely across your school with enterprise video service.

• Develop apps without writing code to extend business data quickly with custom web and mobile apps.

• Utilize workflow automation across apps and services to automate business processes without writing code.

• Communicate easily with HD video conferencing.

Office 365 A3

Price

• Students: $2.50/user/month

• Faculty/Staff: $3.25/user/month

A3 comes with all of the A1 features, as well as desktop versions of the Office applications, and more tools for security and management. 

Office 365 A3 also includes:

• Publisher

• Microsoft Access

• Bookings

Benefits:

Office 365 A3 includes the following features, in addition to those listed above:

• Business-class email hosting with a 100 GB mailbox

• Fully installed Office applications, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Publisher, and OneNote on up to 5 PCs or Macs per user.

• Each user can install Office on 5 PCs or Macs, 5 tablets (Windows, iPad, and Android), and 5 phones.

• Team sites with 1 TB of baseline storage plus 500 MB of storage per user

These features enable users with an A1 license to:

• Online and desktop versions of Office apps

• An email with 100 GB mailbox

• File storage and sharing with unlimited OneDrive storage

• Advanced email with archiving and legal hold

• Anywhere, anytime access to apps

• Continually updated, never grows obsolete

• Supports collaboration through a variety of features

• Built for teams and networks

Office 365 A5

Price

• Students: $6.00/user/month

• Faculty/Staff: $8.00/user/month

A5 offers everything in A3, plus more intensive security management, additional analytics tools (through Power BI), and advanced compliance.

Office 365 A5 also includes:

• Power BI app

Benefit:

The A5 license includes Office 365 for the web with popular web apps like Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and OneNote (plus full access to the Office desktop apps) so students, faculty, and staff can work together, communicate seamlessly, and create amazing content.

The A5 for Faculty package includes Microsoft Teams, a digital hub that integrates the conversations, content, and apps your school needs to be more collaborative and engaged. Also, schools can inform and engage with communication sites and team sites throughout your intranet using SharePoint.

This robust package also includes self-grading quizzes with Forms, compliance solutions with a unified eDiscovery center, and an enterprise video service for creating, managing, and sharing video security across an organization.

The license includes:

• 100 GB Lobomail mailbox (accessible through Outlook on the web or the Outlook desktop/mobile app).

• Office desktop apps access to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Publisher, and Access. The documents you create are stored in OneDrive, so you can access them from anywhere.

• Access to popular Office 365 services like OneDrive, SharePoint, Teams, Sway, Forms, Stream, Power Automate, and Power Apps.

These features enable users with an A5 license to:

• Install the Office desktop apps on up to five PCs or Macs per user.

• Install Office apps on up to five tablets and five phones per user.

• Gain insight into advanced personal analytics with MyAnalytics.

• Work together with real-time coauthoring, autosaving, and easy sharing in your favorite web apps, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel.

• Leverage Microsoft Teams, your digital hub that integrates the meetings, conversations, calls, content, and apps your school needs to be more collaborative and engaged.

• Host live events for up to 10,000 people.

• Keep organized with OneNote, your digital notebook.

• Inform and engage with communication sites and team sites throughout your intranet using SharePoint.

• Create, manage, and share videos securely across your school with enterprise video service.

• Develop apps without writing code to extend business data quickly with custom web and mobile apps.

• Utilize workflow automation across apps and services to automate business processes without writing code.

• Communicate easily with HD video conferencing.

Microsoft 365 Education Licenses For students

Microsoft 365 Education Licenses For faculty, staff and teacher

How many users can use Office 365 Education?

Unlimited users can use Office 365 Education in one educational institute.

Extrabux is an international cashback shopping site, offering up to 30% cashback from 10,000+ Stores!

Squarespace, SkinStore, MATCHESFASHION, The Wall Street Journal, NordVPN, Visible, Armani Exchange, Sam's Club, PUMA, AliExpress, Card Cash, NET-A-PORTER, Udacity, Udemy, Selfridges, LOOKFANTASTIC, Vimeo, Coach Outlet, lululemon, PrettyLittleThing, Booking.com, Ripley's Aquarium, iHerb, Groupon, etc.

Join to get $20 welcome bonus now! (How does Welcome Bonus work?)