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Microsoft 365 costs are too much

20 points by HarshaaVardhan ↗ HN
Fellow founders, anyone else fed up with M365 turning into a commodity cash drain? What once felt like a premium productivity suite now feels like another unavoidable bill—with pricing hikes and a labyrinth of licensing options that seem designed to make us overpay. The recent price bumps and constant misselling of features force us to jump through hoops, all while we’re busy scaling our startups.

I’ve started cutting the fat by regularly auditing our licenses, matching team roles to the right plan, and even considering one-off purchase alternatives where it makes sense. Has anyone else found clever workarounds or discovered any tool that offers real value? Would love to swap notes on keeping M365 costs under control.

30 comments

[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 69.6 ms ] thread
theothertimcook
It’s a steaming pile of shit too.

FWIW you may be able to remove copilot from your subscription but it is still a shitshow.

Google workspaces isn’t much cheaper, if you’re brave you could try ZOHO’s groupware at a significant discount but I’m sure that comes with caveats.

I still can get my head around why Mozilla doesn’t dip its toe in here.

HarshaaVardhan
Tell me about it. I just can't get over why it is this costly. None of the features except excel or word seems to be of any use to the user. Hoards and hoards of unnecessary security features have been piled up
scarface_74
https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2006/12/09/simplicity/#:~:tex...

> It seems to make a lot of sense: 80% of the people use 20% of the features. So you convince yourself that you only need to implement 20% of the features, and you can still sell 80% as many copies.

“Unfortunately, it’s never the same 20%. Everybody uses a different set of features

jiggawatts
> hoards of unnecessary security features

I've witnessed first hand how incredibly necessary those security features really are.

For example, installing mail server software on either Windows or Linux is trivial.

Actually operating a mail domain of any import securely in the face of determined attackers, dumbass insiders that will click anything, and constantly changing anti-SPAM technologies and standards is a full-time job all by itself.

This is why businesses rely on Microsoft 365 or G Suite.

simfree
Outsource mailservers to competent vendors like MXRoute at near zero cost. Stop focusing on the components that are pennies per user to outsource.
jiggawatts
You cheerfully ignored the “other employees clicking random phishing links” issue that is non-trivial to solve by simply outsourcing SMTP server hosting.
talldayo
You can't fix that with managed hosting either. If you think going with Workspace or O365 fixes that then I have to wonder what businesses you've been working at in the past.
simfree
MXRoute plus Nextcloud is a viable groupware alternative, generally at a much lower cost per user.

One of the bonus features being your email is much less likely to disappear within Outlook.com's mailservers. Not sure what is going sideways there, but those mailservers are not reliable and mail traces are ineffective in finding lost emails that have proof of delivery to the MX record listed outlook.com mailserver.

scarface_74
Looking at the business pricing, Copilot is an optional add on.
simfree
Microsoft force upgraded most clients to Copilot included licenses.

Nothing says Microsoft won't further change their arbitrary pricing and bundling structure.

scarface_74
I’m looking at their pricing page. It clearly says optional add on.
brudgers
I’ve started cutting the fat by regularly auditing our licenses, matching team roles to the right plan, and even considering one-off purchase alternatives where it makes sense.

Is this the most urgent and important thing you can work on right now?

How much additional revenue would cover the costs you are cutting?

Good luck.

shostack
That feels like something the MS team handling the pricing modeling is counting on.
appreciatorBus
I don’t think he’s actually doing that:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43050446

brudgers
That’s ok.

The author was not my target audience.

On the face of it, changing their mind seemed improbable.

HarshaaVardhan
Hi. I'm mainly trying to understand the different thoughts and tactics used when it comes to office productivity, especially Microsoft 365.

The costs shoot up drastically once you cross over 300 users. Happy to take feedback

brudgers
The tone and tenor of the post are unlikely to elicit thoughtful technical responses from decision makers with 300+ seats and it is unlikely to engender much trust from those who do see it.
HarshaaVardhan
Noted. Could you suggest some tips or references that could help. I would be really grateful
scarface_74
Microsoft 365 for business is $15 per seat to $25 per seat per month. Is that really a place you need to worry about?

GSuite for business is about the same price. For people who don’t mind using web apps only for desktop computers, it’s fine.

dangus
News to me that it’s expensive. 365 business basic includes custom domain email, teams, and the basic office apps for about $6 a month.

Each of your employees costs thousands per month and you’re worried about a <$30 per seat subscription that does basically everything: corporate email, office suite, chat and video conferencing, and probably a bunch of other stuff I’m not thinking of?

You could use LibreOffice for productivity. Might make some of your employees think you’re a cheapskate though.

If you’re a Mac shop you could use Pages/Keynote/Numbers and then keep your meetings under 40 minutes and use Zoom for free. Might make some of your employees think you’re a cheapskate though.

alunchbox
Legit is there any reasonable cost alternative solutions, because I'd use that in a heart beat.

That still have enterprise/business level support?

tadhjqtu
I just noticed your other submission at HN, talking about some product similar to Microsoft 365:

> I’m Harsh, CEO of DOPE (Dept of Office Productivity Efficiency). Big fan of Elon and DOGE. We’re currently applying for YC25.

LOL. Nice. Looking forward to your LauchHN soon.

HarshaaVardhan
Thanks mate. Just trying to understand the market and potential pain points. Would love to hear your feedback as well
luckman212
department of _ efficiency? no thanks, i'm out... good luck
bhouston
You can likely get by with Google Docs. The only issue is legal docs so maybe only a few or one person needs a license.
conception
This seems the opposite of what Microsoft offers, which is a buffet of lower quality items. Why use Okta when you have Entra? Why use Zoom or Slack when you have Teams? Avanan or Bit defender? The best reason in most cases is the Microsoft offering isn’t that great. But it’s cheap and generally all inclusive.
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idermoth
Maybe not a cash drain per se but we've decide it's not worth it. For us, it feels less like an intentional product and more a total shitshow. Increasingly so.

It's always felt like a haphazard set of products right at the level of toleration. But that gap has become smaller and smaller, where we simply feel like there is no clear vision and there's always new annoyances. If I described our email troubles alone over the past two or three years... absolutely brain-dead issues. Ones which themselves cost a pretty penny in lost revenue. It feels like its becoming a pervasive sink of hangups.

I've come to detest their products as a whole, not unlike Salesforce. A few months ago, we decide we'd make a change to companies with more intention. We started with email. "Solid intention" is a hard thing to define but making major changes to my personal workflow made me see things in a different light.

Someone can rip me on this, cause idk if it's silly, but Obsidian for personal use set me off on a journey to try new methods and platforms, ones with maybe different philosophies and different communities around them. I've never been happier nor more productive. Same for my team.