A Microsoft 365 Alternative for Small Business
For a company of 5 to 50 people, Microsoft 365 is a bigger product than the job: a tenant to administer, SKUs to pick, add-ons to decline, and a July 2026 price rise on the two plans small businesses actually buy. MassiveGRID's Nextcloud Hub does the same work in one per-user plan from $5.90 a month: mail, files, documents, chat and video on Nextcloud Enterprise, in the region you choose, ordered online in minutes with the first month for $1.
What a small business pays
| Team | Microsoft 365 after July 2026 | Nextcloud Hub, monthly | Nextcloud Hub, annual (20% off) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 people on entry plans | Business Basic, about $35 | Starter, $29.50 | $23.60 |
| 12 people on standard plans | Business Standard, about $168 | Business, $154.80 | $123.84 |
| 25 people, mixed: 5 advanced, 20 entry | About $250 | $217.50 | $174 |
| 50 people on standard plans | Business Standard, about $700 | Business, $645 | $516 |
Microsoft figures are the published U.S. list prices per user per month after 1 July 2026 (Business Basic about $7, Standard about $14, Premium about $22), annual commitment; they vary by region and reseller. Nextcloud Hub figures are the live prices below.
What you get, and what you give up
The plan-by-plan comparison says where Microsoft still wins; the small business buyer's guide is the long version of this page.
You get
- Mail, files, Office, Talk, calendar and contacts in one plan
- The data in the U.S., E.U., U.K. or Asia at your choice
- Updates, daily backups and support done for you
- No tenant, no SKUs, no add-on catalogue
- Open formats and protocols, so you can leave
You give up
- Desktop Word, Excel and PowerPoint on every seat (Nextcloud Office is browser-first; Euro-Office desktop editors arrived in Hub 26 Summer)
- Intune and Defender, which were never collaboration features
- The Power Platform and the Microsoft app store
- A custom domain on the shared platform, which is a dedicated-instance feature
Which plan
| Plan | Per user per month | Pick it when |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | $5.90 | Documents, calls, calendar and a mailbox, and 100 GB per person is enough. Most 5 to 15-person firms. |
| Business | $12.90 | Your work runs on boards and task lists, or people keep large files: adds Deck, Tables, Notes, Tasks, 1 TB per user and priority support. |
| Enterprise | $19.90 | The partners and finance staff who need delegated mail and 24x7 support. Mix it with Starter for everyone else. |
A four-week switch without an IT department
Week one: order the plan for five pilot users, pick the region, use the $1 first month, create the folder structure and install the desktop client. Week two: run one live project on it. Week three: migrate the data with the Microsoft 365 migration guide or hand it to the migration service. Week four: switch mail, connect phones, run two 45-minute training sessions, keep the old tenant read-only for a month. Total technical effort: a few hours of the office manager's time and one afternoon with whoever manages DNS.
Nextcloud Hub Pricing
Per-user plans on MassiveGRID's Nextcloud Enterprise platform: files, office, email, chat and video calls, calendar and contacts, in the U.S., E.U., U.K. or Asia. Pick the region and team size to see what your team would pay.
First month for $1 on monthly billing with coupon code NEXTCLOUD, applied by the Order buttons.
- Files, Photos, Calendar and Contacts
- Nextcloud Office: documents, spreadsheets and presentations
- Talk: chat, audio and video calls, screen sharing
- Standard Email
- 100 GB storage per user
- Desktop and mobile sync clients, public share links
- Nextcloud Enterprise platform with managed updates and daily backups
- Ticket support
- Files, Photos, Calendar and Contacts
- Nextcloud Office and Talk: documents, chat, audio and video calls
- Notes, Tables, Deck and Tasks
- Standard Email
- 1 TB storage per user, ten times Starter
- Desktop and mobile sync clients, public share links
- Nextcloud Enterprise platform with managed updates and daily backups
- Priority support: faster response and escalation
- Files, Photos, Office, Talk, Calendar and Contacts
- Notes, Tables, Deck and Tasks
- Enterprise Email with delegation and other enterprise mail features
- 1 TB storage per user
- Desktop and mobile sync clients, public share links
- Nextcloud Enterprise platform with managed updates and daily backups
- 24x7 support
- Upgrade path to a dedicated instance with your own domain and branding
USD per user per month before taxes; the billing-cycle discount applies to every plan. Order 1 to 50 users online. Need your own domain, a compliance boundary of your own or more than 50 users? See the dedicated instances below or contact us.
Frequently Asked Questions
Same suite, your region, from $5.90 per user
Order a Nextcloud Hub plan and the first month is $1 with coupon code NEXTCLOUD. Move one team, run a month of real work, then decide.