Microsoft 365 announces Basic Subscription at only 10 lei per month

Microsoft has announced a new, cheaper subscription for Microsoft 365 services. The Basic subscription is made specifically to replace the basic OneDrive subscription with 100 GB of cloud storage in the offering, offering a few extra perks to lure customers to the Office area. The launch of the new pricing plan will take place later this month on 30 January.

OneDrive subscribers on the 100 GB plan will be automatically moved to Microsoft 365 Basic

Now, with Microsoft 365 Basic, you get both the 100 GB of storage on OneDrive, but you also get an ad-free experience in Outlook, both on mobile and on the email service’s website. Your Outlook.com inbox is also encrypted, for those who use this subscription, with other extra security features like link checking and virus scanning for attachments.

Microsoft promises to add other advanced security features over time, such as Personal Vault, password-protected links in OneDrive or that can expire, detection for ransomware and restoration of affected files, as well as the ability to restore multiple deleted files at once.

Another advantage of the transition is that Microsoft offers technical support by phone or chat for Microsoft 365 customers. What those who choose this pricing plan don’t get, however, is access to desktop applications from the Office suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint). These services can only be accessed from the browser, in a web-based version with limited functionality, similar to Google Docs.

Those who already had the 100 GB OneDrive subscription will be automatically transferred to the Microsoft 365 Basic subscription. The price remains unchanged at $2, which will probably cost around €2/10 lei in Romania. So Microsoft is creating an easier upgrade path for those who might find they need more storage and more office services. Microsoft 365 Personal costs 34 lei for a “personal” pricing plan, which provides 1 TB of storage on OneDrive and all Office applications.