If you’ve ever registered a domain name for your business, chances are you were offered Office 365 for Business as an add-on before you’d even finished checking out. It’s a convenient offer, but convenient isn’t always cheap. After helping a client review their IT costs recently, we compared what they were paying GoDaddy for Office 365 for business against Microsoft’s own direct pricing, and the gap was hard to ignore.
What Does Office 365 for Business Actually Include?
Office 365 for business, now officially branded Microsoft 365, is Microsoft’s subscription suite of cloud-based productivity tools built for companies rather than individuals. Depending on the plan, it typically includes:
- A professional email address using your own domain (you@yourbusiness.com.au instead of a free Gmail or Outlook address)
- Cloud file storage and sharing through OneDrive and SharePoint
- Microsoft Teams for chat, video calls and collaboration
- Web, mobile and (on higher plans) desktop versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook
- Shared calendars and contacts across your team
For most small and medium businesses, Office 365 for business isn’t optional software; it’s core infrastructure. Which is exactly why the price you pay for it, and who you buy it from, matters.
How Domain Registration and Office 365 for Business Became Linked
Most businesses’ first interaction with Office 365 for business doesn’t come from Microsoft directly, it comes through their domain registrar, at the exact moment they’re buying a domain name. GoDaddy has been registering domain names since 1997 and, according to GoDaddy’s own website, now supports over 20 million entrepreneurs [1]. For many business owners, GoDaddy is simply the first name that comes to mind when it’s time to lock in a domain name.
Once you’re inside that domain name registration flow, GoDaddy offers a bundle of add-on services, Office 365 email, file storage, and a website builder among them. On the surface, this is genuinely useful: it lets a business owner get online without needing deep technical knowledge. The catch is that convenience is being priced in, and most buyers never see what the same product costs bought directly from Microsoft.
The GoDaddy Markup: Office 365 for Business Pricing Compared
We put together a comparison of GoDaddy’s Office 365 for business pricing against Microsoft’s own direct pricing for the same three plans, based on a yearly payment for a yearly commitment.
| Product | GoDaddy $ (AUD/yr) | Microsoft $ (AUD/yr) | Markup % |
| Microsoft 365 Business Professional | 359.45 | 224.40 | 60% |
| Microsoft 365 Online Business Essentials | 275.40 | 108.00 | 155% |
| Microsoft 365 Email Plus | 191.40 | 72.00 | 165% |
GoDaddy also runs an introductory first-year price of roughly 50% off for Business Professional, 47% off for Online Business Essentials and 49% off for Email Plus, but the comparison above uses GoDaddy’s standard, non-discounted yearly rate, since that’s what you’ll actually pay from year two onward. Prices were correct at the time of writing and are worth re-checking directly with GoDaddy and Microsoft before making a purchasing decision, as subscription pricing changes over time.
Even accounting for the first-year discount, the underlying markup on the standard rate up to 165% on Email Plus is difficult to justify on product alone.
Why the First-Year “Discount” Doesn’t Tell the Full Story
Introductory pricing is a common tactic across subscription software, and Office 365 for business bundles are no exception. The lower first-year rate is designed to get a business into the ecosystem; the renewal price is where the real cost sits. If you’re comparing providers, always compare the ongoing renewal rate not the number on the sign-up page because that’s the price you’ll be paying for every year after the first.
What You Give Up: Limited Admin Access
Price isn’t the only difference. Office 365 for business bought through GoDaddy comes with a stripped-down version of the Microsoft 365 admin centre. The day-to-day basics are there, but many of the advanced administrative controls the ones IT support relies on to manage security policies, mailbox permissions and user access as a business grows simply aren’t accessible through GoDaddy’s portal. GoDaddy has since introduced an advanced admin portal of its own, but it still falls short of the full functionality available in Microsoft’s native admin centre.
For a business with two or three staff, this may never come up. For a growing business that needs finer control over security and user permissions, it can become a real limitation at exactly the point you can least afford one.
Cheaper Domains Don’t Have to Mean Cheaper Support
It’s worth separating two decisions that GoDaddy’s checkout flow bundles together: domain name registration and business email/productivity software. A domain name is a largely commoditised product the same .com.au or .com domain costs roughly the same wherever you register it, and it’s entirely portable between registrars. That makes it one of the easiest places for a business to shop around for cheaper domains without any impact on service quality, since a domain on its own doesn’t include support, storage or software.
Office 365 for business is a different kind of purchase. It’s the software your team relies on every day, so the provider, admin access and support behind it matter far more than the sign-up price alone. Decoupling the two registering your domain wherever it’s cheapest, and buying Office 365 for business from a provider that passes through Microsoft’s real pricing is often the simplest way to cut costs without touching the tools your team actually depends on.
If you do move your domain name registration to a cheaper provider, make sure your MX records, SPF/DKIM settings and any existing mailboxes are migrated correctly first an incorrectly transferred domain can take business email offline. This is where getting IT support involved before you make the switch pays for itself.
How to Get Office 365 for Business Without the Markup
At Nexlo, we price Office 365 for business at Microsoft’s own Recommended Retail Price (RRP) the same monthly rate you’d pay Microsoft directly. We believe a markup that doesn’t come with any real increase in service or support isn’t a fair trade for our clients. On top of RRP pricing, you get full admin access, local support from a team that already knows your setup, and help with the domain name registration, DNS and email migration work that a straight self-service switch can trip up on.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Office 365 the same as Microsoft 365 for business?
Yes. Microsoft rebranded Office 365 to Microsoft 365 in 2020 to better reflect the full suite of cloud apps and services included, but the plans referenced by “Office 365 for business” today are Microsoft 365 business plans.
Do I have to buy Office 365 for business from my domain registrar?
No. Domain name registration and Office 365 for business are separate products. You can register your domain with one provider and buy Office 365 for business directly from Microsoft or through a managed IT provider, and connect them together with a few DNS record changes.
Are cheaper domains lower quality or less reliable?
Not inherently. A domain name is the same product regardless of registrar, so price differences between registrars usually reflect margin and add-on upselling rather than reliability. What matters more is that DNS records are configured correctly once you register or transfer it.
Can Nexlo migrate my business off GoDaddy’s Office 365 plan?
Yes. We handle the migration of mailboxes, files and DNS records so your business can move to correctly priced Office 365 for business without losing email during the switch.
The Bottom Line
Office 365 for business is close to essential for running a modern small business, and there’s nothing wrong with buying convenience as long as you know what you’re paying for it. If you’ve never checked what your Office 365 for business plan costs directly through Microsoft, or you’re still bundling business email with whoever you registered your domain name through years ago, it’s worth five minutes to compare. Get in touch with Nexlo, and we’ll show you what you’re really paying and what switching would look like.
[1] GoDaddy | About Us — aboutus.godaddy.net/about-us/overview/default.aspx
