Microsoft Software for Small Business: Windows, Office and Server

Microsoft software for small business: what do you really need?

For a company of 3 to 50 people, Microsoft software for small business almost always comes down to three layers. Everything else belongs to business-specific tools, not to the foundation:

• The workstation operating system. A Pro edition becomes essential as soon as you need to join a domain, encrypt a disk with BitLocker, take control of a PC remotely or apply Group Policy. The Home edition shipped on consumer PCs cannot do this.
• The office suite. Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook cover the bulk of daily work: quotes, invoicing, tracking spreadsheets, customer mail, mail merge.
• Shared infrastructure, only if you host a file server, a user directory or a business application in-house.

The classic trap is oversizing: paying for a full suite on a reception PC that only does data entry, or setting up a server where a simple network share would do. The right reflex is to reason PC by PC, according to each user’s real profile.

And the PCs still running Windows 10?

Microsoft ended standard support for Windows 10 in October 2025. If a PC meets the Windows 11 requirements (TPM 2.0 and a supported processor), moving it to Windows 11 Pro is the simplest way to keep it secure. Otherwise, budget for its replacement or for Microsoft’s paid Extended Security Updates rather than leaving an unpatched machine on the company network.

The small business software kit: budget per PC

Here are the configurations companies ask for, with the current unit price of each license. Apart from the Office 365 subscription, these licenses are perpetual: you pay once, with no annual renewal or anniversary renegotiation.

In practice, ten complete PCs need ten Windows 11 Pro licenses and ten Office 2024 Professional Plus licenses, paid once. Compare that with three years of office subscriptions for ten users: the orders of magnitude are not comparable.

Why do these licenses cost so little?

Because the perpetual licenses in this kit are genuine pre-owned licenses, not grey-market keys or activation workarounds. When a European company closes, merges, downsizes or moves to the cloud, its perpetual licenses become unused. The Court of Justice of the European Union confirmed in its UsedSoft v Oracle (C-128/11) ruling that these licenses may be resold within the European Union, provided the original holder makes its own copy unusable. The key you receive activates normally on Microsoft’s servers and gets security updates like any other copy of a supported version.

That legal framework is worth passing on to your accountant or IT provider, together with the invoice with VAT you receive for every order.

Perpetual or subscription: mixing both models

A perpetual license fixes the cost at purchase, which simplifies cash-flow forecasting and avoids recounting seats every year. A subscription such as Office 365, 12 months / 5 devices (9,99 €) suits people who work across a PC, a tablet and a mobile device and need apps that update continuously.

Nothing prevents you from mixing the two models, PC by PC: perpetual Office 2024 on desk-bound workstations, the subscription for truly mobile profiles. If you also need email hosted on your own domain, that comes from a hosted business service: our guide to Microsoft 365 Business Standard and Premium compares those plans.

Deployment, invoicing and growing your setup

Equipping a small business should not take a week of engineering. Each PC receives its own key, independent of the others, with the publisher’s official download link.

• One key per PC. You order the exact number of licenses you need, then add more as you hire or replace machines; our page on licenses for multiple PCs explains how to organize a larger order.
• Invoice in the company’s name, with VAT shown, and payment by card, Apple Pay, Google Pay or Bancontact.
• Business compatibility. Accounting, sales management, payroll and point-of-sale software nearly always rely on Windows Pro and a locally installed Excel rather than an online version.
• A server only if needed. For two or three PCs, a network share on Windows 11 Pro is enough; our Windows Server guide explains when a server becomes worthwhile.

Questions before ordering? Our support team answers by email 7 days a week, within 2 hours on average, and every license comes with lifetime replacement of a defective key.