It’s always interesting to see what questions internet users are searching online, so when we discovered 90 people per month were searching ‘what version of SharePoint is on Office 365’ and there were no corresponding posts, we decided to whip up a quick article.

What Version of SharePoint is on Office 365?

Office 365 is Microsoft’s cloud-based suite of apps which, depending on what subscription plan you choose, comes with SharePoint Online. Office 365 offers three different subscriptions plans for businesses with 300 users or less. The standard plan does not include SharePoint, however Office 365 Business Premium and Business Essentials both come with SharePoint Online as well as access to OneDrive, Exchange and Microsoft Teams. The difference between the two is, with the premium package, users can use the desktop version of Office applications such as Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint; whereas with Office 365 Business Essentials you are restricted to using the cloud-based web and mobile versions of these apps. Alternatively, for businesses with more than 300 users, Microsoft offers Office 365 enterprise plans all of which come with SharePoint Online, in addition to more advanced features in compliance, messaging, management and sharing.

The Differences Between SharePoint Online and SharePoint On-Premises

There are significant differences in using SharePoint Online as opposed to SharePoint on-premises. As SharePoint Online is a cloud-based application you do not have to deal with locally hosting the platform yourself and being responsible for site architecture and resource management. This is all provided by Microsoft along with built-in security features and single sign-on. In addition, with SharePoint Online you have direct integrations available with apps in the Office 365 suite.

SharePoint Online and Office 365 Integrations

One of the great things about Office 365 is how the apps seamlessly integrate with one another, and often, SharePoint and Teams are the foundation for this. For example, when using Microsoft Teams, each channel has a folder within SharePoint Online associated with it where all documents in the channel are stored. This benefits organisations by helping them meet their governance and compliance obligations, as documents stored in SharePoint are protected by the data governance and security features built into the platform. Entire SharePoint pages can be added into Microsoft Teams as their own tab, and users can create conversation threads to keep up to date with internal business news and events, or have a conversation about a specific SharePoint document. You can also publish SharePoint updates on your Teams channel, although another option that many Fortune 500 companies use is Microsoft Yammer. Find out more about what Microsoft Yammer is and check out our tips for improving collaboration and reducing emails with Microsoft Teams.

SharePoint Online also integrates with Office 365 Groups. When creating an Office 365 Group you are provided with an associated SharePoint team site. Vice versa, when you create a SharePoint team site a new group membership is automatically created. These integrations are one of the major benefits of utilising SharePoint Online and the whole suite of apps that are cloud-based and built to work with one another.

Now that you’re across what version of SharePoint is on Office 365, consider learning more about SharePoint and Office 365 with one of the training courses we offer. Or if you’re interested in discussing how these tools can be implemented and structured to enhance collaboration and compliance in your business, contact one of our information management experts.