MFA, free Microsoft Authenticator versus paid tools
For pure MFA on M365, free is good enough. For SSO across every tool, conditional access, and a password vault, the story changes.
Try this first
- 1Microsoft Authenticator on each phone, linked to M365 accounts: free. This fully covers MFA on Outlook, Teams, OneDrive, and SharePoint. No extra licence needed.
- 2To enforce MFA on non-Microsoft apps via Single Sign-On (SSO), you need Entra ID P1. That ships in M365 Business Premium or is buyable separately.
- 3For password management separate from MFA, 1Password Business or Bitwarden Business are the standards. List pricing is published on their sites, somewhere between lunch and lunch-plus per user per month.
- 4Hardware tokens (YubiKey) are pricier per token but phishing-resistant. Worth it for directors and finance. Rarely for the whole company.
- 5Avoid SMS MFA where you can. Better than nothing but vulnerable to SIM swapping. For SMB an authenticator app is the standard, a hardware key for risk roles.
When to bring us in
For setting up conditional access and SSO on top of MFA, /contact. We assess which licence tier matches the requirement.
See also
- What does Managed IT actually cost for a 10-person SMBNo fixed number, but an honest breakdown. A full package for ten people is not 50 euros a month and not 5000 either.
- Microsoft 365 Business Standard versus Premium, what is extraThe price jump is real but Premium does not add Word features. It adds security and device management.
- Microsoft announces another price hike, what do I doSince NCE Microsoft adjusts pricing structurally. Without action you renew at the new price for a full year.
None of the above fits?
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