If you’re looking for a Microsoft 365 alternative, you’ve probably noticed that no single product replaces everything it does. Office files, Teams, SharePoint and identity management are often tied into how a company runs.
So it’s better to ask a smaller question: which part do you want to replace, and why?
Details are from Microsoft’s and other vendors’ pages, last checked in November 2026. Prices vary by country and billing term, so check them for your own situation.
What you’re paying for
Microsoft sells several layers, and it’s worth knowing which one you’re on:
- Exchange Online Plan 1 is mail on its own, with a 50 GB mailbox. It’s listed at €3.50 per user per month in Germany, billed yearly.
- Business Basic adds web and mobile Office apps, Teams, and 1 TB of OneDrive storage, at €6.07 on the same terms.
- Higher tiers add the desktop apps and more.
So Microsoft already offers an email-only plan at a similar price to ours, and it’s a credible option. Price alone shouldn’t be why you leave.
Why teams look elsewhere
- Dependency. Mail, files, identity and chat all sit with a single US vendor. For some organisations that’s now a board-level question.
- Open protocols are getting harder to use. Microsoft disables IMAP when security defaults are on, and it has been retiring basic authentication. There are good security reasons, but other tools and scripts may stop working as a result.
- Agent access depends on your tenant. As we covered here, Microsoft’s MCP route depends on your tenant, licensing and admin approval.
- Getting data out. Exporting a full mailbox from the cloud isn’t a simple button, and the right route depends on your plan and tools.
Your options, by what you’re replacing
The whole suite. Google Workspace is the closest like-for-like, but you’d swap one large US vendor for another. European suites exist, and Proton and mailbox.org both include document tools. Test them against your real files, particularly complex Excel workbooks.
Office, on its own. Open-source office suites are mature, but this is a change for every employee. Treat it as a separate project.
Just the email. This is the most contained option. Email runs on open standards, so your team can keep Word, Excel and Teams while mail moves elsewhere. Outlook works as a client for IMAP mailboxes, and your own domain stays with you.
Where Lettio fits, and where it doesn’t
Lettio replaces the mailbox, not Office. There’s no Word, no Excel and no Teams equivalent. If you need those, you’d keep a Microsoft plan for them.
You should also check what depends on your mail staying in Exchange before you start. Shared calendars, room booking, Teams meeting scheduling and sign-in identity can all be tied to it. In some organisations that makes moving mail alone a poor fit, and it’s better to find that out early.
If mail can stand on its own, Lettio gives you a mailbox on our own EU servers with IMAP, SMTP, JMAP and CalDAV included, and an email MCP server for your assistants. It’s from €2 per mailbox with continuous backup, and a person handles the migration. It isn’t end-to-end encrypted, and your mail is never used to train a model.
A sensible way to approach it
- Map your dependencies. Find out what uses Exchange besides people reading mail: shared mailboxes, scanners, apps sending notifications, calendars, sign-in.
- Decide which part is the problem. Is it jurisdiction, cost, dependency or access for agents? The answer tells you how far you need to go.
- Pilot with one team. Choose a group with few Exchange dependencies.
- Move shared calendars deliberately. They’re often what people notice first.
You don’t have to leave Microsoft to stop keeping your mail there. For many teams, that’s a far smaller project than the search for a full alternative suggests.