Office EU vs Microsoft 365: a comparison for EU teams
If you are researching Office EU vs Microsoft 365, you are not just comparing features. You are deciding what kind of workspace you want to run for the next few years. Something powerful and familiar, or something simpler and easier to control.
Microsoft 365 is the default choice for many organisations. It is broad, polished, and deeply connected to the Microsoft ecosystem. For a lot of teams, it "just works" because everyone already knows the tools and many businesses already depend on them.
Office EU takes a different path. It is a Europe-hosted workspace built on Nextcloud. The aim is straightforward: keep everyday work in one place, stay transparent about what powers the platform, and make it easier to move or change later if your needs shift. It is designed to feel calmer, not heavier.
Quick verdict
If your team cares most about familiarity and maximum "out of the box" capability, Microsoft 365 is hard to beat. If your team cares most about control, openness, and a simpler workspace that is hosted in Europe by default, Office EU is often the better fit.
The best way to think about it is this: Microsoft 365 is a wide toolkit with many layers. Office EU is a focused workspace that tries to keep work closer together, with fewer moving parts.
Email and calendar: what "Outlook alternative" really means
A lot of people land on this comparison because they are searching for an Office 365 Outlook alternative or an Outlook 365 alternative. That makes sense, because email is often the hardest thing to change.
Microsoft 365 email is built around Exchange and Outlook. It is not just a mailbox. It is a tightly integrated system with scheduling, shared mailboxes, room calendars, policies, and deep integration across Microsoft services. If your organisation relies heavily on Outlook desktop features, or if you have complex Exchange-based workflows, Microsoft usually has the advantage.
EU Email can cover everyday email needs, but it is safer to describe it as "email inside your workspace" rather than "an Outlook clone." In Nextcloud-style setups, email commonly connects via IMAP and SMTP to existing mail services. That can be a great fit for teams that want a clean place to handle messages without living inside the Microsoft ecosystem. Still, parity with advanced Outlook and Exchange behaviours can depend on your setup and your specific use cases.
If you are choosing Office EU as an Office 365 email alternative, the best approach is simple: pilot email with real users first. Use the exact devices and clients your team uses. Test shared calendars, invites, and day-to-day workflows. If it matches what you need, you will switch with confidence.
Files and sharing: where Office EU often feels simpler
For many SMEs, the biggest daily pain is not document editing. It is files. People send attachments back and forth, lose track of the latest version, and share folders in messy ways.
Microsoft 365 offers strong file storage with OneDrive and SharePoint, but it can feel layered. Users may not always know whether something belongs in OneDrive, SharePoint, or inside a Teams channel. That is fine once your organisation is well-trained, but it adds friction for small teams.
EU Drive tends to feel clearer because the workspace is built around "this is where our files live." Sharing can also feel more straightforward because the core pattern is simple: store, organise, share with control. When configured with sensible policies, sharing links can be managed in a way that feels practical for client work, partner collaboration, and external review. The result is often a calmer daily experience, especially for teams that want to reduce confusion and keep work in one place.
Docs, spreadsheets, and presentations: an honest comparison
Microsoft 365 has the advantage in Microsoft-native documents. It is the home platform for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Compatibility is typically the best you can get, and collaboration is mature, especially if your whole team already uses Microsoft accounts and apps.
Office EU supports document editing through Nextcloud office integrations. This can work very well for everyday documents and collaboration, but it is important to set expectations. In any non-Microsoft stack, there can be edge cases, such as complex formatting, advanced Excel features, or heavily styled PowerPoint decks. The right way to handle this is not to debate it in theory. It is to test the files your team actually uses.
It is also worth being practical about Excel itself. If your work relies heavily on advanced Excel features, you will likely need the desktop Excel application anyway. Excel Online is powerful, but it does not cover every advanced use case. The good news is that this does not block an Office EU setup. You can use Excel Desktop alongside Office EU Drive, keeping files stored centrally while still working locally in Excel. This gives many teams the best of both worlds: full Excel power, with documents organised, shared, and controlled inside Office EU.
If your business lives inside complex Excel models and highly designed PowerPoint decks, Microsoft 365 may remain the safest choice. If your work is mostly everyday documents, proposals, reports, and spreadsheets, Office EU can be a strong fit, with the added benefit of keeping documents next to the rest of your work rather than scattered across multiple tools.
Chat and meetings: Teams vs a lighter, integrated approach
Microsoft Teams is a major platform. It is powerful, widely used, and built for large organisations. If you need complex meeting management, organisation-wide channels, and deep Microsoft integration, Teams is often the strongest option, although some teams experience connection issues from time to time, especially in larger meetings or weaker network conditions.
EU Meet provides chat and calls inside the workspace through Nextcloud-style communication tools. The experience can be "lighter," which for many teams is a good thing. Instead of adding yet another place to work, meetings and chat live closer to the files and projects you already have.
If your team wants communication that is good enough and integrated, Office EU can be more comfortable. If your team needs the full weight of Teams features, Microsoft 365 will likely win that category.
The "control" question: hosting, transparency, and flexibility
A big part of the European alternative to Microsoft 365 search intent is about control. Where is the data hosted? How much visibility do we have? How hard is it to move later?
Office EU's positioning is Europe-hosted by default, and it sits on an open-source foundation. That matters because it changes how the relationship feels. You are not locked into a single vendor's closed platform in the same way. You are standardising on a workspace approach that can be configured and evolved.
Microsoft has data residency options and has communicated programs like the EU Data Boundary. That can be a good fit for many organisations. Still, for some teams, control remains a concern because Microsoft is a US-based company and therefore subject to US laws such as the CLOUD Act, as well as broader platform-level powers that sit outside a customer's direct control. While this does not mean Microsoft is unsafe, it does mean there is an additional layer of dependency. On the other hand, Office EU embraces a Europe-hosted approach as the default, pairing it with transparency that resonates with teams who want clearer boundaries and fewer external dependencies.
Migration and adoption: how to switch without panic
Most teams do not fail at switching because the software is bad. They fail because the switch feels risky.
That is why Office EU's migration story should be calm and practical. The migration flow uses Audriga as the backend, and the user experience is designed to be simple: pick where you are migrating from, and Office EU is selected as the destination. The goal is to remove decision fatigue and guide the process in plain steps.
The safe promise is not "instant migration." It is "a guided way to move in stages." Start with one team. Move files first, or email first. Validate results. Keep your old system running during the pilot. Then expand once users feel confident.
That approach also makes adoption easier. People do not like big changes. They like small changes that feel safe. A staged rollout turns a scary switch into a normal project.
Pricing and plan fit: how to compare without guessing numbers
It is tempting to compare price tags. But pricing changes, and real cost is not just licences.
With Microsoft 365, your total cost is licences plus the time it takes to manage the system, support users, and maintain the way your organisation works across multiple apps and layers.
With Office EU, the cost conversation is usually about simplicity. If a team can do daily work with fewer moving parts, adoption and admin can become easier. That can reduce hidden costs, even if your per-user price is not dramatically different.
If you are choosing between Office EU vs Microsoft 365 for an SME, the best pricing question is: "What will we actually use, how much time will we spend managing the setup, and what will this really cost us over time?" For many teams, Office EU also ends up being cheaper in practice, especially when you factor in simpler plans and fewer add-ons.
Who should choose what?
For SMEs, Office EU often wins when the priority is an easy-to-understand workspace that keeps files, collaboration, and daily work close together. It can also be a better fit for teams that want a cleaner path away from vendor dependence, without turning the decision into a political statement.
For NGOs, the decision is often about collaboration and trust. If you frequently work with external partners, share folders, and handle sensitive programme data, a Europe-hosted workspace with strong sharing controls can be attractive. If your donor or partner ecosystem is standardised on Microsoft 365, Microsoft may still be the practical choice.
For individuals and families, it comes down to habits. If you depend on Microsoft desktop apps and want maximum familiarity, Microsoft is easy. If you want a calmer place to keep family files and collaborate without feeling pulled into a giant ecosystem, Office EU may be the better experience.
Conclusion: Office EU or Microsoft 365?
Microsoft 365 is a strong choice when you want the widest feature set and the most familiar experience, especially if your team already lives inside Outlook, Teams, and Microsoft identity.
Office EU is the better choice when you want a Europe-hosted workspace by default, a more transparent foundation, and a simpler place for daily work. For many teams, that makes it the best alternative to Office 365, not because it tries to copy every Microsoft feature, but because it reduces complexity and gives you a clearer sense of control over where your data lives, who can access it, and how dependent you are on decisions made outside your organisation. With Microsoft, that sense of control can feel weaker for some European teams due to US jurisdiction factors such as the CLOUD Act and the existence of platform-level kill switch powers. Office EU's value is that control starts closer to you, with clearer boundaries and fewer external levers.
If you are considering a switch, the next step should not be a long debate. It should be a pilot. Pick a small group. Test your real workflows. Validate the results. Then decide with confidence.
Frequently Asked Questions
Join the Waitlist
Ready to break free from Big Tech? Join our waitlist for early access and be among the first to experience sovereignty-first collaboration.
Join 1000+ others on the waitlist