Continuous Microsoft 365 price hikes, forced plan migrations and growing reliance on a single provider for email, documents, video conferencing and storage have pushed many SMEs to ask a legitimate question: is there a serious alternative that covers the same ground without depending exclusively on Redmond?
The short answer is yes, and it has been maturing for years. The longer answer requires understanding what you gain, what you lose, and how to migrate without your team making your life impossible.
What Microsoft 365 actually covers (and what your business actually needs)
Before looking for alternatives, it’s worth separating what Microsoft 365 offers from what your business actually uses. The package is broad:
- Business email (Exchange/Outlook).
- Office suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint).
- Storage and sync (OneDrive).
- Real-time document collaboration.
- Video conferencing and messaging (Teams).
- SharePoint for intranets.
- Identity management (Entra ID).
Most SMEs use the first five intensively. SharePoint is rarely tapped meaningfully, and identity management usually boils down to corporate sign-on. That mental edit is important: an alternative doesn’t have to replicate everything, only what you actually use.
Why more SMEs are looking for alternatives
The hunt for Microsoft 365 alternatives isn’t corporate antipathy: it’s a response to concrete, measurable pressures.
- Recurring price increases with no room to negotiate. Between 2022 and 2025, many plans rose 20–50%. For a 50-employee SME, that’s a four-figure annual overcharge no one explains to you.
- Forced plan migrations. Features that used to live in one plan suddenly move to a more expensive one. Recalculating licences is a more frequent operational surprise than it should be.
- Complicated compliance. Knowing where your Microsoft 365 data physically sits requires navigating ever-changing documentation. See the article on digital sovereignty for the full framing.
- Dependence on a provider that decides unilaterally. UI changes, pricing, privacy policy, AI integration — all happens without consulting customers.
The open-source stack that replaces Microsoft 365
For several years there has been a set of mature, professional open-source tools designed for enterprise use that cover 90% of Microsoft 365 use cases without per-user licences and without vendor lock-in:
Nextcloud — storage, documents and collaboration
Replaces OneDrive + SharePoint + the collaborative side of Office. Simultaneous document editing, version control, expiring shared links, granular per-folder permissions. Integrates OnlyOffice or Collabora for online editing of compatible Word/Excel/PowerPoint documents.
Mailcow, iRedMail or similar — business email
Professional mail server on your domain, robust antispam, modern webmail, sync with mobile clients (IMAP/ActiveSync), shared calendars and contacts (CalDAV/CardDAV).
Jitsi or similar — video conferencing
Alternative to Teams for meetings, persistent rooms, recording and streaming. No participant cap on dedicated infrastructure.
Element/Matrix — corporate messaging
Replaces the chat side of Teams. Channels, DMs, integrated video calls, optional end-to-end encryption.
Keycloak — identity management
Corporate single sign-on, integration with Active Directory or LDAP, multi-factor authentication. Covers what Entra ID does in a typical SME.
What you actually gain by switching
- No growing per-user cost. You pay for infrastructure, not seats. Adding 20 more people doesn’t multiply the bill.
- Data in your jurisdiction. The whole stack can be hosted on European servers under your control. GDPR compliance with no footnotes.
- No forced migrations. You decide when to update. You don’t wake up on a Tuesday to a redesigned plan and new prices.
- Integration with the rest of your infrastructure. If you already run NEXCORE or plan to consolidate IT, this stack fits natively. It’s the foundation of the IT vendor consolidation many companies are tackling.
- Real customisation. You can adapt behaviour, add features and audit each component. You don’t depend on the provider prioritising your needs.
- Integration with private AI. The open-source stack lends itself naturally to bringing in AI without handing data to third parties.
What you should know before switching
For an informed decision, what’s NOT as comfortable:
- Learning curve: OnlyOffice isn’t identical to Word. For most users the change is minor; for those who live inside advanced Excel functions there can be friction.
- Operational responsibility: the stack lives on your infrastructure or that of a managed partner. It needs maintaining, updating and monitoring. The work doesn’t disappear; who does it changes.
- Compatibility with external parties: if your day-to-day involves swapping complex Excel files with auditors or law firms working in Microsoft 365, compatibility is very high but not 100% perfect on complex macros.
- The team’s mental model: some people experience Outlook/Teams as their operating system. Wrapping the change in training and support is critical.
How to migrate without breaking daily productivity
The migration doesn’t have to be a hard switch from Monday to Tuesday. The pattern that works best in SMEs:
- Phase 1 — Storage: deploy Nextcloud with OnlyOffice. Migrate documents and start using it in parallel for new files while OneDrive remains active.
- Phase 2 — Messaging and video conferencing: turn on Element/Matrix + Jitsi. Adopt progressively for internal meetings; keep Teams only for meetings with customers who require it.
- Phase 3 — Email: the most sensitive part. Mailbox-by-mailbox migration with a dual-access period to validate. Configure temporary forwarding so no email is lost in transit.
- Phase 4 — Identity and SSO: integrate Keycloak once everything else is running. From here on, one login covers everything.
- Phase 5 — Cut-over and real saving: cancel the Microsoft 365 licences that are no longer in use. This is usually where the ROI calculation starts to shine.
In NEXWORK, our enterprise collaboration platform, we offer this stack already integrated and operated, so the company can adopt it without having to spin up five servers and learn five products at once.
Which kind of SME benefits most
Not every business gains the same from this switch. The profiles where the return is clearest:
- SMEs with 30+ employees where the Microsoft 365 licence is becoming a relevant budget line.
- Sectors handling sensitive data (legal, healthcare, professional services with client data).
- Companies already consolidating IT — if your infrastructure is already dedicated, adding NEXWORK is a natural step.
- Companies tired of surprise renewals. If you’ve lived through 2–3 unagreed price hikes in recent years, the predictability argument is direct.
- Companies with regulatory constraints requiring data in European jurisdiction with clear traceability.
Common migration mistakes
Failed projects usually make one or more of these mistakes:
- Migrating everything at once. Six guaranteed weeks of chaos. Phased rollout is the way.
- Not measuring real usage before starting. If you don’t know which features you use, you don’t know what the alternative needs to replicate.
- Ignoring change management. Technology isn’t the problem; the team’s habit shift is. Training and clear communication are essential.
- Leaving emails and files in limbo. Every message and file needs a clear plan: migrated, archived or discarded. What stays “pending” gets lost.
- Underestimating ongoing operations. Once migrated, the stack needs running. Choosing a partner with a clear SLA prevents the task ending up on the most junior person’s desk.
Frequently asked questions
Can I still open ordinary Word/Excel documents?
Yes. OnlyOffice and Collabora are compatible with DOCX, XLSX and PPTX. Opening, editing and saving works without conversion. Very complex Excel macros may show specific differences worth validating against your real documents.
What about Outlook? Do I have to use webmail?
No. The alternative email works with any client (Outlook desktop, Thunderbird, Apple Mail, mobile) over IMAP or Exchange-compatible protocols. Webmail is an option, not a requirement.
How long does a full migration take for a 50-person company?
6 to 12 weeks to do it well. Phase 1 (storage) takes 1–2 weeks. Email — the trickiest part — usually takes 3–4 weeks. Trying to do it faster is possible but increases the risk of friction with the team.
How much do you actually save versus Microsoft 365 Business Standard?
With 50 users on Business Standard, the annual Microsoft 365 cost runs into several thousand euros. A managed alternative stack (including infrastructure, operation and support) typically comes out 30–50% cheaper from the first full year onwards. The saving grows with user count because there’s no per-licence scaling.
What about integration with third-party services (CRM, accounting, etc.)?
It depends on the service. Serious CRM and ERP systems offer email (IMAP/SMTP) and calendar (CalDAV) integration that work with any provider, not just Microsoft. Specific proprietary integrations may need adapters, but for 90% of cases connectivity is universal.
Can we keep Teams or Outlook running for a while during migration?
Yes — that’s the standard recommendation. During the migration phases, the old and new tools coexist. Microsoft licences are cancelled only once real usage has dropped to zero and everyone is operating normally on the alternative.
Conclusion
A serious alternative to Microsoft 365 exists, it’s mature, and it’s well-tested in SMEs. It’s not the right move for everyone, but for companies that have lived through rising costs and growing dependence, it deserves at least an honest evaluation. Properly planned, the migration runs without drama and the saving is visible from year one.
The decision isn’t “open-source always better” vs “Microsoft always worse”. It’s, more honestly, “who do I want deciding on my productivity in five years?” If the answer is “me”, the conversation starts there.
Want a real cost simulation against your current contract? Get in touch and a NEXUMIA specialist will come back with a grounded comparison.
