Microsoft Office Live enables small businesses to easily create and maintain a professional online presence without the usual administration headaches or costly long-term commitments. When you signup your company is provided with its own free domain name, website and email accounts, which are hosted, maintained and managed by Microsoft removing the need to invest in expensive servers and complicated infrastructure.

Microsoft Office Live provides you with secure online workspaces so you can store, manage and organise company information and data from anywhere in the world. As well as this, you get access to expert management applications, such as customer, project, sales/marketing, campaign and document management tools. In-fact there are over 20 internet-based applications to help you automate common business tasks. All of Microsoft Office Live's applications are designed to integrate seamlessly with popular Microsoft programmes, such as Word, Outlook and Excel.

Microsoft Office Live Comparison Chart

If you're not sure which package is right for you, you can compare them easily in the table below.

 
Monthly Fee FREE FREE during Beta FREE during Beta
Business e-mail accounts 25 accounts 50 accounts 50 accounts
Web site storage (disk space) 500 MB 1 GB 1 GB
Data transfer (bandwidth) 10 GB 15 GB 20 GB
Use HTML/third-party design tools No Yes Yes
Advanced Web site reports Yes Yes Yes
Business applications No Microsoft Office Live Business Contact Manager Microsoft Office Live Business Contact Manager, plus online business applications
Customer support Online Help and e-mail Online Help, e-mail, phone Online Help, e-mail, phone

Microsoft Office Live F.A.Q.

  • Why is Microsoft Office Live in beta?

    Microsoft is asking users to try their program and give feedback to help improve the final version. This helps to iron out any bugs or glitches and is why Microsoft is offering all of the packages for free during the testing phase.

  • Are Microsoft Office Live services the same thing as Microsoft Office?

    Microsoft Office Live is not the same as the Microsoft Office suite, which includes Word, Excel, Outlook etc. Microsoft Office Live gives users a hosted website, email, private website for sharing information and over 20 internet business applications. These are designed to work seamlessly with Microsoft Office suite programs.

  • What does Microsoft do to keep my information secure?

    Your data is stored in computer systems that are stationed in controlled facilities. There is limited access to these systems and they are monitored using the Microsoft Security Response Centre, which seeks information about software vulnerabilities and security threats and combats them quickly and aggressively. Additionally, Microsoft uses a number of servers with your website, so if one crashes the other takes over. This ensures you don't experience any loss of data should a server crash.

  • What domain names can I get with Microsoft Office Live?

    The domains available to you are Top Level Domains - .com, .net and .org. Microsoft also offer country code domains, such as .co.uk. These domains are free to the first 10,000 subscribers and will cost £8.99 for two years thereafter.

  • Can I transfer the contents of my existing website to Microsoft Office Live?

    You can use Microsoft FrontPage 2003 to copy the contents of your website from your existing web hosting supplier to your new Microsoft Office Live website. You can only do this if you signup to Microsoft Office Live Essentials or Microsoft Office Live Premium. However, you will have to recreate any email accounts in Microsoft Office Live and you won't be able to edit the DNS settings for your domain name.

  • What support do I get with Microsoft Office Live?

    You get a number of different support options, including a freephone number, email support, online help, faqs and a comprehensive resource centre.