Quick Answer
Microsoft 365 E5 is Microsoft's penultimate security, compliance, and analytics tier, second only to E7. It bundles Defender XDR, Entra ID P2, the full Microsoft Purview compliance suite, Power BI Pro, and Teams Phone at $60/user/month (as of the July 2026 pricing update). For organizations that are either paying for some (or all) of those tools separately, or operating in a regulated industry that needs Purview's deeper compliance features, E5 tends to be worth it; for others, E3 may be a more cost-effective starting point.

