Microsoft 365 charges for every person: Business Basic is $7.00 a user a month paid yearly, or $8.40 with a monthly subscription. LotsMail charges for the domain: $5 a month or $50 a year, with unlimited mailboxes and teammates. Pick Microsoft if you need Outlook, Teams and Office apps; pick LotsMail for email for the whole team, or for many client domains.
I checked Microsoft's plan pages and Microsoft Learn on 21 October 2026 for everything below, and rechecked LotsMail's pricing on 26 October 2026. Prices are US dollars before tax, list prices only.
LotsMail vs Microsoft 365 at a glance
| LotsMail | Microsoft 365 | |
|---|---|---|
| You pay for | Each domain | Each user |
| Entry price | Starter $5 a month or $50 a year for 1 domain | Business Basic $7.00 a user a month paid yearly, $8.40 monthly |
| Email-only option | Every LotsMail plan is email only | Exchange Online (Plan 1) $4.00 a user a month paid yearly |
| Higher plans | Pro $20 or $200 for 5 domains, Business $60 or $600 for 20 domains, per domain | Business Standard $14.00 ($16.80 monthly), Standard with Copilot $23.50, Premium with Copilot $32.00, per user paid yearly |
| 10 people on one domain | $5 a month (Starter) | $70 a month on Business Basic paid yearly, $84 monthly |
| Mailboxes and teammates | Unlimited on every plan | One licence per user, 1 to 300 users on Business plans |
| Shared inboxes | Shared mailboxes like support@, unlimited, access set per mailbox | Shared mailboxes need no licence up to 50 GB; up to 25 users; each person who opens one needs a licensed mailbox; people inside your organization only |
| Limit who a mailbox can email | Restricted mailboxes: listed senders and recipients only, for people and agents | Not covered on the pages I read |
| Storage | 10 GB shared per domain on every plan; add-ons for more | 100 GB mailbox and 50 GB archive per user on Business Basic; 50 GB and 50 GB on Exchange Online (Plan 1) |
| Inbox | Full web inbox on phone, tablet and desktop | Outlook on the web and mobile on Business Basic; desktop apps from Business Standard |
| Mail apps (Outlook, Apple Mail) | Coming soon | Outlook is Microsoft's own app |
| Calendar, meetings, documents | No calendar; no office apps | Outlook calendar, Teams, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and 1 TB of OneDrive per user |
| ChatGPT or Claude | MCP and REST on every plan; read, draft or send set per mailbox; sending off until you allow it | Work IQ MCP for agents across mail, calendar, files and Teams; admin consent; usage billed in Copilot Credits |
| Built-in AI | None (you bring your own assistant) | Copilot Chat on Business Basic; Copilot in apps on the "with Copilot" plans |
| Free start | 5,000 free credits, valid 90 days, no card | One-month free trial, credit card required |
Microsoft facts checked on 21 October 2026 on microsoft.com and Microsoft Learn. LotsMail facts from our live pricing and docs, checked 26 October 2026.
Where LotsMail is the better choice
You pay for the domain, not for each person
Ten people on Microsoft 365 Business Basic cost $70 a month paid yearly, $840 a year, or $84 a month on a monthly subscription. Even Microsoft's email-only Exchange Online (Plan 1) is $40 a month for ten people. On LotsMail Starter the whole domain is $5 a month, or $50 a year. Hire an eleventh person and Microsoft adds another licence; LotsMail adds nothing. Mailboxes, addresses and teammates are unlimited on every plan.
Every plan gives each domain the same 10 GB of shared storage and 1,000 outbound deliveries a month. Plans differ in how many domains they cover (Starter 1, Pro 5, Business 20) and in white-label, which Business includes. Add-ons for more storage or sending can go on any domain on any plan; they are listed on the pricing page. See pricing.
Shared inboxes without licence rules
Microsoft's shared mailboxes are free up to 50 GB, which is generous. The rules around them are the catch: each person who opens one needs their own licensed Exchange Online mailbox, a shared mailbox supports up to 25 users, and you can't give people outside your organization access. More storage, archiving or litigation hold needs an Exchange Online Plan 2 licence or an archiving add-on.
On LotsMail, support@, sales@ or projects@ is just another mailbox on the domain, included in the same price. You choose who can read it, who can read and send, and who has full control. Private mailboxes stay private, and the workspace owner doesn't get into them by default. I covered how the big suites handle this in what a shared mailbox costs in Google Workspace, and when to pick a shared inbox over a group in Shared Inbox vs Group Email.
Agencies with a domain per client
If you set up email for clients, per-user pricing follows every client's headcount. Ten client domains with two people each is 20 licences: $140 a month on Business Basic paid yearly, or $80 on Exchange Online (Plan 1). On LotsMail it's $50 a month on Starter or $40 on Pro, each client domain with its own storage and sending allowance so one busy client doesn't use up another's.
Each client gets its own workspace with its own domains and mailboxes. Client staff sign in as mailbox users, free and unlimited, without a LotsTech account, on a webmail address with the client's name and logo or on one agency address. Your agency manages the mailboxes but can't read a client's mail unless given access to that mailbox.
Limit who a mailbox can talk to
An owner or admin can restrict any LotsMail mailbox to receive only from listed senders and send only to listed recipients, as exact addresses or a whole domain like *@yourclient.com. Inbound mail is checked against the sender's authenticated domain, so a forged From doesn't get through, and every outgoing To, Cc and Bcc is checked, whether it's sent from the inbox, the API or an assistant. A contractor or an AI agent can work in a mailbox that only reaches your team or one client.
ChatGPT or Claude in the inbox, with a switch for each mailbox
LotsMail works with the AI agent you already use. ChatGPT, Claude, Claude Code, Codex, Cursor or any MCP client connects to https://api.lotsmail.to/mcp with your Lots sign-in, no key to paste, and agents without MCP use the REST API. For each mailbox you choose read, draft or send. Sending by agents is off until you turn it on, so replies wait in Drafts until you approve them. There's no built-in AI and no usage charge on our side.
Microsoft's route is Work IQ MCP: one endpoint that lets an agent read and send mail, work with the calendar, files and Teams, and ask Copilot. It's built for organizations, so it needs admin consent in Microsoft Entra, and Work IQ API usage is billed in Copilot Credits. If you already live in Microsoft's agent tools, that depth is useful. If you want ChatGPT or Claude on a couple of mailboxes this afternoon, LotsMail is a sign-in and a URL. Setup steps. I compared six providers on this in Business Email Providers With MCP Support.
Keep your DNS and your website
You keep your DNS provider and your site. Add the records LotsMail shows you, then point mail when you're ready. SPF, DKIM and DMARC are checked for you, each send shows its delivery status, and bounces are reported. If a payment ever lapses, sending stops at once, incoming mail keeps arriving for 14 days and then pauses, and your mail is never deleted.
What Microsoft 365 offers that LotsMail doesn't yet
Microsoft 365 is a full productivity suite, and for many teams that's the reason to buy it:
- Outlook, Teams and Office. Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint on the web and mobile from Business Basic, desktop apps from Business Standard, plus Teams chat, calls and meetings and 1 TB of OneDrive storage per user.
- Calendar and scheduling. Outlook calendar and Bookings come with the Business plans. LotsMail has no calendar.
- Mail apps. Microsoft's mail works in its own Outlook apps on every device. LotsMail mail apps over IMAP and SMTP are coming soon, and importing old mail is planned, with no date.
- Security and compliance. Business Premium adds device security and management, email threat protection and protection for sensitive data, and an Exchange Online Plan 2 licence adds archiving and litigation hold to a mailbox.
- A lower price for one person. If one person only needs email, Exchange Online (Plan 1) at $4.00 a month paid yearly costs less than LotsMail Starter. From two people on a domain, LotsMail costs less.
LotsMail isn't a Microsoft 365 replacement. It's business email on your own domain for a whole team, priced per domain.
Which one should you choose?
- Choose LotsMail if you're an agency with client domains, or a team that wants everyone and every role address on its domain without a per-seat bill, you're happy with a full inbox in the browser on every device, and you'd like ChatGPT or Claude to sort and draft with a switch for each mailbox.
- Choose Microsoft 365 if you need Word, Excel, Teams and Outlook in the same account, people must use desktop Outlook today, or you need compliance tools like archiving and litigation hold.
Some teams keep Microsoft 365 for the people who live in Office and put a client's or a project's domain on LotsMail. Each domain points its mail to one provider, so the split works per domain.
Moving a domain to LotsMail, with your assistant's help
Domains, DNS, mailboxes, team access and billing are yours in the LotsMail dashboard, which does the whole job on its own. Your assistant can walk you through it and then take over the inbox work:
- Sign in at lotsmail.to and add your domain. New accounts get 5,000 free credits, valid 90 days, no card.
- Ask your assistant for the setup steps, then add the records at your DNS provider.
- Create the mailboxes and shared inboxes you need, invite your team and set access per mailbox.
- Point mail to LotsMail when you're ready. New mail arrives in LotsMail from then on; your old mail stays in Microsoft 365, because LotsMail doesn't import old mail yet, so keep access to it.
- Connect ChatGPT or Claude from the connect page and choose read, draft or send for each mailbox.
Prompts to try once it's connected:
In LotsMail, give me the steps to connect my domain and the link to finish it.
In LotsMail, check the sales@ mailbox. Summarize the unread threads, then write a reply draft for anything a customer is waiting on. Don't send anything.
The first uses start_domain_setup; the second uses list_mailboxes, list_threads, get_thread and create_draft. More on this in connecting ChatGPT or Claude to your business email.
FAQ
Is LotsMail cheaper than Microsoft 365?
For any domain with two or more people, yes. On 21 October 2026 Microsoft 365 Business Basic was $7.00 a user a month paid yearly ($8.40 monthly), and Exchange Online (Plan 1) $4.00, so 10 people cost $70 or $40 a month. LotsMail Starter is $5 a month per domain for everyone on it. Microsoft includes Office apps and Teams; LotsMail is email only.
Does Microsoft 365 charge per user or per domain?
Per user. Every Business plan and Exchange Online plan is priced per user per month, for 1 to 300 users on the Business plans. Shared mailboxes need no licence up to 50 GB, but each person who opens one needs a licensed mailbox. LotsMail charges per domain, with unlimited mailboxes and teammates.
Can I use Outlook with LotsMail?
Not yet. Mail apps over IMAP and SMTP are coming soon. Today LotsMail works in the browser on any phone, tablet or computer, and through ChatGPT, Claude or any MCP client. If your team must use desktop Outlook today, Microsoft 365 is the better fit.
Can I move my old Microsoft 365 mail to LotsMail?
Not yet; importing is planned, with no date. When you point your domain to LotsMail, new mail arrives in LotsMail and your old mail stays in Microsoft 365. Keep access to your Microsoft account until you've saved what you need.
Can ChatGPT or Claude work in my LotsMail inbox?
Yes. Connect them to the LotsMail MCP server and choose read, draft or send access for each mailbox. Sending by agents is off until you turn it on, so drafts wait for your approval. Microsoft offers Work IQ MCP for agents across Microsoft 365, set up with admin consent and billed in Copilot Credits.
Is LotsMail a Microsoft 365 replacement?
No. LotsMail is business email on your own domain, priced per domain: mailboxes, shared inboxes and a full web inbox for the whole team. It has no office apps, meetings or calendar, mail apps are coming soon, and import is planned. If you need the suite, Microsoft 365 is the better fit.