You can add multiple custom domains in all Office 365 subscriptions, but you can only add subdomains to Office 365 Midsize Business and Office 365 Enterprise. There are important differences for other domains features as well.
Compare the features side-by-side in the table below to make sure Office 365 Small Business will meet your needs before you add your domain. Otherwise, you could get part way through setting up your domain with Office 365 Small Business and find that you can’t do something important to your business, such as using subdomains. At that point, it’s time-consuming to remove your domain from Office 365 and switch to a different Office 365 offering.
Note As you're considering which Office 365 subscription is best for you, you might want to review the overall product features of each offering, to weigh those priorities along with your domains needs.
|
Office 365 Small Business |
Office 365 Midsize Business and Office 365 Enterprise |
| Subdomains |
You can add a custom domain, such as contoso.com, but you can’t add subdomains, such as partners.contoso.com.
Note Office 365 Small Business automatically prepends “www” to your domain name if you use the domain with your Office 365 public website, like www.contoso.com. You don’t have to worry about not being able to add a “www” subdomain.
|
You can add multiple subdomains: for example, www.contoso.com, www.partners.contoso.com, www.partners.marketing.contoso.com, and so on.
|
| Current public website |
If you already have a public website before you sign up for Office 365 and you want to keep using it instead of setting up a new one, you can. But there are extra steps if you want to use your current public website. |
When you add your domain to Office 365, you can keep hosting your current website with another provider without doing anything further. |
| DNS records |
After you set up your domain in Office 365, Office 365 hosts your DNS records and automatically configures your services, such as email and Lync.
|
After you set up your domain in Office 365, you add and update your DNS records on your DNS hosting provider website and configure the DNS records for services, such as email and Lync.
You continue to manage your DNS records at your DNS hosting provider (or on premises, if you manage your own DNS file locally) - for example, to add or update MX or CNAME records.
|
| Email and IM |
Email and IM are automatically set up to use your domain, hosted by Office 365, and you can’t host email and IM with another hosting provider. |
You can set up email, IM, and your public website to use your domain hosted by Office 365, or you can host some (or all) of those services on your domain with another provider. |
| Multiple domains |
You can add multiple domains to Office 365, and you can set up Office 365 email and IM together on any of those domains. |
You can add multiple domains to Office 365, and you can host any of the services on any of the domains.
For example, you could use email with one domain name and use another domain name for the address of your SharePoint Online public website.
|
Additional information about how domains work with Office 365 services
Learn more about setting up and managing domains for Office 365 Small Business or Office 365 Enterprise and Office 365 Midsize Business.
