Exchange Online Plan 2: hold, archive and DLP
Exchange Online (Plan 2)
per user per month, excluding VAT
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Exchange Online Plan 2 is the compliance-capable tier of Microsoft's standalone email service. It doubles the Plan 1 mailbox to 100 GB and raises the archive to 1.5 TB with auto-expanding archiving. More importantly it adds the three things Plan 1 cannot do: In-Place Hold, Litigation Hold, and Microsoft Purview data loss prevention. It also carries Exchange Online Archiving for Exchange Server, which lets an organisation running mailboxes on-premises attach a cloud archive through a hybrid deployment. If the requirement is to preserve mail against deletion or to stop sensitive content leaving by email, Plan 2 is the standalone plan that does it.
What it is
Exchange Online Plan 2 is Microsoft's full standalone email service. It provides everything in Plan 1 and adds the retention, hold and data protection capabilities that legal and regulatory work depends on.
Who it is for
Organisations that need email on Microsoft's platform without a full Microsoft 365 suite, but that must be able to preserve mailbox content, respond to legal hold, or apply data loss prevention to email.
Key capabilities
- 100 GB mailbox per user
- Archive mailbox up to 1.5 TB with auto-expanding archiving
- In-Place Hold and Litigation Hold
- Microsoft Purview data loss prevention
- Exchange Online Archiving for Exchange Server, for hybrid on-premises mailboxes
- Inactive mailboxes, retention policies, journaling, transport rules and content search
- Outlook on the web, mobile, and desktop Outlook where separately licensed
What litigation hold actually does
Placing a mailbox on litigation hold retains items the user permanently deletes and items they purge from Recoverable Items, and raises the Recoverable Items quota from 30 GB to 100 GB, or 110 GB with auto-expanding archiving enabled. Both the primary and the archive mailbox are held. A hold can run for a set period calculated from when each message arrived, or indefinitely until removed.
What is not included
Plan 2 licenses the mailbox, not the applications. Outlook for Windows or Mac may connect to it, but the user must hold rights to the Microsoft 365 desktop applications through another subscription. Advanced Message Encryption and IRM through Azure Information Protection are enterprise-suite capabilities, not Plan 2 ones.
What does Plan 2 add over Exchange Online Plan 1?
A 100 GB mailbox instead of 50 GB, an archive up to 1.5 TB with auto-expansion instead of a fixed 50 GB, plus In-Place Hold, Litigation Hold and Microsoft Purview data loss prevention, none of which Plan 1 has.
Do I need Plan 2 for litigation hold?
Plan 2 is one of the two routes. The other is an Exchange Online Plan 1 mailbox with a separate Exchange Online Archiving licence assigned to it. Both satisfy the licensing requirement for placing a mailbox on hold.
What happens to the mailbox when litigation hold is on?
Items the user permanently deletes, and items they purge from Recoverable Items, are retained. The Recoverable Items quota rises from 30 GB to 100 GB, or 110 GB with auto-expanding archiving. Both the primary and archive mailboxes are held.
Does Plan 2 include the Outlook desktop application?
No. It licenses the mailbox. Outlook for Windows or Mac can connect, but desktop application rights come from a separate Microsoft 365 subscription.
Can Plan 2 archive mailboxes that are still on-premises?
Yes. Exchange Online Archiving for Exchange Server is available on Plan 2, which lets an on-premises primary mailbox use a cloud archive through a hybrid deployment.
- Vendor
- Microsoft
- Category
- Productivity
- Type
- SaaS
- Billing
- Monthly
- Commitment
- 1-Year
- Available terms
- 1-Year, Monthly
- SKU
- MST-NCE-180-C100
- 1You request the licence, or add it to the cart.
- 2I confirm price, term and seats, and check your VAT number in VIES. Businesses in the EU only.
- 3You pay before we provision, under the CSP Marketplace Terms. The invoice comes from Michal Jatczak, a sole trader registered in Malta, trading as ITSailor. Reverse charge for an EU VAT number that validates in VIES.
- 4Your authorised signatory accepts the Microsoft Customer Agreement before activation.
- 5I place the order with Pax8 within one business day of payment.