Collabora and Nextcloud promote open alternatives as schools confront the loss of free Microsoft services
Microsoft’s recent changes to its education pricing and service offerings have sparked renewed interest in alternative platforms. The company announced that free student email and collaboration services will be discontinued and storage allocations will be revised, with the new rates taking effect at institutions’ first renewal on or after 1 January 2028. The UK Department for Education expressed disappointment, although the government has historically welcomed deals from Microsoft and other major tech firms.
Indicative costs have been estimated at roughly $2 per student per year for Microsoft 365 Education A2, $4 for A3 and $6 for A5. Adding Teams incurs an extra dollar annually. Faculty licenses are priced higher, and the new A7 tier jumps to about $385 per student per year before Teams. Mary Jo Foley of Directions on Microsoft cautioned that these figures are approximate and final pricing will be set by Microsoft’s partners.
The new no‑cost tier, Microsoft 365 Education A0, lacks Exchange Online, SharePoint Online and Teams, making it a limited substitute for the previous Office 365 A1 plan. Eligibility also requires institutions to maintain full paid faculty coverage on A2 or higher and to use Windows devices for education, which may be problematic for schools that rely on Chromebooks.
While a few dollars per student may seem modest, the cumulative cost across a large institution can become significant, turning a formerly free service into a recurring expense. Commentators note that Microsoft used the promise of free services to draw schools onto its cloud platform, only to later restrict access. Michael Meeks, CEO of Collabora Productivity, warned that schools now have about a year to plan a migration, a timeline that can be sufficient if managed properly, as demonstrated by the University of Lille’s large‑scale project.
While migration to alternatives has already taken place at several Swiss universities, one such effort involved moving 39,500 users and 585 TB of data over a single weekend. Both Nextcloud and Collabora also stress the importance of digital sovereignty, arguing that reliance on a single vendor can leave institutions vulnerable to price hikes or service cuts.
Dr Patrick Alberts, managing director of messaging provider Element, observed that vendor lock‑in gives providers leverage to raise prices or reduce services, forcing customers to accept the changes rather than switch platforms. He added that European governments are increasingly pursuing digital‑sovereignty strategies, making such lock‑in especially risky for public institutions. While switching to another provider requires careful planning, Microsoft’s latest move has given schools a clear incentive to evaluate alternatives.
