--- title: "In India, backing up a ₹145 mailbox costs as much as the mailbox itself" summary: "Which of four email layers Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace already include, why archiving is not backup, and what the missing layer costs, as of September 2026." url: https://www.thetechbag.com/blog/comprehensive-email-solution format: Analysis desk: "SaaS & business software" published: 2026-06-30 facts_checked: 2026-09-30 author: TechBag (The TechBag Journal) tags: ["email","Microsoft 365","Google Workspace","Exchange Online Archiving","SaaS backup","Defender for Office 365","Google Vault","CERT-In","DPDP"] cover: https://www.thetechbag.com/blog/covers/comprehensive-email-solution.png --- # In India, backing up a ₹145 mailbox costs as much as the mailbox itself *Which of four email layers Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace already include, why archiving is not backup, and what the missing layer costs, as of September 2026.* Analysis · SaaS & business software · By TechBag · Published 2026-06-30 · Facts checked 2026-09-30 · Canonical: https://www.thetechbag.com/blog/comprehensive-email-solution The short version - Microsoft 365 Business Premium, E3 and E5 already contain three of the four email layers our 2024 guide listed: the mailbox, a filter beyond the baseline, and archiving with litigation hold.[1][3] Google Workspace adds Vault at Business Plus.[6] - Backup is the layer no suite plan includes. Archiving keeps mail from being destroyed; it does not put back a purged mailbox. An Exchange Online deleted item is recoverable for 14 days by default and 30 at most.[2] - In India the missing layer costs about as much as the mailbox: Business Basic lists at ₹145 a user a month, and published Microsoft 365 backup lists run from US$1.67 to US$3.80.[4][5] Our 2024 version of this piece said a business needs four things from email: hosting, management, security, and backup with archiving. It then named two or three products for each, as if all four were separate purchases. For most Indian companies in September 2026 they are not. The mailbox comes from Microsoft or Google, and the licence tier decides how much of the rest comes with it. The question a buyer actually has is narrower: which of the four layers do I still have to buy, and what does the missing one cost against the mailbox? ## Three of the four layers ship inside the suite Start with what the licence already holds. Exchange Online Protection, the baseline spam and malware filter, is in every Microsoft 365 plan. Defender for Office 365 Plan 1, which adds Safe Links, Safe Attachments and anti-phishing, is in Business Premium and, from 1 July 2026, in E3; Plan 2 is in E5.[3] Gmail filters spam, phishing and malware in every Workspace edition.[3] That does not make a third-party filter pointless; it moves it down the list and changes what it is for. The guide’s reading is that neither native filter goes deep on behavioural detection of business email compromise, the message with no link, no attachment and no malware that asks the accounts team to change a supplier’s bank details, or on scanning the collaboration apps that now carry files.[3] A filter bought in 2026 is bought for that gap, and it increasingly sits behind the native one through an API rather than in front of it as a gateway. A team that has not switched on the Defender policies it already pays for has no business evaluating one. Archiving is the layer most buyers pay for twice. Microsoft’s own service description says Business Premium, E3 and E5 “already include archiving and don’t require Exchange Online Archiving as an add-on”; Business Basic and Business Standard need the add-on. The archive starts at 100 GB and auto-expands to 1.5 TB, with litigation hold.[1] On Google, Vault, the retention and eDiscovery tool, arrives with Business Plus.[6] **Figure: The licence covers the mailbox, a filter and an archive; the independent copy is always a separate purchase** *Email layers by whether a Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace business plan contains them, as documented in September 2026* Still a purchase - A backup copy outside the tenant, restorable to a point in time - Archiving on Business Basic or Business Standard (the Exchange Online Archiving add-on) - Behavioural detection of payload-free fraud and scanning of Teams, SharePoint and Drive, at depth - A shared-inbox or ticketing seat for a team that answers customers from one address Already in the licence: check first - The mailbox: every Microsoft 365 and Workspace plan - Baseline filtering: Exchange Online Protection and Gmail, every plan - Defender for Office 365 Plan 1: Business Premium, and E3 from 1 July 2026 - Archiving and litigation hold: Business Premium, E3, E5; Vault in Workspace Business Plus Source: Microsoft Learn, Exchange Online Archiving service description; TechBag email security and SaaS backup guides; TechBag Google Workspace intel page · as of 30 September 2026 Management, the second of our 2024 layers, sorts differently. Rules, folders and shared mailboxes come with the mailbox; what a support or sales team buys is a seat in a shared-inbox or help-desk tool, priced per agent rather than per mailbox. We costed that seat separately in [our piece on team email](https://www.thetechbag.com/blog/email-management-best-practices), so it is left out of the arithmetic below. Our view Our view: the 2024 piece filed backup and archiving as one layer. They are two, they answer different failures, and the suite sells only one of them. That single correction changes the shopping list more than any vendor name on it. ## Archiving keeps mail; it does not bring it back An archive and a retention policy stop content from being destroyed before a date, so it can be searched and exported when a regulator or a court asks. They do not restore a mailbox an administrator purged, a tenant an attacker reconfigured, or last Tuesday’s state of a folder. Google says in its own FAQ that Vault is not a backup, and Microsoft recommends third-party backup.[4] Without hold or a retention policy, the window is short. A deleted item sits in Exchange Online’s Recoverable Items folder for 14 days by default, which an administrator can raise to 30; after that “the item is removed from Exchange Online”.[2] **Figure: Without a backup, a deleted email has a 14-day default life; Microsoft’s own backup is billed by the gigabyte** *Native recovery and archive limits in Exchange Online, and Microsoft 365 Backup list price, as documented in 2023 to 2026* 14 days Default life of a deleted item in Recoverable Items Microsoft Learn 30 days The most an admin can set it to Microsoft Learn 1.5 TB Auto-expanding archive ceiling per user, with hold Microsoft Learn US$0.15 Microsoft 365 Backup, per GB per month, inside the tenant TechBag SaaS backup guide Source: Microsoft Learn, Recoverable Items folder (25 September 2026) and Exchange Online Archiving service description; TechBag SaaS backup guide · as of 30 September 2026 Microsoft 365 Backup is real backup, restorable in place, but it is metered by the gigabyte and stays inside the same tenant. At the six gigabytes a user that Cohesity documents as an average, it is about US$0.90 a user a month; a 50 GB mailbox costs US$7.50.[4] The third-party products below price per user, keep the copy outside the tenant, and most include the storage. The failures a backup exists for are the ones the archive does not see coming. An administrator account is compromised and the attacker removes mailboxes and policies; a leaver’s mailbox is deleted with the licence; a sync client encrypts files that were also attached to mail. TechBag’s guide records the ways a backup purchase goes wrong in practice: Teams private chats not captured because the export interface was never enabled, Entra ID left out because the directory is a separate product, and a restore that turns out to be an export file plus a support ticket.[4] A trial should restore one mailbox and one SharePoint site in place before anyone signs. ## The missing layer costs as much as the mailbox Microsoft prices Business Basic for India at ₹145 a user a month on annual commitment, which TechBag’s intel page puts at about US$1.74; Google Workspace Business Starter is ₹270, about US$3.25.[5][6] Backup vendors print US dollars. Of the eleven vendors in TechBag’s SaaS backup guide, seven publish or have a reported per-user Microsoft 365 price, and every one of them lands between US$1.67 and US$3.80 a user a month; the chart shows five, with Druva (about US$3) and AvePoint (US$2 to US$3.50, indicative) inside the same band.[4] **Figure: Every published Microsoft 365 backup price sits close to or above an Indian Business Basic mailbox** *Entry list price, US$ per user per month, annual term; Indian suite prices at the conversion TechBag's intel pages use; September 2026* Microsoft 365 Business Basic (India, ₹145) the mailbox US$1.74 Google Workspace Business Starter (India, ₹270) the mailbox US$3.25 IDrive Cloud-to-Cloud Backup US$1.67 Commvault Cloud SaaS Backup US$1.7 Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft 365 US$2.63 Barracuda Cloud-to-Cloud Backup US$3.4 Rubrik Microsoft 365 US$3.8 Proofpoint Essentials (filter) US$2 Forcepoint Email Security (filter) US$2.4 | | Value (US$) | | --- | --- | | Microsoft 365 Business Basic (India, ₹145) | 1.74 | | Google Workspace Business Starter (India, ₹270) | 3.25 | | IDrive Cloud-to-Cloud Backup | 1.67 | | Commvault Cloud SaaS Backup | 1.7 | | Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft 365 | 2.63 | | Barracuda Cloud-to-Cloud Backup | 3.4 | | Rubrik Microsoft 365 | 3.8 | | Proofpoint Essentials (filter) | 2 | | Forcepoint Email Security (filter) | 2.4 | Source: TechBag SaaS backup and email security guides; TechBag Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace intel pages · as of 30 September 2026 · IDrive lists US$20 a seat a year, shown monthly; Rubrik's price is reported, not published TechBag countTechBag arithmetic Fifty users on Business Basic pay ₹7,250 a month for the mailboxes before 18% GST. Fifty backup seats at US$1.67 to US$3.80 are US$84 to US$190 a month, roughly ₹6,900 to ₹15,800 at the same conversion, also before GST. The backup line is one to two times the hosting line, and it covers OneDrive and SharePoint too, which the mailbox price does not. **Figure: For fifty users, backup adds between one and two times the mailbox bill** *₹ per month for 50 users on Microsoft 365 Business Basic, before 18% GST, at about ₹83 to the US$; September 2026* With the cheapest published backup (US$1.67) 7,250 6,900 ₹14,150 With the dearest (US$3.80) 7,250 15,800 ₹23,050 | | Business Basic mailboxes | Backup seats | | --- | --- | --- | | With the cheapest published backup (US$1.67) | 7,250 | 6,900 | | With the dearest (US$3.80) | 7,250 | 15,800 | Source: TechBag arithmetic from the Microsoft 365 intel page and the SaaS backup guide · as of 30 September 2026 Two readings follow. For a Business Basic tenant whose mail is the company’s record, Business Premium at ₹1,560 may be the cheaper way to the first three layers, because it brings archiving and Defender Plan 1 together with device management.[5][1] And for any tier, backup is a separate line that has to be budgeted on its own. The cheapest published price is not always the cheapest bill: check whether storage, Entra ID and the seats of people who have left are inside the per-user figure.[4] A Google Workspace buyer has fewer choices. The guide’s Google shortlist names three products, Druva, AvePoint and Acronis; Veeam, Commvault, Barracuda and Rubrik do not offer Google Workspace at all.[4] The price band is similar, but the cheapest published Microsoft lists in the chart are not available to a Gmail tenant, and a company running both suites should price one console that covers both before buying two. Our view Our view: buy the layers in this order. Turn on what the licence already holds; upgrade the tier if archiving or Defender is missing and the gap costs more as add-ons; then buy backup, with the copy outside the tenant. A third-party filter comes last, for the fraud the native filter misses, and only after the first three are in place. If you are buying this in India Microsoft and Google both print rupee prices for their business plans: Microsoft 365 Business Basic ₹145, Business Standard ₹660 and Business Premium ₹1,560 a user a month on annual commitment; Workspace Business Starter ₹270 and Business Standard ₹1,080. All are before 18% GST.[5][6] Backup and third-party filters are quoted in US dollars and invoiced in INR through a reseller, with GST on top. If the backup copy must stay in India, five products in the guide document a region here: Druva in Mumbai, Barracuda’s India data centre, Commvault’s India SaaS, Veeam in Central India, and IDrive for Microsoft 365 backups since May 2026.[4] Two rules bite. CERT-In’s Directions of 28 April 2022 require a reportable incident, a compromised mailbox included, to be reported within six hours and ICT logs to be kept for 180 days within India.[7] The DPDP Rules, notified on 13 November 2025, list backups among the reasonable security safeguards in Rule 6, with the substantive duties applying from 13 May 2027; most business mail holds personal data.[8] How we did this Figures as of 30 September 2026 Plan contents come from Microsoft’s Exchange Online Archiving service description and Recoverable Items documentation, and from TechBag’s email security guide (22 products, 14 vendors) and SaaS backup guide (14 products, 11 vendors) as committed on 30 September 2026, whose records were verified against vendor documents on 22 August 2026. Indian suite prices are the INR lists on TechBag’s Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace intel pages, converted at the rate those pages use (about ₹83 to the dollar). Backup prices are the cheapest Microsoft 365 entry tier each vendor publishes or is reported to charge; quote-only products are excluded. Shared inbox and help-desk seats are excluded and covered in a separate piece. Spotted an error? Write to us; corrections are published at the foot of the piece. Sources 1. [Microsoft Learn, Exchange Online Archiving service description (plans that include archiving; 100 GB to 1.5 TB auto-expanding archive)](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/servicedescriptions/exchange-online-archiving-service-description/exchange-online-archiving-service-description) — 13 October 2023 2. [Microsoft Learn, Recoverable Items folder in Exchange Online (14-day default, 30-day maximum)](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/security-and-compliance/recoverable-items-folder/recoverable-items-folder) — 25 September 2026 3. [TechBag, Email security decision guide (what Microsoft 365 and Gmail already filter; filter prices)](https://www.thetechbag.com/browse/security/email-security) — as committed 30 September 2026; records verified 22 August 2026 4. [TechBag, SaaS backup decision guide (retention vs backup; per-user prices; India regions)](https://www.thetechbag.com/browse/backup-cyber-resilience/saas-backup) — as committed 30 September 2026; records verified 22 August 2026 5. [TechBag, Microsoft 365 intel page (India INR list, annual commitment)](https://www.thetechbag.com/microsoft/microsoft-365) — as committed 30 September 2026 6. [TechBag, Google Workspace intel page (India INR list; Vault in Business Plus)](https://www.thetechbag.com/google/google-workspace) — as committed 30 September 2026 7. [CERT-In, Directions under section 70B(6) of the IT Act (six-hour reporting, 180-day logs)](https://www.cert-in.org.in/Directions70B.jsp) — 28 April 2022 8. [MeitY, Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025, G.S.R. 846(E), Rule 6](https://www.meity.gov.in/static/uploads/2025/11/53450e6e5dc0bfa85ebd78686cadad39.pdf) — 13 November 2025 **Disclosure.** TechBag is a software reseller: it earns a margin when a reader buys through it, including from vendors named here. The analysis is TechBag’s own; no vendor paid for or saw this piece before publication. Facts are labelled reported, TechBag count or our view. Go deeper on TechBag - [SaaS backup guide](https://www.thetechbag.com/browse/backup-cyber-resilience/saas-backup) — Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace backup, priced per user, with India regions - [Email security guide](https://www.thetechbag.com/browse/security/email-security) — what Microsoft 365 and Gmail already filter, and the filters that sit behind them - [Microsoft 365 intel page](https://www.thetechbag.com/microsoft/microsoft-365) — Business and Enterprise plans in INR, and which tier carries archiving and Defender