Microsoft 365 backup in Dubai is paid two ways: a recurring fee for the backup service itself, priced per user or per gigabyte of protected data, and a one-off project to set it up, test it and document the restore. Listonics quotes the project as a fixed scope from AED 2,500 to AED 30,000 depending on requirement, with the recurring fee shown separately.
Part of our guide to Microsoft 365 & Cloud.
Why does Microsoft 365 need a backup you pay for?
Because the subscription does not include one. Microsoft keeps the service running, replicates your data across its data centres and protects the platform against failure, but the contents of your mailboxes, OneDrive folders and SharePoint sites remain your responsibility. A deleted mailbox past its retention window, a SharePoint library encrypted by ransomware, or an ex-employee's files purged after their licence was removed are all yours to recover, and the standard subscription gives you a recycle bin and a retention window rather than a backup.
Microsoft says as much in its own documentation and now sells retention as a separate product, described in its overview of Microsoft 365 Backup. That is the honest starting point for any cost conversation: the question is not whether to pay for backup, but which of the three models suits your office.
What are the three pricing models?
Almost every Microsoft 365 backup product on the market falls into one of three shapes, and the shape matters more than the vendor name when you are comparing quotes.
Per user per month is the most common. Every licensed mailbox is protected for a flat monthly fee, usually with unlimited storage included, and the bill scales with headcount rather than data. Per gigabyte is how Microsoft prices its own add-on, set out in its pricing model for Microsoft 365 Backup: you pay for the volume of protected data each month, billed through your Azure subscription, so a small team with a large SharePoint archive pays more than the same team with tidy storage. The third shape is a backup appliance or NAS in your office that pulls a copy of the tenant down to local storage, where the cost is mostly hardware and setup rather than a monthly fee.
- Per user per month: predictable, scales with headcount, storage usually included.
- Per gigabyte per month: Microsoft's own model, scales with data volume, billed via Azure.
- Local appliance or NAS: one-off hardware and setup, little or no monthly fee, copy stays in Dubai.
- Hybrid: cloud copy for convenience plus a local copy for fast restores and data residency.
What moves the monthly figure?
Headcount, if you are on a per-user model; data volume, if you are on a per-gigabyte one. Beyond that, four things change the price more than anything else. Retention length is the first: keeping copies for a year costs more than ninety days, and firms holding client records under a regulator's rules often need several years. Coverage is the second: mail only is cheaper than mail, OneDrive, SharePoint and Teams together, and Teams chat history is the item most often left out of a cheap quote.
Shared and archive mailboxes are the third. Some products count them as users and charge for each; others include them free. Ask, because an office with fifteen staff and forty shared mailboxes can be quoted for fifteen or for fifty-five. The fourth is restore speed. A product that restores a single email in minutes and a whole site in an afternoon is worth paying more for than one that takes days, and the difference is only visible when you ask how a restore is actually performed.
What does a Listonics setup project cost?
The project is the one-off work of choosing the model, connecting the backup to your tenant, setting retention to match your obligations, running the first full copy and, most importantly, performing a test restore and writing down the result. Listonics quotes that as a fixed scope, and projects run from AED 2,500 to AED 30,000 depending on requirement. A small office protecting mail and OneDrive on a per-user product sits toward the lower end. A firm adding a local NAS copy, long retention and SharePoint coverage with documented restore procedures sits higher.
The recurring fee for the backup product itself is listed separately at the vendor's published rate, so you can see exactly which part of the quote is project work and which part is a subscription. Where an office already has a support agreement with us, the monthly restore test and monitoring sit inside that agreement rather than being billed per incident.
Which choices save money without weakening the backup?
The biggest saving is coverage discipline: protect what matters and exclude what does not. An archive of a departed project can be exported once and removed from the live tenant, which shrinks both the per-gigabyte bill and the restore time. Shared mailboxes that exist only for history can be converted to archives rather than paid for as users.
The false saving is skipping the test restore. A backup that has never been restored is a hope, and the day you need it is a bad day to discover the retention was set to thirty days or the SharePoint site was never in scope. Our cloud backup services page explains how we run restore tests, and the Microsoft 365 backup guide covers what each product does and does not protect.
- Export and remove dead archives rather than paying to back them up forever.
- Convert history-only shared mailboxes to archives.
- Match retention to your actual obligation rather than the longest option.
- Never skip the test restore; it is where most cheap backups fail.
How do you compare Microsoft 365 backup quotes?
Line the quotes up on the same basis before looking at totals. Confirm whether the price is per user or per gigabyte, whether shared mailboxes are counted, which workloads are included, how long copies are kept, and where the data is stored. A quote that stores copies outside the UAE may be fine for a trading company and a problem for a clinic or a law firm with residency obligations.
Then ask the question most quotes avoid: show me a restore. A provider who can restore a single deleted email, a whole mailbox and a SharePoint site in front of you has a product worth its fee. One who cannot has sold you storage. Our IT support cost guide covers how backup fits inside a support agreement, and the Microsoft 365 and cloud service page covers the tenant work around it.
Frequently asked questions
It depends on the product and the model. Per-user products charge a flat monthly fee for each protected mailbox, usually with storage included, while Microsoft's own add-on charges per gigabyte of protected data instead. Vendors publish their own rates, and we list the recurring fee separately from the one-off setup so the two are never blended into a single figure.
No. The subscription includes a recycle bin and a retention window, which is not the same as a backup you control. Microsoft sells retention as a separate add-on and states in its own documentation that customer data is the customer's responsibility. Any long-term, restorable copy of your tenant is an additional cost, whichever vendor provides it.
It is quoted as a fixed-scope project after a short assessment, and projects run from AED 2,500 to AED 30,000 depending on requirement. The scope covers choosing the model, connecting and configuring the backup, setting retention, the first full copy and a documented test restore. The recurring fee for the backup product itself is shown separately.
Sometimes, and it is worth checking before you sign. Some products charge for every mailbox they protect, including shared and archive mailboxes, while others include them free with each licensed user. An office with many shared mailboxes can see a large difference between two quotes for the same coverage, so ask how they are counted.
For many offices it does not matter, but for clinics, law firms and anyone holding regulated client data it can. Cloud backup products store copies in the vendor's chosen region, which may be outside the UAE. A local NAS copy alongside the cloud one keeps a restorable version in Dubai and also gives you the fastest restore of a large site or mailbox.
Long enough to cover your legal and contractual obligations, plus a margin for the deletions nobody notices for months. Many offices settle on a year for mail and files; regulated firms often need considerably longer. Retention is the setting that moves cost most on per-gigabyte products, so match it to your obligation rather than defaulting to the longest option.
Written by Srinivasan Ramachandran, Founder, Listonics · Last reviewed September 24, 2026