A client in the 16th arrondissement called me last month with a question that sounds simple: "how much does cloud actually cost for ten people?" Behind it sat a common mix-up. In his head, cloud meant renting a slice of some faraway data center, with a mysterious subscription and bills that creep up without warning. In reality, for a small business of 5 to 20 people, cloud almost always comes down to three building blocks: a professional mailbox, a shared file storage space, and sometimes — not always — a virtual machine hosted somewhere to run an old line-of-business application. Here are the real numbers, the ones I give clients in person, not rounded catalogue prices meant to look nice.
What "cloud" actually means for a small business
Forget the image of an in-house data center. For the vast majority of my small-business clients, cloud means Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace for email and documents, a shared SharePoint or Drive space to replace the old file server, and Teams or Meet for calls. If the company runs an old line-of-business application — accounting software, a homegrown ERP, stock management — a hosted virtual machine sometimes needs adding to run it, with secure remote access. It's rarely all-cloud or all-local as a binary choice: most of the small businesses I work with end up with a mix, and that's fine.
The setup cost: what you pay once
Migration has a price, and it's the line item clients forget to ask about when requesting a quote. For a small setup of 3 to 5 workstations, I budget 300 to 600 euros for setup: creating accounts, configuring DNS/MX records for email (see my article on professional business email for that piece in detail), transferring old mail and files, and configuring each machine. For ten people with an old file server to empty out, expect 800 to 1,500 euros instead — the range mostly depends on how much data there is to sort, since a fifteen-year-old shared folder full of duplicates takes a lot longer than a clean structure. Beyond twenty workstations, migration deserves a proper multi-week plan rather than a weekend push.
The recurring cost: the price per user, every month
This is where the real budget lives, the one that comes back every month for years. Microsoft 365 Business Standard runs around 12 euros excl. VAT per user per month, with email, full Office and 1 TB of OneDrive storage each. Business Premium, with stronger security and device management, climbs to around 22 euros. Google Workspace sits roughly in the same range, between 7 and 14 euros excl. VAT depending on the tier. For ten people, that's 120 to 220 euros a month for office tools alone — before counting a virtual machine, which easily adds 30 to 80 euros a month depending on how powerful it needs to be with a French host. I handle Microsoft 365 setup and support for a lot of clients precisely because picking the wrong tier can double the bill, and the wrong tier is rarely fixed painlessly six months later.
The hidden costs nobody budgets for
Three items come up on every project, and none of them appear on the initial quote. Training time first: moving a ten-person team used to an old server over to SharePoint takes roughly half a collective day, plus individual support during the first two weeks — count that time in lost salary, not just contractor hours. Bandwidth next: an office fibre line that coped fine with a local server can start to show its limits once everyone syncs their files to the cloud at the same time on a Monday morning; an internet plan upgrade sometimes becomes necessary. And the third, the most misunderstood one: cloud is not a backup. Microsoft and Google keep deleted files for about thirty days, no more, and ransomware that encrypts synced files encrypts the cloud copy within minutes too. I go into this in detail in my guide on backing up important data: a proper cloud backup strategy, separate and versioned, generally costs 3 to 8 euros per user per month on top of the main subscription. Most small businesses discover this detail after a bad surprise, never before.
Three real budgets, from smallest to largest
Scenario 1, three people — an interior design studio near Porte de Saint-Cloud. Microsoft 365 Business Standard for three seats, no server to migrate, just old personal mail to clean up. Setup: around 350 euros. Recurring: around 40 euros a month. First-year total: roughly 830 euros.
Scenario 2, ten people — a consulting firm in the 8th arrondissement with an old Windows file server nearing end of life. Migrating server data to SharePoint, Business Standard accounts for everyone, a short group training session. Setup: around 1,100 euros, cloud backup included from day one. Recurring: around 165 euros a month, subscriptions plus backup. First-year total: roughly 3,080 euros.
Scenario 3, twenty people with a server to retire — an accounting firm in the 16th still running a 2016 physical server, loud and out of manufacturer warranty for two years. This project is heavier: migrating mail and shared folders, a virtual machine to host accounting software that has no SaaS version, cleanly decommissioning the old server, training split across two sessions. Setup: around 2,400 to 3,200 euros depending on how complex the line-of-business software is. Recurring: around 420 to 480 euros a month, VM and backup included. On this last case, a monthly IT maintenance plan usually gets added to the budget too, because a twenty-person firm can no longer afford to wait three days for a technician when something breaks.
Cloud or a local server: the three-year math
This is the question I get most often right after the first quote: "why wouldn't I just keep my server?" A local server for ten to fifteen people costs 2,500 to 6,000 euros to buy depending on the specs, plus installation — I broke down that budget in my article on the cost of installing a business server. On paper, that looks cheaper than a monthly subscription that never ends. The math shifts once you add three years of reality: electricity and cooling for the server room, the external backup you need to plan for regardless, the warranty that expires after exactly three years, and above all emergency troubleshooting when a drive fails on a Friday evening.
Over three years, a local server for ten workstations generally comes to 8,000 to 11,000 euros all in, against 6,000 to 8,000 euros for an equivalent cloud subscription with backup. The gap isn't huge, and it can flip the other way if the business has a very large data volume or line-of-business software that hates the cloud. I never push a client toward one or the other on principle — I look at real usage before deciding.
FAQ
Is cloud really cheaper than keeping a local server?
Not always, but over three years and for a team under twenty people, usually yes — especially once you add backup, electricity and hardware replacement to the real cost of a local server.
Do Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace already back up my files?
No, not really. They keep deleted files for about 30 days, which is not a backup against ransomware or a mistake noticed too late. A separate cloud backup is still needed.
How much does migrating to the cloud cost for a team of ten?
Expect 800 to 1,500 euros in setup fees depending on how much data needs transferring, plus a monthly subscription running around 120 to 220 euros for ten accounts.
Can I keep an old line-of-business application while moving to the cloud?
Yes, usually through a hosted virtual machine that runs the application remotely. It adds a monthly cost but avoids having to switch software overnight.