I’m just going to keep updating this as I go….
To begin with, I joined the Microsoft Bizspark program through my company Most Marvellous Company in November 2015.
There are about five people in the company but as it is a startup, I am the driver and at times, it is very difficult to get people to do things for free, (we’re not funded yet). So what does BizSPark have to offer?
BizSpark gives startups 3 years of free stuff – software, services, tech support, and Azure cloud. Your startup qualifies if it is less than 5 years old, is privately held, and earns less than $1M annually. And at the end of your 3 years, you keep all the software you’ve downloaded – at no cost.
There is a wonderful list of services which can be accessed and utilised for free.
BizSpark Services
Windows
Most people reading this probably already have windows 7 – 10 and so are probably not very interested in getting a free copy of windows that is pre-installed on most PC’s. However, it’s worth bearing in mind that it’s not free! If you’re stuck in Windows Vista or are building your own PC, you can buy it from the Microsoft store.
Windows 10 Home, Microsoft store : £89.99
Windows 10 Pro, Microsoft store : £189.99
Windows 10 Home to Pro Upgrade, no price available on Microsoft Store but quoted in US as $99
There you have it, £189.99 for Windows 10 Pro, now free with BizSpark. Who needs pro, you may ask? One reason for me is BitLocker.
You can now encrypt all your valuable data and that of your customers too, using an accredited encryption service, for free!
Microsoft Office
Office 365
For those of you like me who already have office 365, it’s a disappointment to learn that this does not come as a BizSpark benefit. One of the major downsides here for me is the inability to have a microsoft managed email address.
As mentioned office 365 is not part of the package. In the absence of a free company email service what can startup that wants to spend as little as possible do?
Bizspark has outlook, set up an account manually to use IMAP and use your ISPs SMTP Server.
It works but I have found it a bit unreliable. It maybe be worth paying your domain company, the €16 per year for authenticated SMTP. Still cheaper than than paying the managed email fees:
products.office.com/en-us/exchange/exchange-online – $4 per month
apps.google.com/intx/en_my/pricing.html – $5 per month
For a company with four employees, this would be $240 (Google) or $292 (Microsoft). Not huge beans but still, why waste it when you could spend it on pizza night?
Microsoft Outlook $109.99
BizSpark Price : free
Microsoft Project
Microsoft Project Standard £559.99
Two licenses of Microsoft Project Pro Free!
Microsot Visio
Great for doing diagrams and floorplans, who doesn’t love but what startup can afford it?
Microsoft Visio Professional 2016 £529.99
Bizspark price : free!
Microsoft Azure
Connect to the Cloud
€130 per month microsoft azure credit for up to five developers.
Host a fully customizable website, launch bugzilla, host a MySQL server, try out the IoT stack. That’s up to €650 of credits a month for free!
Indicative Savings
| Product | Price | Quantity | Total Price |
| Outlook 2016 | $109.99 | 2 | $219.98 |
| Microsoft Project | £559.99 | 2 | £1119.98 |
| Windows 10 Pro | £189.99 | 12 | £2279.98 |
| Windows Viso Pro | £529.99 | 2 | £1059.98 |
| Azure Credit | €130 per month | 5 | €650 per month |
thecodeisbroken 
No simple way to do it. My suggestion is to use the SMTP service on your web provider and the MS Outlook license.
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There is an office 365 benefit as part of Bizspark but what you get is a developer subscription which has a one user licence
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