The short version: Stats NZ counted 617,330 enterprises in New Zealand at February 2025, and MBIE's small business factsheet puts 97.2% of them under 20 staff. For a firm that size, Microsoft 365 Business Standard runs NZ$2,520.00 a year for 10 people, and the number that actually decides whether a build needs anything more is NZ$32.40 a month, Power Apps Premium, per person who opens it.
New Zealand's business population
| Metric | Figure | As at |
|---|---|---|
| Total enterprises | 617,330, up 0.5% on February 2024 | February 2025 |
| Business locations | 654,460, up 0.5% on February 2024 | February 2025 |
| Enterprises with no paid employees | 74% of all enterprises | February 2025 |
| Large enterprises, 100 or more employees | 2,840, down 2.1% on February 2024 | February 2025 |
| Employees in those large enterprises | 1,209,700, half of all paid employees | February 2025 |
| Total paid employees, all enterprises | 2.4 million, down 2.2% on February 2024 | February 2025 |
| Share of NZ businesses with fewer than 20 staff | 97.2% | MBIE small business factsheet, 2025mbie.govt.nz |
Source: Stats NZ, New Zealand business demography statistics: At February 2025. Three-quarters of enterprises have no paid employees and under half a percent are large enterprises with 100 or more, which leaves roughly a quarter of NZ enterprises employing somewhere between 1 and 99 people, the band a Microsoft 365 licensing decision actually sits in. Stats NZ's detailed employee-count-band table (0, 1 to 5, 6 to 9, 10 to 19, 20 to 49) is not reproduced here; see Method below for why.
What Microsoft 365 costs a 5, 10 and 20 person firm
| Plan | NZD, ex GST, per user per month, paid yearly | 5 staff, a year | 10 staff, a year | 20 staff, a year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft 365 Business Basic | NZ$10.44 | $626.40 | $1,252.80 | $2,505.60 |
| Microsoft 365 Business Standard | NZ$21.00 | $1,260.00 | $2,520.00 | $5,040.00 |
| Microsoft 365 Business Premium | NZ$33.30 | $1,998.00 | $3,996.00 | $7,992.00 |
Source: microsoft.com/en-nz, the Business Basic, Standard and Premium pricing pages, annual commitment paid monthly, checked September 2026. Paying month to month instead costs about 30% more per user. Full context on the Basic, Standard and Premium feature gap is in Microsoft 365 licensing for a 20-person firm.
What the Power Platform adds, per year
| Licence | NZD, ex GST, per user per month | 5 staff, a year | 10 staff, a year | 20 staff, a year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Power Apps Premium | NZ$32.40 | $1,944.00 | $3,888.00 | $7,776.00 |
| Power Automate Premium | NZ$24.30 | $1,458.00 | $2,916.00 | $5,832.00 |
These are priced per person who opens the app or owns the flow, not per headcount, so a 20-person firm buying five Power Apps Premium seats pays NZ$1,944.00 a year, not the 20-staff figure above. Dataverse capacity is priced by storage, not people: NZ$64.70 per GB per month, NZ$776.40 per GB a year, and only after the 10 GB default plus 250 MB per licence runs out, which most firms under 20 staff never do. Full detail on Power Platform pricing in NZ and Dataverse pricing in NZ.
What this means for a firm this size
Most New Zealand firms are small by this measure. 97.2% have fewer than 20 staff, and three in four have no paid employees at all. If that is your firm's shape, you are the median, not the exception.
Most of those firms already own an app builder. Every Microsoft 365 Business plan, Basic, Standard and Premium, carries the same seeded Power Platform rights: build a canvas app or a flow against SharePoint, Outlook and Excel data using standard connectors, plus Dataverse for Teams, a free tier capped at 2 GB. Moving from Standard to Premium changes security and device management, not what Power Platform can do.
The number that decides whether a build needs anything more is NZ$32.40, Power Apps Premium, per person who opens the app. That licence is needed the moment a build touches full Dataverse or a premium connector such as SQL Server, HTTP or Xero, detailed in premium connectors, explained. Below that line, most of what a firm under 20 staff wants to build is already paid for.
Change log
| Date | Change | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| 19 September 2026 | Page created: Stats NZ's February 2025 Business Demography release, MBIE's small business factsheet, and Microsoft NZ's September 2026 Microsoft 365 and Power Platform prices | First publication; nothing to compare against yet |
| 19 September 2026 | Added observed-signal tables: mail platform, website platform, staff-size band and booking-software signal, from 5,357 firms on Kove's file with a website on file, collected 28 June to 18 September 2026 | New section, "What NZ small firms actually run" |
Method, and citing this page
Enterprise and employment counts are Stats NZ's Business Demography Statistics at February 2025, the most recent release at the time of writing. Stats NZ's full table of enterprises by employee-count band (0, 1 to 5, 6 to 9, 10 to 19, 20 to 49) sits behind an interactive tool this page could not pull a table from directly, so only the headline figures published in Stats NZ's own release commentary are used here: total enterprises, business locations, paid employees, the no-employee share, and the count and employee share of large enterprises. No regional breakdown of the under-20 bands is included, for the same reason.
The 97.2% under-20-staff figure is MBIE's own headline statistic in its small business factsheet, itself built on Stats NZ's Business Demography data. The factsheet's PDF blocks automated access, so this page quotes MBIE's published figure rather than the underlying table.
Microsoft 365 and Power Platform prices are read from microsoft.com/en-nz on the check date, annual commitment paid monthly, nothing converted from USD. Every Power Platform figure also lives in the Power Platform pricing ledger this site keeps.
This page is re-checked each quarter against Stats NZ's next Business Demography release and Microsoft's current NZ prices. Corrections by email are welcome and get a dated note.
What NZ small firms actually run
These are figures observed from the public websites and mail records of 5,357 NZ firms on Kove's file, collected June to September 2026, most of them trades and professional services firms.
What these numbers mean for a build and its price, by sector: electricians, building firms, engineering consultancies and law firms.
Mail platform: Microsoft 365 vs Google Workspace
Share of firms whose mail host could be identified as Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace from DNS records. Firms where neither could be confirmed aren't counted here.
| Group | Firms identified | Microsoft 365 | Google Workspace |
|---|---|---|---|
| All firms with a website | 1,821 | 67% | 33% |
| Electrician | 118 | 53% | 47% |
Website platform
Share of firms whose website-building platform could be detected from their own homepage.
| Group | Firms with a detected platform | Platform share |
|---|---|---|
| All firms with a website | 2,576 | WordPress 69%, Wix 14%, Squarespace 13%, Webflow 2%, Shopify 1% |
| Builder | 230 | WordPress 68%, Wix 19%, other platforms 13% |
| Electrician | 153 | WordPress 65%, other platforms 35% |
| Engineering consultancy | 145 | WordPress 68%, other platforms 32% |
| Legal services | 129 | WordPress 74%, other platforms 26% |
Platforms with fewer than 30 firms in a group are combined as other platforms.
Staff-size band
Most staff-size figures are read by a language model from the firm's own website text, not from a headcount. Based on 1,573 firms with a usable staff-size signal.
| Staff band | Share |
|---|---|
| 1 to 5 | 56% |
| 6 to 10 | 21% |
| 11 to 20 | 10% |
| 21 or more | 12% |
Booking software
Share of firms showing a booking-software signal on their own site.
| Signal | Share | Firms with a website |
|---|---|---|
| Booking software detected | 8% | 5,357 |
How these figures were collected
The sample is firms on Kove's file of NZ firms that have a website on file. Industry and region are the search terms used to find each firm, not something observed on its own site. The file leans towards Auckland and Wellington, and towards trades and professional services firms, so it is not a random cross-section of New Zealand business. No firm is named anywhere in this census, and no group with fewer than 30 firms is published. Percentages on small groups are rounded to the nearest five, since exact precision is not warranted at that size.
Cite it freely. Quote any figure with a link back:
NZ small business software census, Kove, September 2026 check. kove.nz/nz-small-business-software-census
Common questions
How many NZ businesses have fewer than 20 staff?
97.2%, on MBIE's small business factsheet, which is built on Stats NZ's Business Demography Statistics. Stats NZ's own February 2025 release counted 617,330 enterprises in total, and 74% of them have no paid employees at all.
How many enterprises are there in New Zealand?
617,330 at February 2025, Stats NZ's most recent Business Demography release, up 0.5% on February 2024.
What does Microsoft 365 cost a 10-person NZ firm a year?
NZ$1,252.80 on Business Basic, NZ$2,520.00 on Business Standard, or NZ$3,996.00 on Business Premium, ex GST at Microsoft's NZ annual-commitment price. The table above has 5 and 20 staff too.
Does Microsoft 365 already include Power Apps?
A limited version, yes. Every Business plan carries the same seeded rights to build against SharePoint, Outlook and Excel with standard connectors, plus Dataverse for Teams, capped at 2 GB. Power Apps Premium at NZ$32.40 a user is a separate purchase, needed once a build touches full Dataverse or a premium connector.
Where do these numbers come from?
Stats NZ's Business Demography Statistics, MBIE's small business factsheet, and Microsoft's own NZ pricing pages. Every figure on this page links to its source.
How often is this page updated?
Quarterly, alongside the site's other pricing pages. The next check is December 2026.
What share of NZ small firms use Microsoft 365 versus Google Workspace?
In Kove's observed-signal census, 67% of the 1,821 firms whose mail platform could be identified from DNS records run Microsoft 365 and 33% run Google Workspace.
What website platform do most NZ tradies use?
WordPress, by a wide margin. Among firms in Kove's census with a detected website platform, WordPress runs 68% of 230 builders and 65% of 153 electricians.