Choose Microsoft Copilot if
You want one assistant across Microsoft 365, at a published per-seat price, with your people bringing the work.
Starch vs Microsoft Copilot
Copilot is a general assistant.
We run the public finance workflow.
Microsoft 365 Copilot is a strong assistant inside the tools a bank already licenses. The difference is what happens after someone asks it a question.
Facts about Microsoft Copilot checked
Choose Starch if
You want the public finance process finished and running, with the review path and the upkeep owned by someone other than your bankers.
An assistant in the tools is not a process that runs.
| Axis | Starch | Microsoft Copilot |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A public finance workflow, built for the desk and operated by us. | An assistant embedded across Microsoft 365 apps. |
| The general workspace | Included. Agents, automations and apps, with a library and an inbox. | Is the product. A general assistant across Microsoft 365. |
| Built for | Public finance banks: coverage, RFP, issuer and mandate work. | Any organization on Microsoft 365. Finance is one solution area. |
| How you get it | Scoped, quoted and deployed per engagement. | A per-seat add-on on an eligible Microsoft 365 license. |
| How it is priced | Scoped to the workflow and the desk it runs on. A build, then the running of it. | Published: $30 per user per month on an annual commitment, on top of the base license. |
| Data reach | Your documents, portals, DBC runs and CRM, wired by us. | Microsoft Graph and more than 100 prebuilt connectors. |
| Recurring execution | Is the product. Workflows run on a cadence nobody restarts. | Scheduled prompts repeat a question or a draft. The process around them stays with the desk. |
| Output | A sourced draft in your format, routed to a named approver. | Answers and Office artifacts in Word, Excel, Outlook and Teams. |
Copilot is the assistant most of our readers already have a license for. This page is about the part of the week that is not a prompt.
Where Copilot is genuinely ahead.
It publishes its price
Microsoft 365 Copilot is $30 per user per month on an annual commitment, and the base license requirement is stated plainly.
It is already inside the tools
Word, Excel, Outlook and Teams carry it, and more than 100 prebuilt connectors reach the rest of the estate.
One vendor across the firm
Microsoft administers identity, devices, email and the assistant together, which is simpler for a large IT estate.
Past the table
Four questions the table leaves open.
Onboarding, data, the desk itself, and when to walk away. The last section names the cases where Copilot is the better answer.
What onboarding actually involves
It starts with us learning how your desk works: which workflows repeat, who touches them, and where the week actually goes. We judge fit at the same time, and if it is not there you hear it from us directly.
When the fit is there, we build the workflow against the group's precedent and approval rules, tailor it to the formats the desk already uses, and put it live inside your environment. Forward-deployed means the integrations, the changes and the upkeep stay with us. Your bankers use the result.
Where your data sits
Everything lives in your tenant, in your cloud or ours. Our access is limited to what the work needs, granted for a purpose rather than left standing, and permission-based where that fits.
Redacted logs are a reasonable example of what we might ask to read. That access is scoped to the workflow we run, and it is yours to grant.
Does it differ from desk to desk?
There is one desk. Public finance is the only desk Starch sells to, so the build goes deeper there rather than repeating a template across verticals.
What varies is the team. Two public finance groups run different portals, precedent and approval rules, so the workflow is built against the group's own documents rather than a generic model of the desk.
When not to pick us
If the workflow you need is not one we already serve, and it does not share the evidence and approval machinery the ones we serve do, we will say it is the wrong fit rather than build it anyway.
And if the week is mostly drafting documents and looking things up inside Office, Copilot is the honest answer, and it is already licensed. The Workspace runs a general assistant too, and it is not what we are for. Starch is for the recurring process around the writing: the portal, the precedent, the figures, the approval route and the record.
Asked about Microsoft Copilot
Is Starch a Microsoft Copilot alternative?
Mostly no. Copilot is a general assistant inside Microsoft 365. Starch is a public finance workflow we build and operate. If you want an assistant across the firm, Copilot is the natural buy.
Can we just use Copilot for this?
For drafting, looking things up and repeating a prompt on a schedule, often yes. What it does not run is the whole process: the portal, the group's formatting, the approval route and the record it leaves.
How much does Microsoft 365 Copilot cost?
Microsoft publishes $30 per user per month on an annual commitment, and it requires an eligible Microsoft 365 license underneath. The all-in cost is therefore the assistant plus the base license.
Who reviews what the assistant produces?
With Copilot, whoever asked checks the output. With Starch the approval path is part of the workflow: nothing reaches a client, issuer or regulator without a named person approving it.
Can Starch and Copilot be used together?
Yes. Copilot stays in Office and Teams for the work people drive themselves, including scheduled prompts. Starch runs the public finance process around it, from the source document to the approved record.
See it run
Keep the assistant.
Let us run the process.
Bring the public finance workflow your desk repeats every month, and we will show you what it looks like finished.
Book a demoSources and methodChecked 2026-10-22
Everything stated about Microsoft Copilot on this page comes from the material below, checked on 2026-10-22. Pricing and product detail change; confirm on their site before deciding.
- Microsoft 365 Copilotwhat Copilot is and the apps it runs in
- Microsoft: Copilot licensingthe add-on license and its eligible base plans
- Microsoft: Copilot connectors gallerythe prebuilt connector estate
- Microsoft: Copilot connectors overviewhow external data reaches Microsoft Graph
- Microsoft: scheduled promptsscheduled prompts and the apps they run in
Microsoft Copilot is a trademark of Microsoft. Starch is not affiliated with, endorsed by or partnered with Microsoft. Statements about Copilot on this page come from Microsoft's own public materials on the date shown and may since have changed; confirm with Microsoft before deciding. Nothing here describes what Copilot cannot do.