When you want to express that something is far beyond what you initially expected, there are several alternatives to the phrase "much more". You can say "significantly greater", "considerably larger", or "vastly superior". Another option is to use "exponentially higher", which implies that the increase is not just incremental, but rather grows at an exponential rate. If you want to emphasize the unexpected nature of the increase, you could use "surprisingly greater" or "shockingly larger". Finally, "substantially more" is a classic phrase that conveys a large increase in a clear and concise way.