Not so long ago, using Microsoft Office couldn’t be simpler. In return for a wedge of cash, you got a box with an installation disc inside and a handful of applications you could use on your PC for as long as you liked, or until you wanted to update to a more recent version.
Mar 30, 2020 The best solution for you Office 2019 vs. Office 365: Which should you buy? I've worked with the suite Microsoft Office apps for a long time, and while I've tried other apps, I always come back.
Things are a bit different today. Microsoft still updates its Office suite on a regular basis – the most recent being Office 2016, which can be bought from the Microsoft Store for around £120.
But buying a ‘copy’ of Office isn’t the only option around. Poke about the Microsoft web site and you’ll see that you can also pay £5.99 a month for Office 365— which includes Office — or use Office Online for free. Or if you own an Android or Apple tablet, you can install the free Microsoft Office app instead.
- Office 365 customers get the new Office for Mac first. You’ll have Office applications on your Mac or PC, apps on tablets and smartphones for when you're on the go, and Office Online on the web for everywhere in between.
- Mar 30, 2020 The best solution for you Office 2019 vs. Office 365: Which should you buy? I've worked with the suite Microsoft Office apps for a long time, and while I've tried other apps, I always come back.
- Jul 03, 2019 While you'll get the core Office apps you love with either Office 365 or Office 2019, there are quite a few differences between the two options. Which is good for six users across PC or Mac.
- Dec 09, 2018 If you want an Office 365 subscription, buy it directly from Microsoft’s web site. For home use, you will likely pick between Office 365 Personal and Office 365 Home. The Personal plan currently costs $70 per year and lets you install Office on 1 Mac or PC.
That makes figuring out which version of Office to use and how much it’s worth paying more than a little confusing. But we're here to clear things up.
Microsoft Office
A one-off price for Microsoft Office Home and Student 2016 may be the best option if you want to pay up front for an office suite.
This suite gives you the most recent versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote, meant for one PC only (Mac also comes with Outlook).
Microsoft added a number of new features to Office, including the ability for multiple users to edit one document together.
Microsoft Office 365
Office 365 is essentially Microsoft’s Office subscription service.
£5.99 a month gives you one copy of the software to install on one computer(and you can switch at will, if you want), or £7.99 gives you software to share with six people including smartphones and tablets — but more on those later.
£5.99 a month — or £59.99 a year — isn’t a bad deal, Even so, you’ll still pay less if you buy Office outright and use it for two years, but you will be stuck on that version. Office 365 subscribers, on the other hand, get to use the latest version of Office as soon as it’s released.
Something else worth bearing in mind is that Office 365 is also often bundled with other products, search ‘Office 365 laptop’ on Amazonand other sites.
Office Online
If you only use Microsoft Office occasionally on your PC or Mac, or even a computer with another operating system then you might not need to pay for it at all.
Office Online provides web-based versions of most Office apps and although they’re ‘lightweight’ versions that lack some features, few people are likely to miss them. More importantly, the apps are free to use.
Since they’re web-based, Office Online apps work best with cloud storage, but non-paying users still get a 5GB of space via Microsoft OneDrive. The only catch is that you can’t upload existing documents from your computer from within the apps themselves, but dragging files to cloud storage is a simple extra step.
Microsoft Office for Mobile Devices
It sounds too good to be true, but Microsoft also offers a version of Office for Android, Apple and Windows smartphones and tablets that you can use for free. The versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote are a good deal simpler than their PC counterparts, but they look very similar and are still very capable.
Microsoft office for mac 2011 service pack 3 14.3 0. The catch is that you need an Office 365 subscription to unlock the full features in the apps, but that only means you’ll then be able to save and open documents using Microsoft’s cloud storage for businesses. If that sounds like something you won’t ever need, then you’d be right, which makes Microsoft Office for Mobile Devices a brilliant freebie.
Don’t forget…
Don’t just think you’re tied to Microsoft Office, even if you need to edit Office documents. Both Google Docs (web-based) and Libre Office (download) can open and save documents in Office format, and both cost nothing to use.
Are you trying to decide if you should buy Office for Mac as part of an Office 365 subscription or as a stand-alone product? While cost is one important consideration it is not the only one. I’d like to point out a few other considerations that I think you should keep in mind as you make your decision. It is important to know that regardless of whether you buy Office as a stand-alone product or as part of Office 365, you get the ability to download and install Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc on your Mac. Microsoft offers a web-based version of these applications.The online versions are only available if you have an Office 365 subscription. The online versions are cleverly named Word Online, Excel Online, etc. Frankly, I don’t believe I’ve ever used them so I can’t comment on how similar or dissimilar they are from the full desktop versions. Office 365 subscribers get access to new versions of Office when they are released, which is typically about every 3 or 4 years. For example, Microsoft made the following Mac versions of Office: Office 2011, Office 2016 and they released Office 2019 in September 2018.
Home and Student vs Home and Business
First you need to determine if you want to buy the Home and Student version or the Home and Business version. While these names may be slightly confusing, the primary difference for Mac users is that the Home and Business version includes Microsoft’s email application, Outlook. If you’re a business customer or if you use Outlook then you should buy the Home and Business version. Both versions include Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote.
Office on iPad or iPhone
Do you want to use Office apps on your iPhone or iPad to edit documents? Microsoft lets you download and install Word, Excel and Powerpoint, for free, on your iOS device. However, this free version only lets you open and view Word, Excel and PowerPoint files. If you want to edit files then you need to have an Office 365 subscription.
OneDrive
Do you use Microsoft’s OneDrive to store and/or share documents with others? If so, it probably makes more sense to get an Office 365 subscription since Microsoft provides 1TB of storage space per user as part of the subscription. Microsoft does offer stand-alone OneDrive accounts. As of the end of 2018, a free OneDrive account comes with 5 GB of storage and a paid account comes with 50 GB of storage space.
Price
Prices vary over time. I plan to update the prices in this article from time to time, but please always check exact prices in case the prices listed below aren’t current.
If you want to buy Office outright, you can get competitive pricing from Amazon for Office for Mac. When you purchase from Amazon make sure you buy one of the digital download versions which let you download the installer from Microsoft’s web site (which requires you to use a Microsoft account or create one.) For example, current prices for the Home and Student version of Office 2019 for Mac is about $120. This lets you install it on one Mac. It’s not currently possible to buy a multi-user license, such as the 3-packs that Microsoft previously offered.
If you want an Office 365 subscription, buy it directly from Microsoft’s web site. For home use, you will likely pick between Office 365 Personal and Office 365 Home. The Personal plan currently costs $70 per year and lets you install Office on 1 Mac or PC. The Home plan costs $100 per year and lets you install Office on up to 6 Macs or PC.
What Microsoft Office Do I Need For Mac
Currently, Microsoft offers 3 plans for small business customers.
Office 365 Business Essentials for $5/user/month. This plan only provides email accounts for your business. It does not include Word, Excel or Powerpoint.
Office 365 Business for $8.25/user/month. This is the most commonly purchased plan. It includes Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
Office 365 Business Premium for $12.50/user/month. This plan includes Word, Excel and Powerpoint as well as email hosting for your business.
Office 365 subscriptions also include Microsoft’s Intelligent Services
Which Microsoft Office Should I Get For Mac Download
In general, I think that if you need more than 3 licenses for your home or business and you look at the cost of ownership over about 5-6 years then it typically more affordable to buy Office 365 subscriptions.