


You get all the essential Microsoft apps with a one-time purchase including Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Access, Publisher and other collaboration tools like Microsoft Teams and OneNote.

If you're in that camp, this deal gets you a lifetime license for Microsoft Office Professional 2021 for $49.99, that's 85% off the regular price for a standalone license. However, there's another big group of users who simply don't want to pay for a subscription or annual fees. (If you’re a business buying Microsoft software for multiple computers, then you would need to stick with Office for even longer before you start “saving” money, as 365 Business starts at just $5 per person per month.Microsoft Office remains the king of office productivity and some are not having a hard time justifying a subscription to Office 365 if you need it for work and take advantage of cloud storage perks. Individuals who buy the $250 Office Home and Business bundle for Outlook access need to use the software for about 35 and a half months before they start “saving” money. So if you were to buy the standard $150 Office suite, you would need to use it for 21 and a half months for it to be more cost-effective than Microsoft 365. Microsoft 365’s individual plan costs $7 a month. Of course, Office costs more upfront, but 365 comes with a monthly fee, so deciding which is more cost-effective really depends on how you plan to use the software or how often you plan to replace it. Anyone can set up a Teams group with up to 100 participants for free, though larger groups require a 365 Business plan.įor those who just want access to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint but don’t care about collaborative features or cloud storage, choosing between Office and Microsoft 365 is mostly a matter of price. Teams makes sharing and collaborating on documents super easy and provides an all-in-one setting for chats and video meetings.

Sharing through the cloud ensures that you and your collaborators always have the latest version of a document, and that you can see the changes made by others without comparing old and new files side-by-side.Ĭollaboration goes a step further when you use Microsoft Teams, an instant message tool that integrates with Microsoft 365. Instead, you can invite people to view or edit your document through a sharable link, with real-time collaboration and messaging. Microsoft 365 makes emailing documents a thing of the past. And thanks to the 1TB of OneDrive storage provided with your account, you can access your documents from anywhere without carrying around a thumb drive. You can access Microsoft’s productivity suite on any device just by logging into your Microsoft account. In a world where people are constantly jumping between computers, phones, and tablets, Microsoft 365’s cross-platform support truly an essential feature.
