Microsoft launched Office 2019 late last year, but the new ad campaign makes it pretty clear the company would really prefer that you didn't buy it. Instead, Microsoft's latest twins challenge ads, which pits Office 2019 and Office 365 against each other by having three sets of identical twins complete the same tasks in both versions to determine which is better. The end result, Microsoft concludes you'd be much better off with a monthly or yearly subscription to Office 365.
- Buy Microsoft Office Outright
- Microsoft Office Subscription Vs Purchase
- Can I Buy Office 365 Outright
- Microsoft Office 365 Products
- Office 365 Vs Office 2019
Microsoft 365 & Office is available in two ways: a one-time purchase of a specific version, and as a subscription service. For the Student one-time purchase version, you will get Office. Replied on July 4, 2013 You can buy Office 2013 or 2010. The applications in 2013 and 365 are identical. However with 365, it will always be kept up to date with the latest release and in time, 2010 and (somewhat later), 2013 will go the way of earlier versions and in time, will no longer be supported by Microsoft.
With Office 365 Home you will always have access to the latest software. Simply download to instantly improve your experience. Georgeana Club Secretary. Georgeana is the organised one. She likes how Office 365 Home keeps everyone in sync. PowerPoint Designer came in very handy when planning a recent club trip to the Alps. For Office 365 users the other important program is SharePoint Workspace. This program syncs data from the Office 365 SharePoint site so you can use it offline. It's an important and useful part of SharePoint but not compulsory. Lync is the client for the Lync real-time communication service.
You can also buy a license outright for $150 and get Word, Excel, and PowerPoint without a subscription, though it doesn't come with access to OneDrive and Skype. If you're a current student.
The Office suite has been one of Microsoft's biggest cash-cows for the company since its first release in 1987. Every three years or so, the company has release upgrades to all the apps mainly targeted at business users. However, in 2011 Microsoft replaced Business Productivity Online Services (BPOS) with Office 365 and the whole game changed. It is not clear that there will be a new, static Office 2019 release in three years' time. Neither is it clear that is really necessary.
Replace Office With Office 365
While Microsoft has never been shy about its cloud ambitions for Office 365 and that it wants users — both business and consumer — to move to Office 365, recently it has launched a new ad campaign that, for all intents and purposes, urges people to dump Office 2019 and move to Office 365.
Office 365 includes fully installed Office applications — including the latest versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook. And these apps keep getting better over time, with new capabilities delivered every month. Most importantly, Office 365 is connected to the cloud, so you can access your content from any device, co-author with anyone in real-time (regardless of whether or not they've purchased a copy of Office), and use the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to create more impactful content with less effort.
On the flip side, Jared Spataro, corporate vice president for Microsoft 365, wrote that Office 2019 also delivers full installs of the Office apps we know and love — but they're 'frozen in time.' And despite the love, he continues: 'They don't ever get updated with new features, and they're not cloud-connected. Also, Office 2019 doesn't support real-time co-authoring across apps, and it doesn't have the amazing AI-powered capabilities that come with Office 365.' So much for the love!
Related Article: 12 Productivity Tools Baked Into Office 365
Buy Microsoft Office Outright
Cloud-Licenses Replace Static Licenses
Microsoft Office Subscription Vs Purchase
While the problem is not confined to Office 2019, it is a good example of the problem with static software licenses and, on the face of it, the advantages of moving to the cloud, said Todd Boutte, president of technology and operations at EVAN, an on-demand IT support platform.
He said Office 2019 for business was already outdated when it was released. Since introducing its subscription service, Office 365, in 2011, Microsoft began slowly shifting its development priorities to the 365 versions of its products. Once Office 365 reached feature parity with the retail release of Office 2013, its features and development pace began to overtake its retail counterpart. 'Office 365 had definitively become the best place to receive the latest feature and design improvements across the Office product line. In fact, the Office 2019 release contains nothing that has not been available to Office 365 users for quite a long time,' Boutte said.
Can I Buy Office 365 Outright
Related Article: Boosting Productivity in Office 365 Through AI
Microsoft Office 365 Products
Are Subscription Models Worth It?
While it seems like there are some unique benefits to paying a monthly subscription for Office 365, it may not be worth it for many individuals or business owners. Some of the features may not be useful or utilized enough to warrant the subscription. Jacob Dayan, CEO and co-founder of Community Tax, said it is possible that Microsoft will end up being similar to what Adobe did with its creative suite of applications. Adobe moved to a subscription service that automatically installs application updates as they roll out.
'It sounds nice, and is in many cases it is, but the problem is their subscription service is expensive and costs more over time than it would if you were to just buy the applications outright like you were able to before. Ultimately though, the subscription service may be useful for some companies/individuals who utilize the applications extensively,' Dayan said.
Levi Olmstead, the manager for SEO and community outreach with G2 Crowd, pointed out that almost all business software is in the cloud in 2019. Cloud products are easier to implement, have better support, and in general, are easier to use. 'In my role at G2 for example, it's extremely rare for us to use on-premises tools. Our project management, CRM, email marketing, CMS, marketing automation tools are all cloud tools. We mainly use Google Sheets and Docs. The only on-premises tools I use are Excel, crawling tools for our website and photo editing tools,' he said.
Recently, RightScale released its 2019 State of the Cloud Report, built on a survey of 786 technology professionals at large and small enterprises across a multitude of industries, such as tech services, software, financial services, telecom, education, government and healthcare. The report focused on how enterprises are using clouds — rather than apps based in the cloud. The report showed, for example, that:
- Enterprise cloud spend is significant and growing quickly - Enterprises plan to spend 24 percent more on public cloud in 2019 vs. 2018. Thirteen percent of enterprises spend more than $12 million a year on public cloud, while 50 percent spend more than $1.2 million annually.
- Managing software licenses in the public cloud is top of mind - Understanding the cost implications of licensed software running in the cloud is also a key challenge (52 percent). Other challenges include understanding the complexity of license rules in public cloud (42 percent), and ensuring that they are following the rules (41 percent).
The cloud is definitely an attractive option for enterprises especially given there are more apps in any given subscription service suite than most users need. There are also quite a number of free options including LibreOffice and Google's free office web apps, the question that tech buyers need to answer for their enterprises is not whether cloud licenses are better than cloud-based apps, but whether they are happy doing all their computing out of the cloud.
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Office 365 Vs Office 2019
Microsoft Office is the staple software of modern home computing. Got a PC? Then you need to buy Microsoft Office to get Word, Excel and PowerPoint, right?
That used to be the case.
Computer minimize shortcut. New mavis beacon. Nowadays, millions of people have ditched Office for the free Google suite of Docs, Sheets and Slides and embraced cloud computing. But for some, the comfort and familiarity of Microsoft's productivity software is too much to give up and besides, Microsoft offers cloud storage too.
It used to be simple: buy a computer, then buy a CD-ROM loaded with Office. An easy, one-off payment and the software was yours forever (or until your PC gave up). If you want to, you can still do it this way via a one-time download (RIP CD-ROMs).
But Office 365 is the way Microsoft wants you to buy into Office – as a monthly or annual subscription payment that embraces the convenience of cloud storage and services across your multiple devices.
Here, we take a look at what Office 365 gives you and if it's worth investing in over buying Office outright.
What devices does Microsoft Office 365 work on?
Office 365 is compatible with any modern PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android phone or Android tablet (check exact requirements here).
How much is Microsoft Office 365 in Australia?
There are two tiers of the Office 365 subscription: Home or Personal. There's not much of a price difference between the two but go for Personal if you only need Office for yourself. For a little more, Home lets you share the benefits with up to six people so is ideal for families.
The annual costs saves you money compared to paying monthly, but the monthly subscription is more flexible as you can cancel at any time.
Microsoft Office 365 Home costs AU$129 per year, or AU$13 per month.
Microsoft Office 365 Personal costs AU$99 per year, or AU$10 per month.
You can try Office for one month as a free trial but it requires your payment details, and will charge you for an annual subscription at the end of the trial unless you cancel.
What does Microsoft Office 365 include?
Both Home and Personal include the full suite of Office apps and services. The only difference is that Home gives access to six people, while Personal is just for one.
Microsoft Office 365 Home includes:
Office for up to 6 people across all their devices
Apps for Windows, macOS, iOS, Android
Word
Excel
PowerPoint
Outlook
Publisher (PC only)
Access (PC only)
OneDrive with 1TB storage for 6 people
Skype
OneNote
Technical support
Microsoft Office 365 Personal includes:
Office for one 1 person across all their devices
Apps for Windows, macOS, iOS, Android
Word
Fusionfall full game free. Excel
PowerPoint
Outlook
Publisher (PC only)
Access (PC only)
OneDrive with 1TB storage for 1 person
Skype
OneNote
Technical support
Either one is a great deal as it offers every Office service and unlimited sign-ins across devices, so you can use Office on your computer, tablet and phone and any other device you might have (for example more than one computer or on your personal and work phone).
You just download the apps you want from the app store on your PC, Mac, phone or tablet and then sign in with your Microsoft account details.
As well as access to everything and a generous 1TB of cloud storage, Office 365 is great because it will automatically update all of the software to the latest version. So when Microsoft improves Word, you'll get the update over the internet.
That perk goes for every service on Office 365.
It's worth noting that if you stop paying for Office 365, you can no longer access any of the services. You have to keep paying to keep access to the apps and your existing files.
Office 365 suggests you save those files in the cloud using OneDrive, but it is possible to save files directly to your devices instead if you prefer, which is an easier way of having access to your saved files if you plan to only pay for Office for a short amount of time.
Can you buy Microsoft Office outright?
Free high quality audio recording software. If you don't like the idea of a monthly subscription and would prefer to pay once for Office and have it forever like the good old days then you can still do that with Microsoft Office Home & Student 2019 (current version at the time of writing). Watch local tv on your pc.
Office 365 does not have a year in its branding it as it is constantly updated. Buying Office Home & Student 2019 as a one-off purchase means you will forever have that edition of Office, and you won't receive software updates to add new features or upgrade to the next year's version. It does however receive security updates.
Office Home & Student costs AU$199 as a one-off payment and includes:
1 person for only 1 PC or 1 Mac
Word
Excel
PowerPoint
OneNote
Unfortunately, that's it - buying Office outright does not get you popular apps like Outlook for email or OneNote. It also doesn't get you OneDrive cloud storage, and you can't use the apps on your phone or tablet - you must download Office to one PC or Mac and forever use it there.
It is quite restrictive, and we only recommend Office Home & Student's one-off payment if you want the basic Word, Excel and PowerPoint set up on one computer and if you save files locally to the computer or a hard drive.
Otherwise, Microsoft is clearly pushing a superior version of Office with Office 365. While it might take a while to get your head round an annual payment for software, the advantages are clear to see. Think of it as the Netflix of home computing.
You get the latest version of every app regularly updated, generous cloud storage, an email client, sign-in across all your devices for up to six people and technical support. That's a pretty good deal.
If you're comfortable with cloud storage and need Office on more than your computer then Office 365 is worth the spend - it's more the getting used to paying a subscription for something that used to be a one off purchase that is the barrier rather than the value of the software itself.
This article was originally published on the 19th of December 2019.
