#Microsoft 365 vs office 2016 for mac install#
#Microsoft 365 vs office 2016 for mac upgrade#
#Microsoft 365 vs office 2016 for mac full#

The company has played with the idea of a subscription for Office as far back as Office 11 but never brought it to market until now. Plan – With Office 365 in 2011, Microsoft introduced a subscription model for the Office suite. You can still get Office this way, but it’s becoming the least preferred route. You inserted a disc and installed the suite and used it forever on that computer, or if the computer died or you got a new one, you transferred the license to that machine and continued using Office.

#Microsoft 365 vs office 2016 for mac install#

You bought the suite from a brick-and-mortar store or an online merchant website such as, which came in a shrink-wrapped box containing install media, a license, and a thick user manual. Before Office 365, this is how everyone acquired a license for Office. Perpetual – also known as a one-time purchase. The focus of this article, though, is not the free version but commercial licenses that still exist as both perpetual and subscription. If you don’t need all the whizz-bang features of the suite, you can settle for the free Office Online, which includes essential features. No wonder it became Microsoft’s biggest cash cow.įast forward to 2015, you can now pick up an Office 365 subscription for just $7 (per month), but it’s interesting how much Microsoft is making Office even more accessible by making it affordable and easy to get, whether you are running OS X, Windows or even just a web browser. That was near $700 spent in just one year on Microsoft Office suites. A year later, Microsoft released Office XP, for us being naïve and enamored with having the latest and greatest spent another $330 just for the Professional edition. Thankfully our IBM Aptiva had Lotus SmartSuite 9, which was used for the eligibility check. This meant you needed to have a qualifying previous version of Office or a competitive suite such as Lotus SmartSuite or WordPerfect Office.

#Microsoft 365 vs office 2016 for mac full#

Keep in mind, this was an upgrade, not a full license, and it was only for one PC.

#Microsoft 365 vs office 2016 for mac upgrade#

I remembered 15 years ago, and our family invested in an upgrade license for Office 2000 Premium at the time, the cost was $350. The Office tools that Microsoft continues to charge for are free from Google, Apple, and even Microsoft, too. Microsoft, being the defacto standard for office productivity suites for nearly 25 years, has been challenged by the dynamics of the Cloud and how software is acquired, delivered, and used. With the rise of active players such as Google and Facebook, the way we compute has changed significantly. It is amazing to witness dramatic changes in the software industry over the past five years. The student plan is a one-time purchase of $150 and includes Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.īusiness users can select from Basic, Standard, and Premium plans, starting at $5 per user/month.

The Personal version is for one person and is $70/year or $6.99 per month. The first is $100 per year (or $10/month) and includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Outlook for Mac, and is useful for up to six users. For home use, the Microsoft 365 suite is currently available in three varieties, including a Family, Personal, and Home & Student plan.