What is the difference between Microsoft Office and Office 365?

The Microsoft has two versions of Office, its productivity suite: a traditional, currently in version Office 2019, which is a single purchase permit, and Office 365, a subscription service. But do you know what the main differences are?

What is the difference between Microsoft Office and Office 365?

The main difference between Office 2019 and Office 365 is the business model of each, which is reflected in the format of the license use. Let’s see how each version is.

Office 2019: advantages and disadvantages

For Office 2019 (and its earlier versions), Microsoft offers a one -time purchase license, where the user purchases the permanent user rights for the programs contained in the package; the programs will receive periodic security updates, and will be entitled to use Microsoft support, even if only for 60 days.

The advantage of Office 2019 is that the user only has to make the payment once, not having to be stuck to a subscription model to use the software. At the same time, it will have the basics of basic, and you can choose versions suitable for your use, not having to pay for all programs. The simplest version Home & Student, for example, dedicated to home users and students has the mandatory WordExcel and PowerPoint, plus OneNote, for $149.99.

But the Home & Business version, aimed at professionals, adds Microsoft  Outlook, Microsoft’s corporate email client, for saltier than $249.99.

On the other hand, the traditional package does not receive the incremental updates ( more resources ) periodically assigned to Office 365, and the license is only valid for a single computer, be it Windows or MacOS. Therefore, the user can not install it on more than one terminal at the same time.

Office 365: advantages and disadvantages

The Office 365, is in turn offers the full suite, with all the software of the basic package (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and One), Outlook and two additional only for installation and use on Windows computers, Access (database ) and Publisher (layout). You can use the programs either locally, through direct installation on the computer, or in the cloud through the Office Online portal.

The main difference is that to have access to Office 365, the user must have a Microsoft account and subscribe to the service, with monthly or annual payments. It is possible to acquire an annual key in the retail network, but the business model is the same.

Office 365 has two subscription models: Personal ($6.99/month or $69.99/year), intended for only one user, and Home ($9.99/month or $99.99/year), which supports up to six people. In both versions, you can install the application package on as many computers as you want, with Windows or MacOS.

The suite often receives incremental updates, adds new features, or improves existing ones, which does not happen in Office 2019 (or earlier), and the user has access to Microsoft support while the subscription is active.

The suite also has other advantages compared to Office 2019: Office 365 offers each user 1TB of space on OneDrive, Microsoft’s online storage service, and 60 minutes of monthly calls on Skype (messenger).

Finally, owners of the iPad Pro (all versions) will be able to save their work in Word, Excel and PowerPoint apps for iOS, which are free to use for iPhoneiPad and Android users.

The disadvantage of Office 365 is that all of these benefits are directly tied to the subscription. And, once it’s over, the suite will greatly restrict the usage options. Ultimately, to keep 365 always active, the user would have to spend a lot more than with a single license, but it has additional benefits. Learn more about how to migrate SharePoint from one tenant to another and benefits of Office 365 cloud migration services.

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