Microsoft’s latest version of Office is here. As you probably know the new office comes in two flavors.
One is a Cloud based version known as Office 365 and the other one is the traditional Office software which we know since ages.
So if you want to install Office on multiple computers then the new Office 365 Home Premium makes a better sense as otherwise you have to buy a package for each PCs.
Here’s Why Office 365 Could Be A Better Deal Than Office 2013
Office 365 Home & Premium suite costs $99.99 per year for 5 PCs and that’s definitely not a bad deal. You also get 20 GB of additional cloud storage (via SkyDrive), and 60 minutes of Skype calls every month. Now if you’re away from your PC then the Office 365 comes with a new feature called “Office on Demand”. It streams the full versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, and Publisher so that you can work online from any PC.
Since it’s subscription based you don’t have to upgrade your Office suite again. Microsoft automatically upgrades your suite when they release a new version so that your version of Office will never become obsolete.
Office 365 vs. Office 2013: Here’s The Math
If you own 5 PCs then it costs $699.95 for the Office Home and Student suite and $1,999.95 for the Professional suite for 3 years. Now if you opt for subscription suite (Office 365 Home Premium) then it costs only $299.97 for 3 years. It means that you’ll get the latest version of Office and you don’t have to buy a new version whenever they release one.
If all you own is just one PC (like me) then Office 365 Home Premium costs $299.97 for 3 years. And just $139.99 for Office Home and Student edition, $219.99 for Office Home and Business edition, and $399.99 Professional edition.
Wait, Office 365 Is Not A Good Deal If…
That said, the Office 365 is not a good deal if you own a single PC and don’t care about future updates. I have only a single PC and I’m not too comfortable with the subscription model as $99.99/year means $300 for 3 years (assuming that I may not change the PC every 3 years).
Again, it also depends upon your usage. The top Office applications I use are OneNote, Outlook and Word. So the best choice for me would be the Office Home & Business suite.
Now if I’m a power office user who owns several PCs then the Office 365 would be a better choice as it’s always up to date and comes with 20 GB of cloud storage, 60 minutes of Skype calls per month (to phones in 40+ countries), and Office on demand (Office on Demand streams a full version of Office to PCs that don’t have Office installed).
And one more thing! Microsoft Office is basically all about Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook and a good majority of people use only Word. So if you’re one of those who depend upon only Word then you can buy the stand-alone package. The Microsoft Word, Outlook, Excel, and PowerPoint 2013 is also available as stand-alone versions and you can buy any of them for $109.99 for 1 PC.
Why Office 365 Could Be A Better Deal Than Office 2013 is a post by Minterest