The easy secret smart businesses use to avoid paying Microsoft a monthly fee for Outlook, Word, Excel and Powerpoint.
Portland, Ore – Kudos for Microsoft in keeping the ability to purchase Microsoft Office outright. Clearly their company focus is on driving subscription revenue. They are not the only company to do this. But it is a double-edged sword. While it may make shareholders happy to see increasing revenue, it also puts the onus on Microsoft to introduce features and services that have value to business people.
Microsoft Office has achieved rare dominance in the professional world. A businessperson's standing with customers requires presentations in PowerPoint and documents in Word. They use Microsoft Office Picture Manager for managing, editing, sharing, and viewing pictures on computers.
Instead of paying full price for Microsoft Office for Mac or Windows, you may be able to buy the full version for just $9.95 if you work for a participating company.
- Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal computer market, overtaking Mac OS. The most recent client version of Windows is Windows 8. On the other hand, Microsoft Office is an office suite of desktop applications, servers and services for the Microsoft Windows.
- Microsoft Office Home and Student 2019 for Windows/Mac, 1 User, Download (79G-05011) 7. Delivered Electronically.
However, like Comcast, Microsoft products are not dramatically different than ten or twenty years ago. Bold and Underline is the same. Outlook contacts have not gained any more usefulness. Task priorities still do not handle Franklin Covey techniques. So why does Microsoft think you need to pay $12.50 per month for something you can buy outright for $229?
I have owned a business for 31 years, or as I commonly say, 'through four of the last three recessions.' I pay hard costs when the economy is good and run lean during the downturns. I buy furniture, equipment and software that lasts, and then milk it when I need. Half the battle of staying in business is to survive the unexpected; the snowstorm that closed our office for two weeks, the 9/11 shutdown of all domestic aviation, the unexpected lawsuit and the IRS audit. Surviving the unexpected means when business veers to idle, our monthly operating cost drops closer to zero. You cannot do that if you are paying a monthly fee to a vendor that is not providing significant ROI.
Moore's law ensures that technology becomes cheaper, faster, bigger and less expensive. The only rising cost I have is personnel and benefits which rise with the growth of the economy. If the features you need for Microsoft Office and Microsoft Windows is inherently the same, then it should be optional for you to pay for Microsoft's expensive service model, not a requirement.
CompanionLink has published a guide for people who want to 'cut the cord' and free themselves from Microsoft's subscription model. The guide covers how to capture your data locally, how to set up local email, and how to purchase a one-time license to the appropriate Microsoft Office version.
You can read our guide here.
Windows Office 2018 Price List
About CompanionLink Software
CompanionLink® Software, Inc. is a pioneering developer of data synchronization solutions for mobile phones and CRM software and services. They also develop a DejaOffice® for Outlook® App which runs on Android™, iPhone®, iPad®, Windows Phone®, and BlackBerry® devices. For 30 years, CompanionLink has helped mobilize information across devices, computers, applications, and web-based services. For more information, please visit www.companionlink.com and www.dejaoffice.com.
CompanionLink, DejaOffice and DejaCloud are registered trademarks of CompanionLink Software, Inc. Other product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.
CompanionLink for Outlook
Microsoft Office, a suite of products developed by Microsoft, includes Microsoft Word, Excel, Access, Publisher Outlook and PowerPoint.
Microsoft Office has been at the forefront of dominance in the office suite market until recently when it started facing strong competition from the likes of Google apps for business, OpenOffice.org and LibreOffice.
Apart from being available in the traditional desktop-based form, they also offer different versions of Microsoft office through the cloud (office 365) and via different mobile devices like the Windows Phone.
'Microsoft Office 365 lansering' (CC BY 2.0) by Microsoft Sweden
How much does Microsoft Office cost?
As of 2017, Microsoft offers Office 365 Home, which in order to use online, you will have to pay an annual subscription, ranging from $100 to $400+ a year, depending on the package and if it's either for personal use or business. To make things easier, we created a table below breaking up the costs.
| Software Package | Price |
|---|---|
| Office 365 Home | $99.99/year |
| Office 365 Professional | $69.99/year |
| Office Home 2016 | $149.99 one-time fee |
| Office 365 Business | starts at $8.25/user |
| Office 365 Business Premium | starts at $12.50/user |
| Office 365 Business Essentials | starts at $5/user |
| Office Home & Business 2016 for PC | $229.99 one-time fee |
| Office Professional 2016 for PC | $399.99 one-time fee |
If you want to bypass the annual subscription fees, then Microsoft does offer Office Home and Student 2016 for $149.99, but you may be able to find it cheaper via third-party retailers or even on eBay for a lot less. Office Home & Business 2016 retails for $229.999, while Office Professional 2016 retails for $399.99. These are the prices for both PC and Mac.
Windows Office 2019 Price
At Best Buy, for example, the prices are the same for the subscription cards, but in some cases, they may hold a sale to bring the costs down. Other retailers to check out includes Sam's Club, Costco and Walmart.
Microsoft Office, designed for the iPad, is free for reading only, but if you want to use the full functionality, you will need an Office 365 subscription.
In the end, when purchasing Microsoft Office, you have three options: either paying the annual subscription, one-time fee or using the slim downed version online via Office.com for free.
An outdated version — Microsoft Office 2013 — can be purchased brand new for about $55.
Microsoft Office overview
Annual personal subscriptions come with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher (PC only), Access (PC only), 1TB OneDrive cloud storage per user, Microsoft support, and 60 minutes per month Skype calls per user. These subscriptions will include up-to-date applications for up to five users. The one-time fee, however, will only include one install only. There will be no upgrades, support or the additional premium add-ons.
As for the business subscriptions, all packages will come with 1TB of OneDrive storage and Desktop versions of Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, plus Access and Publisher for PC only, with the exception of the Business Essentials package. The Premium package only includes business-class email with 50GB of storage and HD video conferencing. The one-time download only includes Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote for one user only.
What are the extra costs?
Adding online storage via OneDrive can be an additional cost if you don't buy the annual subscription. Check hard drive space.
Adding additional users to the online business software can cost $5 to $15 per user depending on which software version you buy.
While optional, some new users prefer a guide to help learn the software. MS Office for Dummies, for example, can retail for $15 to $25.
How can I save money?
Consider downloading a free trial to see if it's worth the investment.
Consider free alternatives that are just as good, such as OpenOffice.org, Google Docs or Libre Office if you don't want to spend the money.
If you are a student or teacher, be sure to take advantage of the student or teacher version to save money.
If you do not want the newer 2013 version, consider using the 2010 version, which can be half the cost. This includes most of the same features in the newer versions.
The one-time fee is often the best deal if you don't want the premium support, multiple users and/or online storage.
eBay has a handful of older versions and software downloads for a fraction of the costs of buying new.
Office.com provides a limited, online-version only of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and other tools for 100 percent free. All you will need is a Microsoft account, which is free to create.
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Average Reported Cost: $74
How much did you spend?
- Evelyn Parziale (Crossville, Tennessee) paid $74 and said:
$74.35
Was it worth it? Yes
