Microsoft 365: should you subscribe to the Microsoft Office suite?

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(Pocket-lint) – Microsoft 365 subscription service lets you use all Office stand-alone apps, other Microsoft services, and value-added services like SkyDrive storage and Skype minutes.

Formerly known as Office 365, more than 50 million people and organizations are currently scrapping the service, with some 300 million active “pay seats”.

But should you subscribe to Microsoft 365 or buy Microsoft Office Home & Student 2019 all at once for a single PC or Mac? We will explain everything.

What has changed in Microsoft 365 compared to Office 365?

Consumer subscriptions are now available in two versions – Personal and Home. The package will now also include a new Family Safety app which will also work with mobile devices. Microsoft Teams is also now included, along with Outlook – both apps were previously reserved for business packages.

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The “For the Home” applications have various improvements. For example, there is an add-in for Excel called Money in Excel, which basically lets you manage banking and credit card data. It connects to these services for you to easily import and manage data.

All apps will work with OneDrive, and subscribers will have 1TB of storage to play. The plan also includes 60 minutes of Skype calling to mobiles and landlines each month.

There’s Microsoft Editor, which helps you write in Word and on Outlook.com – it’s been further improved with AI and now includes a plagiarism filter. If you use Grammarly, you will know how useful it can be to check your writing on a regular basis.

Microsoft 365 for Business is available in three variants, Basic, Business, and Standard.

Microsoft 365 home plans

Microsoft 365 Family

The Microsoft 365 Home plan costs $ 9.99 / £ 7.99 per month (or $ 99 / £ 80 per year). The plan allows for up to six devices / users which means you will get one copy of Office desktop apps for six PCs and Macs, Office experience for up to six tablets / phones and so on. Check out the full feature list below.

• Complete and updated Office desktop apps for up to 6 PCs and Macs
• Full Office experience for up to 5 tablets and 5 phones – iOS and Android
• OneDrive online storage up to 1TB each for 6 users
• Skype (calls to cell phones) – 60 minutes per month for up to 6 users each

Microsoft 365 Personal

The Microsoft 365 Personal plan costs $ 6.99 / £ 5.99 per month (or $ 69 / £ 60 per year). The plan only allows one user, which means you’ll get a copy of the Office desktop apps for a single PC or Mac, the Office experience for a tablet and phone, and more. Check out the full feature list below.

• Full and updated Office desktop apps for 1 PC or Mac
• Full Office experience for 1 tablet and 1 phone – iOS and Android
• OneDrive online storage up to 1TB for just 1 user (you can also save items offline of course)
• Skype (calls to cell phones) – 60 minutes per month for 1 single user

What if you don’t want a subscription?

If you don’t want all the bonuses and additional services that come with the Office 365 program, such as online storage, you can make a one-time purchase of Office Home & Student 2019.

This means that you can only use Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, and applications will not be updated with new features (although there are security updates). So there is no Outlook, Access, OneNote or Publisher.

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Written by Maggie Tillman and Dan Grabham. Originally published on February 20, 2015.