Microsoft Office 365 vs Office 2016

Office 365 was created to implement better services for businesses. So that they could file share easily through the cloud, run email and other forms of communication. Lucky for us! They made it available for consumers also.  

There are two options available - Office 365 Personal & Office 365 Home. With an easy monthly or yearly payment, you’re able to get the new releases as they come out, get the latest version and take advantage of FREE cloud storage as well!  

Office 365 Home is ideal for multiple machines at home or in the office. You can even switch from Mac to PC for those with a mixture of devices. 

Both Office 365 subscriptions come with 60 mins monthly credit for Skype calls and 1 TB OneDrive storage, they also have the following applications: 

Office 365 Personal licence is available for one PC or Mac + one tablet/phone.  

Office 365 Home has licences for up to 5 devices.  Each with the 60 mins a month on skype and 1 TB One drive space included. Perfect for families who have multiple devices in the home (PC, Notebooks, Tablets, Phones). 

Office 2016 is also available for both Windows and Mac OS X. This product is purchased as a once off licence and doesn’t have an end date. With this license however, does not provide any new versions that may be released by Microsoft. You will need to re-purchase the singular licence (or switch to Office 365) to receive any new features released.  

Again Microsoft offer 2 versions for outright licence versions - Home and Student or Home and Business. Both include Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. Home and Business includes Outlook. Both of these packages are single use only. So for each PC or device you will need a new licence. If you need Outlook on your Mac PC you will need to go with Office 365. 

For applications that require Publisher or Access you will need to get Office 2016 Professional. Or alternatively you can get the Office 365 which has both included in the package. 

One of the questions we get asked about the new Office 365 is “Does it install onto my computer” The software is installed onto your device and files save locally, however with Office 365 you have the option to save files to the cloud so you can access your files from any other device anywhere – WOW! The only downside with Office 365 version is that if you stop paying you’re not able to edit your files created using this product. 

Overall there are benefits to each product. It all depends on the situation you find yourself in. From a costing point of view if you plan to retain your computer with the Office software for more than 3 years and not want to upgrade to the next version then the outright product is best.  If you plan on upgrading your device and software to keep up with new trends then go for Office 365. Of course overall Office 365 has additional benefits with introduction of Skype and Cloud storage, but if you don’t use these you aren’t taking advantage of the ‘FREEBIES’