Microsoft Office now comes in a few different flavours. For clients who aren’t in the know, Office is available for Mac as Office 2016, and Office 365.
What are the differences between Office 365 and 2016?
The main point of difference is that Office 365 is a cloud-based subscription service, requiring monthly or yearly payments. With Microsoft Office 2016, it is simply a one-off fee for a perpetual licence.
Given that Office 365 is a cloud-based service, it will also provide you with regular feature updates for all the Microsoft applications, which is not available in Office 2016. The good news is that the security updates will be maintained in Office 365 as well as Office 2016.
In terms of online storage, this is only provided for in Office 365, through OneDrive.
How much does it cost?
Microsoft 2016 (Home and Student) costs approx. $199 (AUD) for the outright license, and is a one-time purchase.
Microsoft 365 is a subscription-based fee, which you can choose to be billed annually or monthly. Depending on what you choose, they vary between $10 and $129 (per user).
If you are using Office 365 for Business purposes, you will need to get the Business subscription which has a slightly different structure.
When is it going to be released?
Articles by Microsoft have hinted at a release for the second half of 2018. Office 2019 will include Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and (in the business version), Skype. Previews of the new version will start shipping mid this year.
I still have an older version…
You can still continue to use these versions or opt to upgrade. It is worth noting that as the versions get older, you may begin to experience a slowing down of the applications when in use.
This can include taking longer to open and save documents.
In terms of support for previous versions, here is a quick breakdown of a few.
All versions of Microsoft 2011: Service Pack Support End date was 10/01/2012
Most versions of Microsoft 2013: Service Pack Support End date was 14/04/2015
Most versions of Microsoft 2016: Mainstream Support End date is 13/10/2020, with the Extended Pack Support End date being 14/10/2025.
To find out more about Microsoft Office lifecycles, click here.
