Microsoft office - which version should I go for?

silvercar

At last I have a new laptop and want to buy office. Not sure which version to buy. 

My thoughts are to stay away from the 365 subscription and buy outright. I am upgrading from office 2003, so anything is going to be a big improvement!

I need word and excel. I thought I needed outlook but I can see my new laptop comes with a mail application, so not sure if I really do need to buy something with outlook.

From previous threads on here, I can see theunitysoft.com sell office standard 2019 for £22.99, but the blurb states:
”

• Classic versions of the Office apps installed on one PC or Mac: Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Publisher
• Web versions of Word, OneNote, Excel, and PowerPoint”

Does the first blob contradict the second?

they also sell office professional plus 2019 for £26.99 and office home 2016 for £18.99, the latter doesn’t have outlook, but as I said I’m not sure if I need it.

wongataa

Why not try Libre Office?  It is free.

Neil_Jones

Consider free alternatives.  You can get all the functionality through other options like Libre Office for example, and Thunderbird for mail.

The benefit of the subscription model to Office is that you get incremental upgrades and new features on a rolling basis, plus if you have enough computers can work out cheaper (you're supposed to buy a licence per computer with the stand-alone option but what people are supposed to do and what they actually do are two entirely different things), I think its up to six computers you can stick it on in the same house.

Re: web office, you can get a version of that for free with your Microsoft account - you'll have one if you have an MSN/Hotmail/Outlook.com email address.  Not as functional, but its free already.

silvercar

I should have said, I do need office rather than libre or any other free offering.

as for outlook.com, I struggle with my Nltworld email address (I know, I know) enough as it is and I really want my emails downloaded not on the web.

[Deleted User]

I bought a licence key for Office Pro Plus from eBay for about £6.  Worked like a charm and issue free for the last approx 18 months.

sparklep0ny

silvercar said:

At last I have a new laptop and want to buy office. Not sure which version to buy. 

My thoughts are to stay away from the 365 subscription and buy outright. I am upgrading from office 2003, so anything is going to be a big improvement!

I need word and excel. I thought I needed outlook but I can see my new laptop comes with a mail application, so not sure if I really do need to buy something with outlook.

From previous threads on here, I can see theunitysoft.com sell office standard 2019 for £22.99, but the blurb states:
”

• Classic versions of the Office apps installed on one PC or Mac: Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Publisher
• Web versions of Word, OneNote, Excel, and PowerPoint”

Does the first blob contradict the second?

they also sell office professional plus 2019 for £26.99 and office home 2016 for £18.99, the latter doesn’t have outlook, but as I said I’m not sure if I need it.

They don't contradict one another.  I'm not sure why they mentioned the web apps as those are available to everyone regardless of whether you have Office for your PC or not.

Either way, I wouldn't be paying those prices for a key.  The prices are low enough that the key is going to be "of dubious origin" and if you're OK with that you can find places selling it far cheaper.

Grumpy_chap

I agree with the OP that the "installed" versions of Office are preferable than the subscription 365 version.  I can't put a technical reason why - may it is just my "old school" thinking.  I do have both Office 2010 and a 365 subscription and much prefer the Office 2010 as it is not constantly changing like the 365 version which I'd gladly give up, except a work requirement.

The prices the OP has got seem very competitive and, at under £30 for any of the options, it seems just as well to go for Office Professional Plus 2019 and not regret something that was not included for the sake of a few pounds saving.  My view is influenced, though, by being a big fan of Outlook and I note the OP is not necessarily as concerned about Outlook.

I do wonder how the website linked by the OP can do those rates.  Pricing is complex, but on the Microsoft website, the price for single user 365 subscription seems to start at £60/year, so under £30 for a "lifetime" product is outstanding moneysaving.

sparklep0ny

Grumpy_chap said:

I agree with the OP that the "installed" versions of Office are preferable than the subscription 365 version.  I can't put a technical reason why - may it is just my "old school" thinking.  I do have both Office 2010 and a 365 subscription and much prefer the Office 2010 as it is not constantly changing like the 365 version which I'd gladly give up, except a work requirement.

The prices the OP has got seem very competitive and, at under £30 for any of the options, it seems just as well to go for Office Professional Plus 2019 and not regret something that was not included for the sake of a few pounds saving.  My view is influenced, though, by being a big fan of Outlook and I note the OP is not necessarily as concerned about Outlook.

I do wonder how the website linked by the OP can do those rates.  Pricing is complex, but on the Microsoft website, the price for single user 365 subscription seems to start at £60/year, so under £30 for a "lifetime" product is outstanding moneysaving.

Often times the keys are pulled from PC's that have the software bundled, usually in developing countries where the costs are far lower.

There is a small chance they're obtained via credit card fraud, but the activation is often a bit of a faff, which would tend to indicate they're not obtained via fraud.

J_B

I've had a couple of 365 'lifetime - 5 user' subscriptions off eBay for around a fiver ... so far, so good.

Sandtree

J_B said:

I've had a couple of 365 'lifetime - 5 user' subscriptions off eBay for around a fiver ... so far, so good.

Why have you needed a couple of them? Unless you've a dozen kids it sounds like things haven't been plain sailing. 

Korkyb

One option is an Office 365 "syndicate".

2 months ago I bought 3 years worth of Office 365 "Family" (which allows 6 users) when the 12 month subscription packs dropped to £40 from Argos.

This is then divvied up among friends / family who pay for their share (£20 for 3 years of Office 365 including 1TB Onedrive webstorage).

Its easy to set up - the only difficulty is finding folk to come on board.


The £40 Argos deal comes along regularly & each pack bought can be "stacked" for up to 5 years (i.e. you can redeem all the 1 year codes bought immediately which extends the expiration date of your subscription).

Works out at £6.66 per year per user & considering this includes 1TB of Onedrive web storage I think its a bargain.

Each user is allowed to install office on a number of devices - my licence is installed on 4 laptops / PC's.

This is the second time I've done this (last time in 2016 I bought 5 years worth) - only had 3 in the syndicate last time but at just over £13 per year for 2TB of web storage + Office 365 it was still good value for money.

The Family / 6 user pack is currently £53.50 from Amazon for 12 months which would still be under £9 per user per year if split between 6.