Microsoft 365 vs. Office 2019: What Are the Differences? Compared
While Microsoft still offers a standalone version of Office, the company definitely pushes you towards signing up for Microsoft 365 instead. While Microsoft 365 provides more than just Office, is it really a better value than buying Office 2019 on its own?
Let’s compare Microsoft 365 to Office 2019 key to find out. We’ll help you decide which offering is more cost-effective for your needs.
The Differences Between Microsoft 365 and Office 2019
The two available varieties of Microsoft Office differ in what you’re buying, who can use the apps, and how long you get to keep access. Let’s look at what they offer before we move on to comparing prices.
What Does Microsoft 365 Offer?
Microsoft 365 (formerly known as Office 365) is a per-user subscription. It lets you install the full suite of Microsoft Office apps on as many devices as you want and sign in on up to five devices at a time.
When you install an Office app, you’ll need to sign in with your Microsoft account to tie it to your subscription. Microsoft 365 includes the following Office apps for Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS:
- Word
- Excel
- PowerPoint
- OneNote
- Outlook
- Access (Windows only)
- Publisher (Windows only)
Your apps all get the latest updates as long as your subscription remains active. This is significant, as Microsoft regularly adds new features and enhancements into the Microsoft 365 versions of Office apps. See our overview of what’s new in Microsoft office 365 product key for details.
A Microsoft 365 subscription plan also comes with a few extra perks. The biggest benefits are 1TB of OneDrive storage and 60 minutes of Skype credit each month. You also get some special offers from Microsoft partners and access to technical support.
The service is available in two flavors: Personal and Family.
Personal is for one user, while Family is a group plan for up to six users. With Microsoft 365 Family, each person gets the full benefits, meaning they can install Office apps on all their devices and get their own 1TB of OneDrive storage.
What Does Office 2019 Include?
Office 2019 is a one-time purchase of a suite of Office apps for a single Windows PC or Mac. The installation is not tied to your Microsoft account; you activate it with a license key provided at the time of purchase. Anyone who has access to that computer can use the Microsoft Office apps.
The included apps depend on which version of Office 2019 you buy, which we’ll look at in a moment.
Office 2019 apps don’t receive ongoing improvements like their Microsoft 365 counterparts; they only receive security patches. If you want future updates to Microsoft Office, you’ll need to buy the new version when it releases.
Buying Office 2019 does not provide access to the full versions of the Android and iOS Office apps. The standalone version also lacks some of the modern features found in the Microsoft 365 Office apps.
Finally, Office 2019 will only work for so long. Microsoft will offer mainstream support until October 2023 and extended support through October 2025. After 2025, you’ll have to upgrade to avoid using an unsupported version of Office.
This is one of the reasons we think Office 2019 isn’t a good deal for most people. But how do the prices compare?
Microsoft 365 vs. Office 2019: A Value Comparison
Microsoft 365 is available two tiers:
- Microsoft 365 Personal: $70 per year
- Microsoft 365 Family: $100 per year
As discussed, Personal is for one user, while Family provides the same benefits for up to six people. While you can also purchase these plans monthly ($7 per month for Personal or $10 per month for Family), we’ll use the cheaper annual prices here. Chances are that you aren’t interested in subscribing to Office for just a month.
Meanwhile, Office 2019 offers three versions, which are all one-time purchases:
- Office Home & Student 2019: $150 for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint
- Office Home & Business 2019: $250 for the above, plus Outlook
- Office Professional 2019: $440 for the above, plus Publisher and Access (on Windows only)
If you wanted to match Office 2019 with Microsoft 365, you’d need to purchase Office 2019 Professional, as well as a OneDrive plan and Skype credits. Outside of Microsoft 365, however, OneDrive’s only available upgrade is 100GB of storage for $2 per month. We’ll use this as an add-on.
It’s also not possible to purchase 60 minutes of Skype credit; the smallest increment you can buy is $5, which is about 217 minutes of calls to several major countries. $1 of Skype credit thus provides about 47 calling minutes, meaning that Microsoft 365’s 12 hours of Skype credit would cost roughly $15.
However, if you’re considering Office 2019, you might not care about the OneDrive storage or Skype credits. Most people also don’t need Access and Publisher. To reflect both real-world scenarios and total value, we’ll thus compare the following setups below:
- Microsoft 365 Personal
- Microsoft 365 Family
- Office Home & Student 2019
- Office Home & Student 2019 with 60 minutes of Skype credit and 100GB of OneDrive storage per month
- Office Home & Business 2019
- Office Home & Business 2019 with 60 minutes of Skype credit and 100GB of OneDrive storage per month
- Office Professional 2019
