Office 2021 vs. Microsoft Office 365: Which one do I need?

Find out which application suite is best for your office needs: Office 2021 vs. Microsoft 365.

Office 2021 will be released together with Windows 11 in October 2021. It is the latest version of Microsoft's 30-year-old productivity suite. But if you visit the Microsoft website, you will find that Microsoft 365 is also offered.

You may be asking yourself: "Why does Microsoft offer two versions of the same product? ". To solve your confusion, here is an overview of the differences between Microsoft 365 and Office 2021.

One-time purchase vs. subscription (Office 2021 vs. Microsoft 365)

Office 2021 is the one-time purchase version of Microsoft's Office suite. It is available in several versions: Home & Student 2021, Home & Business 2021, Office 2021 Professional Plus and Office 2021 Standard. The first, which costs €149.00 (in the Microsoft Store), includes the desktop versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote, while the second, which costs €299.00 (in the Microsoft Store), adds Outlook. The third option, Office 2021 Professional Plus, costs €549.00 and includes Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher, Access, OneNote and Outlook. The last option, Office 2021 Standard, is not publicly available, so the prices cannot be found on the Internet.

The Home & Business 2021, Office 2021 Professional Plus and Office 2021 Standard licences also allow the use of business applications.

Microsoft 365, the subscription-based Office suite, is also available in several variants: Personal, Family, Business Basic, Business Standard and Business Premium. The Personal plan costs €69.90 per year (in the Microsoft Store), the Family plan costs €99.00 per year (in the Microsoft Store), the Basic Business plan costs €50.40 for one user per year and the Standard Business plan costs €126.00 per user per year. The Premium Enterprise version costs € 202.80 per user per year.

The initial cost of all versions of Office 2021 is significantly higher than Microsoft 365 offerings when purchased from Microsoft. However, if you buy from Licendi, you will spend less and only have to pay for the amount once. On the other hand, you will have to pay the annual fee of €69.00 (in the Microsoft Store) if you opt for Microsoft Office 365 Personal. In addition, the Office 2021 (Pro) Professional Plus version includes more applications such as Microsoft Access, Publisher and Outlook.

Classic vs. premium versions (Office 2021 vs. Microsoft 365)

If you choose Office 2021, you will receive the 2021 versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook (included in the Home and Business versions). However, if you opt for Microsoft 365, you will receive the Microsoft 365 versions of these applications.

What is the difference between the two versions of these applications? Currently, there is not much difference between them in terms of features, especially since Office 2021 was recently released.

However, with the Classic 2021 version, you will no longer receive any updates or new functions in the future. What you see now is what you will get. With the Premium 365 version, on the other hand, you can update your installed apps every time Microsoft releases an update or a new feature.

Excel 365, for example, received the XLOOKUP function in August 2019. However, if you are using the 2019 version of Microsoft Excel, you will not be able to use this function at all; you will only find it in the later version of Excel 2021.

Additional applications and services

In addition to Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote, Microsoft 365 also gives you access to Skype and OneDrive. With Skype, you get a monthly quota of up to 60 minutes for international calls. And with OneDrive, you get 1 TB of storage per user. So if your family account has six users, you get 6 TB of cloud storage.

A 365 subscription also includes Microsoft Access and Publisher when you download it. If you use these applications, you should therefore consider purchasing Microsoft 365.

And with Microsoft 365, each person can install all included Office apps on up to five different devices in any combination.

So if you have a MacBook, a Windows desktop PC, an iPhone, an Android device and an iPad, you can install the Office suite on all these devices without having to pay extra.

If you have a family plan with six users, you can install all Microsoft 365 apps on up to 30 devices.

Further advantages of Microsoft Office 365

In addition to the above applications and services, you also have access to several features. Microsoft 365 allows you to directly insert royalty-free creative content, such as stock photos, icons, fonts, templates and much more.

AI-powered tools such as the PowerPoint Presentation Trainer, Resume Assistant, Designer and Ideas are also available to you. These value-added features make your life easier by using AI to help you get things done automatically.

For example, Word can tell if you are writing a CV and offer you templates to improve it. Ideas suggest layouts and images when you create a presentation. And Designer helps you choose the formatting of your Word document and keep it consistent across pages.

Is Microsoft 365 the best option?

After mentioning all the advantages that Microsoft 365 offers over Office 2021, you might think that the obvious choice would be to go for the former. Not so fast.

If you keep a computer for two years or more, have no need for cloud storage and only use the basic functions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint, then Office 2021 is for you. This version is suitable for young students or retirees who do not use these applications frequently and are not usually connected to the internet.

Professionals whose devices are provided by the company may also opt for the one-off purchase, especially if they do not use these applications outside of work.

At Licendi, we always recommend the Office 2021 Professional Plus version, as it contains the largest selection of applications, is perpetual and costs less than the Office/Microsoft 365 Personal version. If you already know which version of Office 2021 Professional Plus you want, but are not sure which version is right for you (Bound, Retail or OEM), click here and we will explain.

It is not that simple

Before you choose one or the other because you want all the extra features or don't like paying for subscriptions, sit down and think. Ask yourself, "Which one offers me the most benefit? " After all, as in all other areas of life, there are no patent remedies.
If you are clear about your situation, e.g. what you want to use the office suite for, what features you really need and what alternatives you have, you can make the best decision that fits your lifestyle.

Related entries

We hope that all possible questions have been clarified. If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us (contact form).
If you are hesitating between the Office Professional Plus and Office Standard versions, we leave you with an interesting post about it: Office 2019 Professional Plus Vs. Office 2019 Standard, what are the differences?
If you only need a specific programme like Word, you'll find our recommendation below: Microsoft Word: can I buy it on its own?
Another blog post you might be interested in is Office 2019 vs Office 2021: Which is more worthwhile?
For Mac, Office for Mac OS: Everything you need to know!
Greetings,
Your Licendi Team