Office - different options

[WelshMoth]

Does anyone know the difference between MS Office 365 and MS Office Home and Student? Confused!

[juneybean]

Office 365 is a subscription I think whereas home and student is installed on one computer.

[WelshMoth]

Does it differ in any way? It's substantially different in price.

[RainbowHash]

As I understand it, they're basically the same thing/product. With MS office home and student you can share it with 5 different PCs/laptops e.g. Family members. So this would work if you have a company with only 5 people in. Any more than that you'd have to get a whole new MS login and create a whole new account. With Office 365 you can have a large number of users that is managed centrally under one company account. Users are then invited via email to download the product once you've paid for a license for them. Does work out more expensive. The '365' aspect means an individual can use it across different devices/on the go (e.g phone & tablet), but each user has to have their own license.

[RainbowHash]

I think they've priced it so differently because it's two distinct markets

[Herecomedanotherone]

I understood that home and student was a one off purchase which gives you access to four applications - word, excel, PowerPoint and something else. I imagine it will be on a disc and if you want to upgrade at anytime, you have to purchase the latest edition. Otoh, because it's on a disc you will always have it. 365 is a subscription - I think I pay around £8 per month - which gives you access to about 7 applications including publisher outlook etc, for several devices. Whenever any of them is updated you automatically get the latest, full version.
I chose the subscription option because I felt it was better suited to my wants and needs and the cost was very reasonable in comparison to the one off payment. I've had it for a couple of years now and have had no problem with it.

[WelshMoth]

Thanks everyone. Amazon are currently offering a 5 user Office 365 for £49. Think I'll go for it since DD and I both need it on our devices.

[cdtaylornats]

Unless you really need MS Office try out Libreoffice - same functionality and pretty much the same look. And its free.

www.libreoffice.org/

[Milkand2sugarsplease]

365 is a yearly subscription which includes updates when new versions come out. the other is a one off purchase and you keep that version.