Microsoft office vs 365

[Anxiousteacher1]

I’ve just bought a MacBook and I don’t know which of these to buy. I don’t like the sea of having to pay £99 every year for the 365 but then I don’t know if I will need the cloud stuff? I’m not tech savvy at all and I don’t understand it really. Which is the best to get? I will be using it for planning lessons mostly. Maybe some teams sessions. Thanks

You can get a level of 365 for free, this gives you 5gb of cloud storage and access to the web and phone apps

Paying for a subscription will give you the desktop applications and more space at 1tb

The web versions won’t work unless you are connected to the internet, but you can also use compatible software such as Libre office.
Set your default folder for saving to synchronize on your free OneDrive space and you get to try before committing to a subscription

If you want to stick to Microsoft then there is also the option of Wowcher deals. With this you typically buy a resold secondhand licence to the desktop software for much cheaper than buying the full price Microsoft licence
(Note that the one off licences are only for that specific version of Office but last as long as your computer is compatible, whereas the subscription covers the current version at all times, but only while you continue to subscribe)

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/microsoft-365/free-office-online-for-the-web

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/microsoft-365/buy/compare-all-microsoft-365-products

I've been using the free online version on Mac OS, and will probably continue.

I did consider buying the "one time purchase" version, but at £119 (official price) for a single seat and no upgrade path isn't good value in my opinion, as I would ideally need two seats.

However if you only use one machine and unlikely to want to upgrade anytime soon, it's worth considering.

I never use cloud storage, it isn't necessary and stops you being beholden to the companies. I back up files the old fashioned way!

It’s a matter of choice, cloud storage overall covers both pure cloud (only stored on the internet) and synchronized cloud (on your machine and on the internet)

I have historically had photos out on cloud hosting for sharing from years ago which I would also keep on backup drives. Many of these have been subject to the hoisting closing down or going to paid subscriptions. For each I was notified and could check that my copies were safe / transfer elsewhere

My OneDrive is on a paid Microsoft subscription for extra space, and is both local & cloud hosted
I do manual backups for key files that I want to be kept safe, but they are held locally on my computer and synchronized to Microsoft

Additional benefits depending on your need are sharing and multiple devices.

I use my OneDrive as my primary across my main laptop, phone and cloud. (Also to my other occasional laptop but that needs to synchronize before use to get up to date)