Microsoft Ups Office 2019 Prices to Push Office 365 Subscriptions

[Guest]

Microsoft raised the price of several Office 2019 licenses by 10% compared to their Office 2016 counterparts.

Microsoft Ups Office 2019 Prices to Push Office 365 Subscriptions : Read more

 

[ender699]

When will MS get through their head that for certain (if not most) professional use cloud-based solutions will never be an acceptable solution, as software companies have shown time and time again that they cannot be trusted with our data?

 

[shrapnel_indie]

"Office 2019 is a valuable update for customers who aren’t yet ready for the cloud. {...} While the cloud offers real benefits in productivity, security, and total cost of ownership, we recognize that each customer is at a different point in their adoption of cloud services. We see the on-premises version of Office as an important part of our commitment to give customers the flexibility they need to move to the cloud at their own pace."

Now the company's appealing directly to its customers' wallets. Buying a license can be cheaper in the mid-term, but in the short term, Office 365 subscriptions cost less than even the base Office 2019 Home & Student license.

Can I laugh now? Cloud security still isn't as good as they want you to believe. Look at how many breaches have been reported... now add all the unreported breaches (breaches that were not required to be reported)... yeah that number will require some speculation, but still, even without unreported... there are too many breaches to tout it as secure as they want us to believe. We'll ignore Cortana, Google, FB, (where not blocked,) and the malware that exists as they don't care where your data is if they can access it while you're accessing it, or where it's stored. (Yeah, in this case, we're using cloud apps... with potential cloud storage... but no website has ever been hacked and malignant code/scripts inserted... right? No corporation has been caught or admitted to at least some data mining of your personal or corporate data. Who really knows exactly how much they actually do mine and store... waiting for someone else to break or bypass security and steal it.


It's a ploy to get you onto their subscription model... before they raise the price there.



Cheaper? At least until they succeed on moving everyone over they can. Cheaper? Only if you upgrade versions constantly.... only if they don't have a security breach that compromises cloud storage, and the cloud based apps themselves. Besides, how many of the latest and greatest features will you actually use?

 

[Co BIY]

This article should have listed what MS OFFICE 365 charges for a year. ($70 a year single user home /~ $100 Family/Commercial user)

 

[stdragon]

All by design.... Eventually Windows will be subscription only via Office 365. Oh, and since your credit card is on file, how would you like to purchase the Office suite as a service with just a simple click of the mouse button, hmm?

"One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them, One ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them."

 

[velocityg4]

At $100 a year for five computers with 365. I haven't seen the value in buying Office with Outlook. For just the cost of two Office licenses with Outlook it'll take four to five years to break even, three or more computers becomes ridiculous. If you throw in having to pay for a cloud syncing service. It makes no sense to buy Office. Since Office 365 includes Onedrive.

Now if you just need one or two copies without Outlook and no cloud syncing or just a small free cloud syncing account. Then it makes sense to still buy it. If your needs are so limited. You'd probably be just fine using something free like Libreoffice and some small free sync account.

Because of the five computer licenses with the $100 a year version and the availability of Libreoffice for lighter users. When a customer asks for a recommendation. I recommend either the $100 365 license or Libreoffice. It's exceedingly rare that someone falls in the realm where it makes sense to buy a single Office license.

Of course paying for Google drive also makes little sense to me. With Google Drive you are stuck with Google Docs. With Office 365 you get One Drive, downloadable copies of Office on five computers, Office Web Apps and Office for your Phones/Tablets. Plus full compatibility with Office documents created by others with no need to convert.

If MS raises subscription prices. Then I'll reevaluate based on current market conditions and options. Currently it is a great deal when you have multiple computers and must have Office. Although in reality I think most people would do just fine with Libreoffice. There aren't many people who need some special MS Office feature which is not compatible with Libreoffice. Outside of syncing an Exchange account with Outlook. A funny anecdote about compatibility. I had one client with Office on their Mac several years ago. They couldn't open an Excel spreadsheet with Visual Basic created on a Windows version of Office. I had to install Libreoffice so they could open it.

Edit: I forgot MS increased it from five to six computers for 365. It's an even better deal for multiple computers now.

 

[salgado18]

I think Office 2010 is still enough for most students and office users.
Why would people keep upgrading Offices, especially at that price?

If you want to downvote me, first tell us what any of the subsequent Office versions did that people really need, and can't be done by the 2010 version, especially that forces you to upgrade frequently.

 

[alan_rave]

Its only 10%. But I guess there will be more users who will start to use Libreoffice)

 

[BryanFRitt]

Pricing Chart, based on Microsoft Office Pages:

Office Home & Student 2019
Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote
$149.99

Office Home & Business 2019
Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook
$249.99

Office Professional 2019
Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Publisher, Access
$439.99

---

Office 365 Home
Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneDrive, OneNote, Outlook
• Share with your entire family – for up to 6 people
$99.99/year(Save 16% over the monthly price)

Office 365 Personal
Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneDrive, OneNote, Outlook
• For one person
$69.99/year (Save 16% over the monthly price)

• For use on multiple PCs/Macs, tablets, and phones (including Windows, iOS, and Android*)
• Premium versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneDrive, OneNote, Outlook, plus Publisher and Access for PC only
• 1TB OneDrive cloud storage with advanced security
• Collaborate on documents with others online
• Tech support via chat or phone with Microsoft experts
• Annual or monthly subscription. Your subscription will automatically continue. Cancel anytime.

---

Office 365 Business
Outlook,Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Access (PC only)
OneDrive
$8.25/month (annual commitment)

Office 365 Business Premium
Outlook,Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Access (PC only)
Exchange, OneDrive, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams
$12.50/month (annual commitment)

Office 365 Business Essentials
-None-
Exchange, OneDrive, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams
$5.00/month (annual commitment)

---

Office 365 ProPlus
Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Access (PC only), Publisher (PC only)
OneDrive
$12.00 user/month (annual commitment)

Office 365 Enterprise E1
-none-
Exchange, OneDrive, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, Yammer
$8.00 user/month (annual commitment)

Office 365 Enterprise E3
Outlook,Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Access (PC only), Publisher (PC only)
Exchange, OneDrive, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, Yammer
$20.00 user/month (annual commitment)

Office 365 Enterprise E5
Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Access (PC only), Publisher (PC only)
Exchange, OneDrive, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, Yammer, Power BI Pro
$35.00 user/month (annual commitment)

 

[nukemaster]

I do not see anywhere that MS "Ups Office 2019 Prices to Push Office 365 Subscriptions". I think the price increase is just a price increase. Clearly all companies want users on subscriptions for the long term income.

My office 365 subscription went up from 2017 to 2018. At this point was MS trying to push me to use stand alone office?

Nearly all of my Office files are local and not stored online.

Based on recent price increases across the board, this does not seem to be that out of the ordinary.

 

[littleleo]

I used to sell lots of MS office 250pcs per month easy. Since they've decided to by pass resellers and sell directly to the public my MS office sales have plunged like a rock. Now if I sell 5pcs per month its a good month. I've had 3 resellers in the last 2 years ask for Office 365, no resellers want to push it that I know. With this new price increase on Office let me welcome all the new users to Libre Office you'll be a lot happier, lol! https://www.libreoffice.org/download/download/

I installed Outlook on a computer and even though I paid a premium for it, installation was a pain. Eventually I had to call my ISP for help installing it and it took 45 minutes with their help to install it. Unlike Thunderbird, which took seconds to install and works really well as a mail client. And it's free which begs the question why a free mail client installs so easy and the overpriced bloated Outlook took so long and required ISP help. Shouldn't that be reversed?

 

[djmart666]

I will not take office 365, if i need to change/replace my office 2013, i'll switch to libreoffice...

 

[velocityg4]

I think Office 2010 is still enough for most students and office users.
Why would people keep upgrading Offices, especially at that price?

If you want to downvote me, first tell us what any of the subsequent Office versions did that people really need, and can't be done by the 2010 version, especially that forces you to upgrade frequently.

In my experience it is because they either lost their DVD/Product key for reinstalling or they just want a new Office for their new computer. Frankly I can't think of anything I do in Office now which I couldn't do in Office 4 in Windows 3.1 or Office 4 using System 7 on the Macintosh. Besides open and save documents to the cloud. Which I suppose was technically possible then. Cloud storage is just a fancy file server packaged with sync software. I know they added DOCX and such it's not as though that added anything, which I use, I couldn't do in the non-XML formats.

It's actually ridiculous how bloated a word processor and spreadsheet program is. An i5 with 16GB RAM and an SSD doesn't feel much more responsive in Office 2019 than a 486 DX with 4MB RAM did with Office 4. In some ways it is worse now when you get sudden hesitations in feedback while typing. These are spreadsheets and documents. A computer which is thousands of times faster shouldn't have any hesitation with something this basic.

 

[USAFRet]

I just upgraded to Office 2019 Pro over the weekend.
Why?
1. Because it was $14.99. Home Use Program through work.
2. I need to keep up, because I'm the uber goto guy at work for Office related stuff. Yes, actual development in the Office ecosystem.

Having said that...Unless you look really closely, there is no difference from 2016. Or 2013. Or 2010. Or even 2007.

There is no need for the vast majority of people to "upgrade".
Just continue using what you have. There is nothing special in 2019 that requires an upgrade from another recent version.
Unless you can buy it cheaply.

 

[excalibur1814]

"When will MS get through their head that for certain (if not most) professional use cloud-based solutions will never be..."

You do get the desktop version with the subscription.

 

[10tacle]

As one who has always bought physical Office media licenses since Office 97, I do not like this direction. As USAFRet above mentions, historically there has been no need to change/upgrade to newer versions of Office over the years. I am still using Office 2003 for example on one of my older backup PCs and have 2007 on my laptop. That was the first real major change with regards to user interface with the ribbon buttons (minus being put in Access and One Note...those were added in for 2010 as well as 2010 having a 64-bit version available). So if anything, that was the one to upgrade to for those reasons alone as it was a significant change in interface design (and in my opinion, a necessary change from the very outdated traditional button design dating from 97). Office 2007 also demanded an "x" on the end of the file format name (.xlsx instead of .xls for example). Yet it is still not that different from 2016/365 which I recently tried in the free 30-day demo out for the heck of it*.

Ultimately however, I want to be the one controlling my licensed software and what information is passed up the chain to MS. If MS is going away from that and the future is dictating control over our hardware and licensed media, I'll have to look into alternatives to Office in the future. I will not support nor will I ever support feeding a monster that has the potential to data mine or be vulnerable to a security breach. Yeah call me a dinosaur.

*If you do choose to mess with the free 30-day trial of 2016-2019 through 365, make sure you save your files in an earlier version of Office separately because if you have no intention of buying a license, any files you create through it will be removed from your PC's file directory after the trial period is over. I did not think to test saving the Office 2016 files offline like to a flash drive or external drive to change directory of where the file is saved to. I just used the default directory that was assigned. I don't even know if MS allows you to save said files offline in the demo. What I do know is that those files completely disappeared. But they were only test files I created anyway.

 

[fl05]

I understand companies want to have a guaranteed revenue stream, hence software subscriptions. However, as a retiree, I would like to have something left at such time I no longer subscribe. To me, subscription software is a bottomless pit. I just terminated a subscription to another vendor's software and am reverting to their last sold software. I'm also using competitive software.

Office 2010 works fine for me.

When my family obtained computers, Free competitive office suites were installed instead of purchasing the MS Suite.

 

[pincher.lala.2014]

libreoffice

 

[cryoburner]

Microsoft hasn't raised the price of its Office suite like this since Office 2010 debuted.

The primary argument presented by this article kind of falls apart when you consider that inflation in the US has amounted to around 16% since 2010, while the price has only gone up by about 10%. So, Office 2019 actually costs less than what Office 2010 did. : P

I would still consider local copies of the software to be better for most users than a cloud-based subscription, and the cost is arguably a lot better when you consider that Office changes very little from one year to the next. A company or individual could probably still get along fine on a version of Office from 15+ years ago, so long as they don't require perfect compatibility with certain newer formats. Though, for that matter, there are free alternatives to Office that would work just as well for most users, and I can't say I really see the point of home users paying for an Office Suite.

 

[littlestephen0]

Why pay anything? Get free open source Office from Libre or Open Office. They do everything including reading and writing Microsoft files. Bill gates does not need your money.

 

[Math Geek]

i still use office 2007. does everything i need to do. i can understand some corporate settings where some of the new features are useful but for the home user i don't see anything worth paying for office again.

at one point i had office 2010 i paid $20 for through school program. interface chances were so terrible i went back to 2007. with the compatibility add-ons i can still open/edit the newer .***x files. all i really need.

 

[vegiedouchebag]

Still got 2010, and it still does everything I need. Even the cheap licenses for 2016 never tempted me. Subscription means I have nothing to fall back on if I cancel.
Now cost ... I've had 8 years use out of 2010, and its still strong. What cost would I have had for 360 over 8 years. Subscription is a waste of time/money for the casual user .. Same with Photoshop, subscription is too expensive for casual use. Most casual users will find another product or pirate.

 

[spotify95]

I still think that Office versions that are a one time purchase (e.g. Office 2010, Office 2016 etc) are the best value for money, even at the slightly higher rates.
For example, the subscription at $100 per year. That means that if you stop paying, you can no longer use Office, so that is a big commitment that will, over the course of a few years, be more expensive in the long run.
You don't have to upgrade Office versions every time a new version is released. So long as the old one works fine, then keep using that. The only time this is not true, is when the file format changes (i.e. from Office 2003 to Office 2007, whereby Office 2003 could not read any documents from 2007 or newer). And the amount of people still using Office 2003 must be astronomically small.
Use Office for just 1 or 2 years? Office 365 is cheaper (or LibreOffice/Open Office is free), but remember you'll have to pay every year.
Using Office for 4-5 years? Buying Office (even Professional) is still the cheapest way, as the relative costs will be the same, but you still get to carry on using your standalone version of Office. Yes, by this time, a new version will be released, but since the functionality of the old version will still be perfectly fine, there's nothing wrong with the older version and it makes sense to carry on using it. (I still have Office 2010 for most of my Windows installs and will continue to use it until it breaks, or if I need another license. Was purchased in ~2012.)
Using Office for a long period of time? Most Office versions are supported for approximately 10 years (Office 2007 has only just gone EOL, and Office 2010 will go EOL when Windows 7 goes EOL in 2020). That means you can use an Office version will full compatibility support for modern OS'es, as well as get security updates, for 10 years. The cost of an Office license, even with this 10% increase, is way less than 10 years of an Office 365 subscription.
And of course, this doesn't mean that Office will just completely break after EOL. My friends' PC has Windows 10 and Office 2007 installed, and whilst the latter is unsupported on Windows 10, it still works without any issues. (And of course, it can be used on older OSes, which will still work even after EOL.)

Conclusion: Most people who are smart with their software and finances do not need to upgrade their Office version every 3 years. Therefore, the standalone version of Office is still the best shot, even with the 10% increase. The only time Office 365 becomes feasible is if you only want to use the software for 1-2 years, in which case a free, open source alternative (such as LibreOffice) will be suitable.

 

[Math Geek]

For example, the subscription at $100 per year. That means that if you stop paying, you can no longer use Office,

exactly what MS is thinking as they move everyone to subscription based office. they hope that once you get started and settled into the ecosystem, you'll never want to leave. they can keep milking you with new "improvements" which simply means moving everything around every year so you think it's new. they know we like the familiar and don't like to change. so they hope we'll just settle into the familiar and never leave office environment even if alternatives are cheaper and even free for same functionality. it worked before they were even subscription based so no reason it won't work now.

they get more money for the same product which is not a new idea. they are really just repeating what they have watched other companies do around them for years. sucks for the consumer of course but from a corporate income perspective it's a good move to make.

 

[littleleo]

For example, the subscription at $100 per year. That means that if you stop paying, you can no longer use Office,

exactly what MS is thinking as they move everyone to subscription based office. they hope that once you get started and settled into the ecosystem, you'll never want to leave. they can keep milking you with new "improvements" which simply means moving everything around every year so you think it's new. they know we like the familiar and don't like to change. so they hope we'll just settle into the familiar and never leave office environment even if alternatives are cheaper and even free for same functionality. it worked before they were even subscription based so no reason it won't work now.

they get more money for the same product which is not a new idea. they are really just repeating what they have watched other companies do around them for years. sucks for the consumer of course but from a corporate income perspective it's a good move to make.

I respectfully disagree. I think the move to the subscription service is not because they think people will like it and never want to leave. I think they are following your gym membership model. Once you sign up it is hard to remember to stop the charge from just rolling over even if you want to quit it. You just don't think about it until you notice another months charge just hit your bank. MS has made Office a non intuitive program bloated with features 90% of the public doesn't use or need and can't figure out how to get to, or use with the poor help included with the Office. I have stopped using it here are options many former office users are using for free now and are loving being MS Office free!

https://www.libreoffice.org/
https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/