Can you buy Microsoft Office for home anymore or is it only the online subscription version (Microsoft 365)?

[SurferLife]

All I want to do is to buy the current Microsoft Office for Mac for my home computer, but it seems like Microsoft wants me to buy Microsoft 365 with a monthly subscription. Did they completely discontinue the old downloadable versions that worked entirely offline?

[newbh933]

Microsoft Office is still available for purchase. For instance, here's a link on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=microsoft+of ... doa-p_7_17

[dukeblue219]

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microso ... verviewtab

[SurferLife]

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microso ... verviewtab

Awesome, thank you! They make it so hard to find and I'm sure that's not by accident.

[Buzzman]

Cult of Mac routinely puts this on sale. I think I paid $29 a couple of years ago for my Mac and $39 for my wife's Windows machine about a year ago. Their current pricing which is considerably more:
https://deals.cultofmac.com/sales/micro ... -license-2

They had a sale going for the Windows version for $49 that ended at midnight last night.

[SurferLife]

Cult of Mac routinely puts this on sale. I think I paid $29 a couple of years ago for my Mac and $39 for my wife's Windows machine about a year ago. Their current pricing which is considerably more:
https://deals.cultofmac.com/sales/micro ... -license-2

They had a sale going for the Windows version for $49 that ended at midnight last night.

Oh wow, that's much mo betta! Thank you!

[mjg]

I have bought multiple copies (2 or 3, don't remember) of Office 2021 from here https://www.gamers-outlet.net/en/softwa ... C&limit=20 for $5

All have installed and activated without any issues.

[dukeblue219]

I have bought multiple copies (about 4 or 5) of Office 2021 from here https://www.gamers-outlet.net/en/softwa ... C&limit=20 for $5

All have installed and activated without any issues.

Others should be aware that all of these dirt cheap Office keys are gray market enterprise licenses resold in bulk.

Do with that what you will, but you're not buying them on sale from Microsoft. You're paying someone at a company to generate keys under his or her company's license agreement for you to use.

[Sampan]

If you're going to buy a standalone version of Microsoft Office, you might want to wait till later this year. Office 2019 will stop being supported by Microsoft in October 2025 and Office 2021 support will end in October 2026. Microsoft is supposed to release an Office 2024 later this year. This is just about getting security updates for the software. You can keep using them but there may be a small amount of risk depending on what kind of files you work with. I know people who are still using Office 2010! Support for that ended in 2020.

[SurferLife]

If you're going to buy a standalone version of Microsoft Office, you might want to wait till later this year. Office 2019 will stop being supported by Microsoft in October 2025 and Office 2021 support will end in October 2026. Microsoft is supposed to release an Office 2024 later this year. This is just about getting security updates for the software. You can keep using them but there may be a small amount of risk depending on what kind of files you work with. I know people who are still using Office 2010! Support for that ended in 2020.

I just upgraded from 2016. I was having a printer problem that I couldn't work around, so I thought upgrading would fix it, and it seems like it has worked. I'll look out for the 2024 version.

[cheesepep]

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microso ... verviewtab

Awesome, thank you! They make it so hard to find and I'm sure that's not by accident.

I had the same experience before. I just wanted to buy the download version and had an awfully hard time finding the link.

[iamlucky13]

I have bought multiple copies (about 4 or 5) of Office 2021 from here https://www.gamers-outlet.net/en/softwa ... C&limit=20 for $5

All have installed and activated without any issues.

Others should be aware that all of these dirt cheap Office keys are gray market enterprise licenses resold in bulk.

Do with that what you will, but you're not buying them on sale from Microsoft. You're paying someone at a company to generate keys under his or her company's license agreement for you to use.

My understanding is "grey market" (not quite the way I'm used to the term "grey market" being used) licenses usually activate fine, but violate the licensing agreement. I seem to recall several threads about such deals have been locked by the mods as a result.

What I'm less clear on is whether less wild deals from seemingly reputable sources (eg - PCWorld, a publication that goes back decades) are similar grey market deals, or if they have a valid retail sales agreement from Microsoft to be able to offer ~$30 pricing.

[MGBMartin]

I have bought multiple copies (about 4 or 5) of Office 2021 from here https://www.gamers-outlet.net/en/softwa ... C&limit=20 for $5

All have installed and activated without any issues.

Others should be aware that all of these dirt cheap Office keys are gray market enterprise licenses resold in bulk.

Do with that what you will, but you're not buying them on sale from Microsoft. You're paying someone at a company to generate keys under his or her company's license agreement for you to use.

My understanding is "grey market" (not quite the way I'm used to the term "grey market" being used) licenses usually activate fine, but violate the licensing agreement. I seem to recall several threads about such deals have been locked by the mods as a result.

What I'm less clear on is whether less wild deals from seemingly reputable sources (eg - PCWorld, a publication that goes back decades) are similar grey market deals, or if they have a valid retail sales agreement from Microsoft to be able to offer ~$30 pricing.

Ex Volume License and MSDN administrator here…
These cheap MS Office keys may be either Volume License or MSDN keys and if so they would be in violation of the MS license agreement.
Having said that many folks report no issues using and activating them. Whether Microsoft ever clamp down on installations that don’t meet their licensing agreement remains to be seen I guess.

[michaelingp]

What I'm less clear on is whether less wild deals from seemingly reputable sources (eg - PCWorld, a publication that goes back decades) are similar grey market deals, or if they have a valid retail sales agreement from Microsoft to be able to offer ~$30 pricing.

Agree that it's hard to tell (which is why the mods no longer lock these threads). For example, if you buy from StackSocial, there is a link that purports to "verify Microsoft Partnership" but if you click it all you see is that a company called Mastertronics is indeed a Microsoft partner, but the link between StackSocial and Mastertronics is not made clear if it exists at all.

My friend just bought Office 2021 for his Mac from StackSocial. I can tell you they provide very good customer support to help you authenticate the software with Microsoft. It seems to me that things have changed a lot if scammers now provide good customer support. In other words, I believe the deal from StackSocial is legit, despite the mystery of the "Click here to verify Microsoft partnership" link.

[tibbitts]

Ex Volume License and MSDN administrator here…
These cheap MS Office keys may be either Volume License or MSDN keys and if so they would be in violation of the MS license agreement.
Having said that many folks report no issues using and activating them. Whether Microsoft ever clamp down on installations that don’t meet their licensing agreement remains to be seen I guess.

Well, they "may be" almost anything, but is there a way to confirm it they don't just "work", but are "Microsoft-approved" - or if they have restrictions associated with them (such as for use within an organization)?

Wouldn't Microsoft want to make it very easy to verify if you've bought a legal product appropriate for your use?

[B88]

Depending upon your needs Libre Office which is free and open source may work for you. It works on Windows, MacOS and Linux systems. Worth checking out perhaps.

I use it for my own documents and spreadsheets.

[anoop]

I have bought multiple copies (about 4 or 5) of Office 2021 from here https://www.gamers-outlet.net/en/softwa ... C&limit=20 for $5

All have installed and activated without any issues.

Others should be aware that all of these dirt cheap Office keys are gray market enterprise licenses resold in bulk.

Do with that what you will, but you're not buying them on sale from Microsoft. You're paying someone at a company to generate keys under his or her company's license agreement for you to use.

Do you think that is true even for the Cult of Mac deal?

[MadHungarian]

If you're going to buy a standalone version of Microsoft Office, you might want to wait till later this year. Office 2019 will stop being supported by Microsoft in October 2025 and Office 2021 support will end in October 2026. Microsoft is supposed to release an Office 2024 later this year. This is just about getting security updates for the software. You can keep using them but there may be a small amount of risk depending on what kind of files you work with. I know people who are still using Office 2010! Support for that ended in 2020.

Office 2010 was the last good version! Before the big sucky UI change.

[dboeger1]

I realize this is tangential to what OP asked, but if you're at all interested in paying for cloud storage and willing to wait until later in the year for Office (perhaps use LibreOffice in the meantime), there are always really good Black Friday deals on Microsoft 365 subscriptions. I buy them strictly for the OneDrive storage, which I use extensively and share with multiple family members. The fact that it includes the Office suite (at least some version of it; Microsoft likes to split things up differently depending on your exact package) is just a bonus for me. I think I paid something like $60 for 18 months. I bought the same deal from Newegg for the past 2 years, and you can just keep stacking additional purchases onto your existing subscription timeline, so you could in theory prepay for many years. At that cost, there's basically no reason for me to use my own storage at home (other than privacy, but hey, I gave that up a long time ago).

[LadyGeek]

I have bought multiple copies (about 4 or 5) of Office 2021 from here https://www.gamers-outlet.net/en/softwa ... C&limit=20 for $5

All have installed and activated without any issues.

Others should be aware that all of these dirt cheap Office keys are gray market enterprise licenses resold in bulk.

Do with that what you will, but you're not buying them on sale from Microsoft. You're paying someone at a company to generate keys under his or her company's license agreement for you to use.

Please see this ongoing discussion: Microsoft Office 2021 for Home

As noted in my post here, let's continue the discussion on the basis that the purchase is from a reputable site.

I have an old Dell Optiplex 3080 Micro desktop that I never opened and am in the process of setting up for home office use. I need to get Microsoft Office, and I know that I can either purchase a one-time license for Office or go with the more expensive licensing fee option for Office 365. If I go with the one-time purchase, I noticed that there are sites out there where you can purchase the one-time license relatively inexpensively, but I don't know how trustworthy these sites are. One website in particular I see a lot is TechSpot - see link below.

https://store.techspot.com/sales/micros ... -license-5

Has anyone had experience with this site and purchasing Office?

There have been other threads started on this forum regarding using some of these alternative sites to purchase MS products. There have been some questions about the full legality of such licenses and that has resulted in the threads being locked. This is likely for the thread that you just started as well.

Cheers

Here's a 2022 thread that I locked: Microsoft Office 2021 Lifetime License (Windows & Mac Digital Download) $30 and note that it was due to a website comment suggesting the terms of service would be violated.

However, further searching of the OP's link and google came up with this: Buy Microsoft Office Professional for Windows for $45 right now, from ZDnet - a reputable website. The article suggests this is a legal approach.

Let's continue the discussion on this basis. Just be careful and purchase your license from a reputable site.

[illumination]

Have purchased several from StackSocial, never an issue, even after several years. Paid like $30 for for a full version of MicroSoft Office, it was a few years old. The download came directly from MicroSoft with my name on the license. I personally HATE subscription services when it comes to software.

I've heard some people cite some amateur legalese these 2nd hand sales shouldn't be allowed, but it's not like it's on the "dark web", it's out there in the open and Microsoft certainly has the resources to stop it as I'm downloading it directly from them. It's not going to keep me up at night if Microsoft doesnt seem to care.

It's a pretty low risk gamble, basically half a tank of gas.

[tj]

Have purchased several from StackSocial, never an issue, even after several years. Paid like $30 for for a full version of MicroSoft Office, it was a few years old. The download came directly from MicroSoft with my name on the license. I personally HATE subscription services when it comes to software.

I've heard some people cite some amateur legalese these 2nd hand sales shouldn't be allowed, but it's not like it's on the "dark web", it's out there in the open and Microsoft certainly has the resources to stop it as I'm downloading it directly from them. It's not going to keep me up at night if Microsoft doesnt seem to care.

It's a pretty low risk gamble, basically half a tank of gas.

When I replaced my computer, I bought from StackSocial. I haven't had any issues, though I didn't even know it was an option to buy from Amazon at the time.

[syc]

You can get LibreOffice or OpenOffoce.org for free. All the same capabilities.

[Nowizard]

Question: We have used Office, primarily Word, for years and have many important documents created and saved. We consider updating with a newer version that would move us away from the annual subscription but have concerns over the possible corruption of those documents which would be a major error. Do folks here have experience without difficulty with existing documents being automatically transferred to a newer version of Office?
Tim

[hoofaman]

Do you actually need Microsoft Office?

I prefer Google Docs and Sheets, not just because it's free, it's better for my use cases and also much easier to share docs with others

[nisiprius]

I considered buying Office 2021 but really that seems too long in the tooth, as at the moment I am not having any issues with Office 2019 (for macOS). It survived the macOS upgrade to macOS 14 Sonoma.

I just don't know what I'm going to do when version skew finally rears its ugly head. I am really opposed to subscriptions. I suspect I'll cave eventually.

No, I have given LibreOffice and other free-as-in-freedom substitutes an honest try. It isn't their fault, as it is very easy for Microsoft to make Word enough of a moving target to prevent perfect clones. But every time I've tried to live with LibreOffice, I've given up.

If you just want a tool for personal use, and do not need to produce documents that can be read by Microsoft Word users and can overlook glitches, sometimes serious, when reading Word documents produced by others, sure, it's OK. Better than OK. But sooner or later you run into something with font metrics changing word or page breaks, or a desperate need to open a document in which someone has put equations or WordArt, or a spreadsheet that relies on VBA.

The biggest limitation of LibreOffice, as far as I know as I haven't checked lately, is that there is no way to configure it to save in .DOC format by default. In theory, this shouldn't matter. In practice, it does. For example, on let's say half-a-dozen occasions, people have reported being unable to open .ODT files sent to them as email attachments. Without the ability to go there in person and look at their computer and how it's configured, I can't even guess what's going wrong. One of them involved a student of mine, who forgot or didn't know how to Save As .DOC, and an essay contest judge who received her .ODT by email. Fortunately there was time to convert the document and resubmit. (Perhaps there are overzealous email security screens that don't accept .ODT as a legal file extension?)

[techbud]

Do you actually need Microsoft Office?

I prefer Google Docs and Sheets, not just because it's free, it's better for my use cases and also much easier to share docs with others

Also worth pointing out that Office online (web version, slimmed down) is free as well. Everyone seems to recommend Google docs “cause it’s free” but forgets that the web version of office is also free. If you don’t need all the bells and whistles, it works great.

[flyingcows]

Do you actually need Microsoft Office?

I prefer Google Docs and Sheets, not just because it's free, it's better for my use cases and also much easier to share docs with others

Also worth pointing out that Office online (web version, slimmed down) is free as well. Everyone seems to recommend Google docs “cause it’s free” but forgets that the web version of office is also free. If you don’t need all the bells and whistles, it works great.

Good point, although personally I greatly prefer the Google Docs/Sheets products over the Microsoft stuff

[Outer Marker]

Cult of Mac routinely puts this on sale. I think I paid $29 a couple of years ago for my Mac and $39 for my wife's Windows machine about a year ago. Their current pricing which is considerably more:
https://deals.cultofmac.com/sales/micro ... -license-2

They had a sale going for the Windows version for $49 that ended at midnight last night.

Oh wow, that's much mo betta! Thank you!

I bought two copies from Cult of Mac for my laptops based on recommendations here. Paid around $30. One key worked, and another had to be reissued after some back-and-forth with their customer service. Overall, pleased with the purchase. It works and is much more economical than a subscription.

[Whakamole]

The biggest limitation of LibreOffice, as far as I know as I haven't checked lately, is that there is no way to configure it to save in .DOC format by default.

I just booted up LibreOffice, and you can set this under Tools->Options->Load/Save->General; there's a section for "default file format and ODF settings" and one is "always save as" which you can set to .doc (or .rtf or a number of other formats.)

[mariezzz]

No, I have given LibreOffice and other free-as-in-freedom substitutes an honest try. It isn't their fault, as it is very easy for Microsoft to make Word enough of a moving target to prevent perfect clones. But every time I've tried to live with LibreOffice, I've given up.

If you just want a tool for personal use, and do not need to produce documents that can be read by Microsoft Word users and can overlook glitches, sometimes serious, when reading Word documents produced by others, sure, it's OK. Better than OK. But sooner or later you run into something with font metrics changing word or page breaks, or a desperate need to open a document in which someone has put equations or WordArt, or a spreadsheet that relies on VBA.

The biggest limitation of LibreOffice, as far as I know as I haven't checked lately, is that there is no way to configure it to save in .DOC format by default. In theory, this shouldn't matter. In practice, it does. For example, on let's say half-a-dozen occasions, people have reported being unable to open .ODT files sent to them as email attachments. Without the ability to go there in person and look at their computer and how it's configured, I can't even guess what's going wrong. One of them involved a student of mine, who forgot or didn't know how to Save As .DOC, and an essay contest judge who received her .ODT by email. Fortunately there was time to convert the document and resubmit. (Perhaps there are overzealous email security screens that don't accept .ODT as a legal file extension?)

I use LibreOffice. I also agree with some of the criticisms above. If you're not a power user of MS office products, LibreOffice works just fine. It's worth trying. With every update, it gets better. Most of the advanced features in MS Office products are things I'll never use. I prefer to use the open-source option if for no other reason, to give less money to MS (that's another discussion).

If I'm sending a file to someone who doesn't need to edit it, I'll often just print to PDF from LibreOffice. That prevents compatibility issues, and I can see what the PDF will look like on any other computer. Otherwise, you have to remember to save the document in Word format before sending. For word processing of personal documents, what I do is pretty basic so it usually works, but I have had problems with pagination getting messed up.

Ever since MS Office brought in the ribbon, I've found it far less user friendly, so that's one advantage of Libre Office. When I've had to use updated copies of MS Office for work, I've always been able to install a utility which restores some of the menu-based functionality that MS Office had before the ribbon. If I hadn't had that little utility, I would absolutely hate MS Office - the ribbon to me was about dumbing down the interface, slowing me down, and I found it really irritating that MS didn't provide an option to maintain the old interface. The utility doesn't solve all the problems, but it provided the option of doing most things via menus, and not having to dig through the ribbon to find what you need. (For home, on one of my computers, running Windows 10, I'm still using Office 2003 (for generating documents I use on that computer) - it lacks a lot of the features of both LibreOffice and current MS Office, but has most of what I need. I would be a security risk if I was bringing in documents from other computers.)

I personally have never liked the interface on Google Docs, but that's probably because I'm just not used to it.
===
There are some differences between Excel and LibreOffice's spreadsheet option- this is where I've noticed the biggest differences, but again, it's when you use the more advanced features. Many on BH may be using the more advanced features of excel. My biggest annoyance with LibreOffice is filtering is somewhat difference than Excel. Maybe I just got used to Excel - I used it a lot for work, especially filtering, and some of the Excel functions like vlookup.

Filtering seemed to work a lot more smoothly in Excel, especially using keyboard commands to put on & take off filters. I'm not sure if LibreOffice even has a "vlookup" option as I haven't had any need of that for personal stuff, but for work, it could save me massive amounts of work at times. I occasionally use filters on my personal spreadsheets, but not enough for it to become "natural" in LibreOffice (since it doesn't work exactly the same as with Excel). The other headache with LibreOffice's spreadsheet program is that it's more complicated (than Excel) to tell the program to fit the document to X by Y pages for printing. It can be done, but it took me some googling to find the instructions - and since I don't do this often, I usually have to look at the instructions every time I do it. In contrast, in Excel, I know exactly how to do it. I don't use a lot of complicated formulae or functions for personal work so I can't speak to how compatible those more advanced features are.

[y2kcamaross]

Yes, you can still buy a one-time purchase version of Microsoft Office for Mac, like Office Home & Business 2021. It’s not as heavily promoted as Microsoft 365, but it’s out there if you want to avoid the subscription. You can get full offline functionality, but you won’t get those rolling updates like with 365. Just be sure you’re good with a fixed set of features and won’t miss the cloud integration.
If you’re also looking for the Windows version and also for mac, this site might help: https://www.nerdused.com/products/micro ... me-license. It’s a lifetime license, so no monthly fees.

[cheese_breath]

I just bought Office Home & Student 2021 from Best Buy four days ago. Microsoft licensed for $119.99, $30.00 off. But it looks like that deal's expired. Just checked Best Buy website, and it's back up to $149.99

[muffins14]

All I want to do is to buy the current Microsoft Office for Mac for my home computer, but it seems like Microsoft wants me to buy Microsoft 365 with a monthly subscription. Did they completely discontinue the old downloadable versions that worked entirely offline?

What exactly do you need it for? Google offers sheets, documents, and slides for free

[SurferLife]

All I want to do is to buy the current Microsoft Office for Mac for my home computer, but it seems like Microsoft wants me to buy Microsoft 365 with a monthly subscription. Did they completely discontinue the old downloadable versions that worked entirely offline?

What exactly do you need it for? Google offers sheets, documents, and slides for free

I bought a cheap version a few months ago and all is well.

[cheese_breath]

I just bought Office Home & Student 2021 from Best Buy four days ago. Microsoft licensed for $119.99, $30.00 off. But it looks like that deal's expired. Just checked Best Buy website, and it's back up to $149.99

Looks like I might have waited a few more days. Office 2024 became available October 1. But it's ok I guess. I got $30 off, and I don't need the 2024 features anyway.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microso ... october-1/