Office Software

Office Software Licenses and Prices

Office software carries most of the everyday work on a computer, from writing documents and building budget spreadsheets to preparing slides and managing email. This category brings together perpetual Office licenses for Windows, the always up-to-date Microsoft 365 subscription and Visio Professional for diagrams. Whether you use Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook at home, at school or at work, finding the right license starts with how you actually work. The number of devices you use, the operating system you run and how much new features matter to you are the main things that shape the choice.

Types of Office Software Licenses

The products here fall into two licensing models. A perpetual license is bought once and used on the computer it is installed on with no time limit. The Microsoft Office releases, Office 2016, Office 2019, Office 2021 and Office 2024, all come this way for a single Windows PC. Visio Professional is also a perpetual license, and it is a standalone app sold separately from the Office suites.

With a subscription you use the apps for a set period instead. A Microsoft 365 subscription runs for one year and gives you current versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote together with OneDrive cloud storage. Its biggest difference is that the same account works across Windows, macOS, iOS and Android devices.

Perpetual Office or Microsoft 365?

This is the first decision to make when buying office software. A perpetual Office stays exactly as installed. It does not gain new features, but there is nothing to renew either. That makes it a sensible choice if you plan to keep the same release on one Windows PC for years and prefer working without depending on an internet connection. With a Microsoft 365 subscription, the apps update as Microsoft ships new features and your files stay within reach on every device.

If you work on a Mac, the answer is already clear, because the perpetual Office releases in this category are for Windows only. For people who co-author documents with a team or open files on a phone and tablet as well, the subscription is the more flexible route.

What to Look for When Choosing Office Software

When picking a perpetual Office release, start with Microsoft's security support. Office 2024 is the release that will stay supported the longest. Microsoft support has ended for Office 2021, Office 2019 and Office 2016. These releases keep working but no longer receive security updates, so they mainly make sense when you need compatibility with older templates, add-ins or systems such as Windows 7 SP1 and 8.1.

The included apps also differ from release to release. If you need Access and Publisher, Office 2021 stands out, while Office 2024 does not include Publisher. If you plan to use Visio, keep in mind that it has to be installed in the same bitness as the Office on your PC, either 32-bit or 64-bit.

Diagrams and Process Maps with Visio

Visio Professional is a desktop diagramming app for flowcharts, org charts, network diagrams and floor plans. You can link shapes to Excel, Access, SQL Server or SharePoint data and draw to standards with BPMN 2.0 and UML 2.5 templates. Business analysts mapping processes, IT teams documenting network infrastructure and developers sketching software architecture all use it alongside Office.

Buy Genuine Office Software Licenses

Office software license prices depend on a few factors. For perpetual licenses the release is what matters most, and newer releases differ from older ones that are out of support. For Microsoft 365, the subscription term and the account type, a shared account or a personal account of your own, shape the price. With Visio Professional you choose between the 2016, 2019 and 2021 releases. Every product is a genuine digital license, so you can pick the one that fits the way you work and get an affordable setup without paying for more than you need.