Microsoft offers two popular Office solutions: Microsoft 365 (subscription-based) and Office 2021 (one-time purchase). But which one is right for you? In this guide, we compare both options to help you make an informed decision.
1. What is Microsoft 365?
Microsoft 365 is a cloud-based subscription service that includes Office apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook, along with cloud storage and additional security features.
Key Features:
Access to the latest Office apps (always updated)
1TB OneDrive cloud storage
Cross-device compatibility (Windows, Mac, mobile)
Advanced security and collaboration tools
Monthly or yearly subscription plans
2. What is Office 2021?
Office 2021 is a one-time purchase version of Microsoft Office that includes core apps like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. It does not receive major updates or cloud storage.
Key Features:
One-time payment (no subscription)
Core Office apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)
Works on one PC or Mac
No cloud storage or advanced AI features
3. Microsoft 365 vs. Office 2021 – A Quick Comparison
Feature
Microsoft 365
Office 2021
Payment Model
Subscription (Monthly/Yearly)
One-time purchase
Updates
Regular updates and new features
No major updates
Cloud Storage
1TB OneDrive
Not included
Device Support
Multiple devices
One device only
AI & Collaboration Tools
Yes (Microsoft Copilot, Teams)
No
4. Which One Should You Choose?
Choose Microsoft 365 if:
You need the latest Office apps with frequent updates.
You work on multiple devices (PC, Mac, mobile).
You need cloud storage (OneDrive).
You want AI-powered features and collaboration tools.
Choose Office 2021 if:
You prefer a one-time payment.
You only need the core Office apps.
You don’t need cloud storage or collaboration tools.
You are comfortable without future updates.
Conclusion
If you need flexibility, cloud storage, and the latest updates, Microsoft 365 is the best choice. If you prefer a simple, one-time purchase, go for Office 2021.
Office 365 is suite including Office applications (Word, PowerPoint, Excel) along with other productivity services, what we call them as cloud services. The Office 365 plan is available for both home and business version. The latter includes Skype for business web conferencing and Exchange Online hosted email together with extra online storage with OneDrive for business. A special version of Office 365 helps its users to install it on the multiple computer systems.
Office 365 is designed specifically to work with the latest versions including Office 2013 and Office 2011 for Mac. Although, it can also be used with the previous versions but you will be able to access only few features of it. Three steps required to get this latest version of Office Setup are:
Office Setup Download
Office Setup Install
Office Setup Activate
You can download the setup by logging in to your Microsoft account. New users have to create the account by using sign up process. You might be asked to enter the 25-digit product key that you have got with the Office 365 business purchase. Once you are done, follow the below mentioned steps:
Plan your Office setup first to decide what information you need, how to get help and much more
Create new accounts for users and add your domain by using your setup wizard. This will help you personalize everyone’s user ID as well as email
Visit Office 365 admin center
To begin the wizard, select Go to Setup
After creating an Office 365 account, you can install the complete version of Office. For Office 365 business version, each user can install the Office on up to 5 PCs or Macs
Visit the link https://portal.office.com/OLS/MySoftware
Login with your registered account and select install
In case of any help, call Microsoft Office support team and get an instant solution. You can also call them if an error occurs during the Office setup installation or downloading. The team works for 24*7.
Office 365 for Mac apps will no longer be supported on macOS 10.13 High Sierra or older starting November 10, 2020. Microsoft announced the change on its Office 365 message center, and users of these older versions macOS will no longer get app updates and new features starting next month.
“As of the Microsoft 365 for Mac November 2020 update, macOS 10.14 Mojave or later is required to receive updates to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote. If you continue with an older version of macOS, your Office apps will continue to work but you will no longer receive any updates including security updates”, the company explained.
New installs of Office 365 for Mac will also require macOS 10.14 Mojave or newer starting next month. The Office 365 apps for Mac are currently available from both the Mac App Store and a standalone installer you can get on office.com/setup Either way, Office 365 (now Microsoft 365) subscribers get monthly updates with quality and security fixes every month,.
The soon to be unsupported macOS 10.13 High Sierra was released three years ago, and Apple releases a new major update for its desktop OS every year in the fall season. Big Sur, the next major update be the first version of the OS compatible with both Intel-based and ARM-based Macs. During its annual developer conference in June, Apple announced that Microsoft had already recompiled Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for the first ARM-based Macs that are expected to ship later this year. a work office setup
Microsoft is kicking off Ignite 2020, and as usual, there’s a big news drop to start things off. Included is a whole bunch of new things that are coming to Microsoft 365. There are a ton of Teams features, but other Microsoft 365 services are getting updates as well.
Outlook is getting some improvements, as you’d probably expect. Bookings is getting a new UI, along with new features for customization. On iOS and Android, Outlook is getting Play My Emails in more regions, voice commands for composing an email, reactions for emails, and QR connect to authenticate your Azure AD account. The new Outlook for Mac, using Microsoft Sync, is going to be available next month, but you’ll have to turn it on with a toggle.
Next up is Microsoft Search, which is getting new features later this year. Search is getting integrated into Teams, and it’s also coming to Windows search. New Microsoft Graph connectors are generally available, and Admin Feedback will allow employees to submit feedback to their administrator to help improve Search.
In the SharePoint and Yammer department, there’s a new Share To feature, which lets you share news to either service, along with Teams, with one click. There’s also a new All Company feed in Yammer, letting you share news to everyone at once, and in SharePoint, there’s a Boost feature to prioritize announcements in employees’ feeds. There are also new Insights to help understand reach and engagement, and there are new built-in templates. People are going to be able to upvote answers to questions in Yammer as well.
Next up, Project Cortex is starting to mature as SharePoint Syntex. It allows you to teach AI to extract data from documents, and then it can apply metadata to that data.
Microsoft is also rebuilding Microsoft Stream. The idea is to do for videos what Office has done for documents, and it should be just as easy to find a create, share, and find videos in your organization. The new Microsoft Stream will arrive in Q4 of this year.
In Excel, users can connect to Power BI datasets, so they can use tools that are familiar to them. For example, you can use PivotTables or something along those lines.
Microsoft also announced some new features for IT professionals. Microsoft Tunnel is a remote access solution with Endpoint Manager and lets your smartphone connect to on-prem resources. Also, Endpoint Manager now supports managing virtual endpoints like Windows Virtual Desktop.
Most of the features announced are coming later this year.
Earlier in the day, Apple released an update to its App Store guidelines, including some changes in its regulations regarding game streaming. Previously, the App Store did not allow game streaming services like Google Stadia, Microsoft xCloud, and Nvidia GeForce Now because Apple claimed that it cannot review each game being made available via the service.
With the recent changes in the guidelines, game streaming services are now allowed… as long as publishers submit each game for Apple’s approval separately. Microsoft has now cited concerns with Apple’s strategy, and hasn’t taken kindly to the Cupertino tech giant’s “olive branch”.
In a statement to The Verge, Microsoft explained that:
This remains a bad experience for customers. Gamers want to jump directly into a game from their curated catalog within one app just like they do with movies or songs, and not be forced to download over 100 apps to play individual games from the cloud. We’re committed to putting gamers at the center of everything we do, and providing a great experience is core to that mission.
Microsoft’s concerns do appear to be valid since the core experience of game streaming involves ideally having all games in one place and being able to switch from one title to the other without breaking immersion too much. While Apple does allow publishers a “catalog” app to list all their games in one place, accessing them would still require interaction with their respective App Store listings, an experience Microsoft obviously does not prefer.
Another caveat in Apple’s guidelines is that developers will have to allow users to sign up for the service in the app, meaning that Apple gets a 30% cut, and they’ll have to support the “Sign in with Apple”. This is already something Epic Games is battling against the Cupertino firm in courts, and while Microsoft hasn’t publicly cited concerns against the pricing model in this case, it would definitely strengthen Epic Games’ case if the Redmond giant decides to take this to court as well.
Today, at the Galaxy Unpacked event, Microsoft and Samsung shared the latest innovations in the long-term partnership announced last year. These new features bring the best of Microsoft’s productivity apps to the new Samsung Galaxy devices announced today.
New integrations enable you to bring your important notes and tasks across devices. Samsung Notes can automatically sync with your OneNote feed in Outlook on the web or OneNote as an image. You will also be able to sync Samsung Reminders from your Galaxy Note20 to your Windows 10 PC across Microsoft To Do, Outlook, and Microsoft Teams experiences.
For more details, read the full announcement on the Windows Experience Blog. We’re excited to see this partnership continue to bring the best productivity solutions to new Samsung devices.
Microsoft Teams is being updated on iOS that bring a few new features. The iPadOS app now supports a 3×3 grid view in meetings. Additionally, an option to toggle a setting that reduces the amount of data consumed in video calls is being added to iOS. The Android app also adds a few new features such as the ability to send meeting invite links to users that do not have a Teams account.
The Redmond giant began rolling out support for 3×3 video views back in May for the desktop clients. The addition of this feature on the iPad makes it a nifty one since the larger screen real estate can accommodate more participants. The new update brings support for a 2×4 grid on On iPhones, leveraging the portrait orientation. In addition to this, the iOS app is adding a new daily agenda view to view and share upcoming meetings.
Here is the full changelog for Teams on iOS that is now rolling out:
See more videos in your calls and meetings. 2×4 on iPhone, 3×3 on iPad
New setting to reduce the amount of data Teams uses while video is on
Choose which number to dial for org contacts with more than one phone number
Single sign-on access for bots and tools in Teams that use your org credentials
Daily agenda view of upcoming meetings. Join, edit, or share them with contacts
The Teams release notes page on Microsoft Support also mentions that Cortana voice support has been added to the app starting August 18. However, the changelog does not mention the addition. Cortana in Teams is currently rolling out only for users in the U.S., with a wider rollout expected in the future.
The Android version of the app was also updated today, however, the changelog seems to be the same from earlier versions, suggesting that it could be a bug-fixing update.
Office Mobile team. has introduce a new feature to increase your productivity: Scan to Word on Android.
How it works
Whether you are starting a new document or updating an existing one, you can use the Scan to Word feature.
Start a document with scanned text:
1. Tap Create Document > Scan text.
2. Press the Lens button and take photos of the document you would like to scan.
3. Tap the Images button that shows the number of pictures you took.
4. Press the Done button to convert the images into your document.
Add scanned text to an existing document:
1. Open an existing document that you want to add scanned text to.
2. Place the cursor where you want to add the scanned text and tap the Insert tab > Scan Document
3. Tap the Camera button and take photos of the document you would like to scan.
4. Press the Images button that shows the number of pictures you took.
5. Tap the Done button to convert the images into your document.
Known Issue
Handwritten text is not recognized reliably. You will likely need to make adjustments to your document to ensure accuracy.
Availability
The Scan to Word feature is now available in English for users in the United States running Insider build 16.0.12730.10000 or later on Android. This feature will be coming to Windows Mobile soon.
Today, Microsoft announced the Microsoft 365 Personal and Family Subscriptions, the first consumer offerings from Microsoft 365. I’m pleased to follow up here to announce related changes to our Office 365 subscriptions for small and medium-sized businesses—and to Office 365 ProPlus. Going forward, all of these products will use the Microsoft 365 brand.
This is a natural evolution. Microsoft 365 began in 2017 as a licensing bundle for enterprise customers—a combination of Windows, Office, and Enterprise Mobility and Security (EMS). It has come a long way since then. Today, we call it “the world’s productivity cloud” and it represents our vision for the future of Microsoft productivity tools—an integrated set of apps and services that puts artificial intelligence (AI) and other cutting-edge innovations to work for you. And for small and medium-sized businesses, that includes new capabilities in Microsoft Teams to help you host rich meetings and events online; cloud file storage and sharing capabilities so you can collaborate from anywhere; and security and identity solutions to safeguard your business. At a moment when businesses are facing extraordinary health and economic challenges, we are pleased to bring our consumer and small and medium-sized business customers into this growing Microsoft 365 family.
New product names
The new product names go into effect on April 21, 2020. This is a change to the product name only, and there are no pricing or feature changes at this time.
Office 365 Business Essentials will become Microsoft 365 Business Basic.
Office 365 Business Premium will become Microsoft 365 Business Standard.
Microsoft 365 Business will become Microsoft 365 Business Premium.
Office 365 Business and Office 365 ProPlus will both become Microsoft 365 Apps. Where necessary we will use the “for business” and “for enterprise” labels to distinguish between the two.
Note that the changes to these products will all happen automatically.
Today, Microsoft simply announcing name changes. But these changes represent our ambition to continue to drive innovation in Microsoft 365 that goes well beyond what customers traditionally think of as Office. The Office you know and love will still be there, but we’re excited about the new apps and services we’ve added to our subscriptions over the last few years and about the new innovations we’ll be adding in the coming months. For questions, please refer the FAQs below and then head to the What is Microsoft 365 page for more details.
Frequently asked questions
Q. What Office 365 plan names aren’t changing? A. The following Office 365 plans will have no changes:
Office 365 for Enterprise
Office 365 E1
Office 365 E3
Office 365 E5
Office 365 for Firstline Workers
Office 365 F1
Office 365 for Education
Office 365 A1
Office 365 A3
Office 365 A5
Office 365 for Government
Office 365 G1
Office 365 G3
Office 365 G5
Q. Why are you making these changes? A. First, we want our products to reflect the range of features and benefits in the subscription. Microsoft 365 is an integrated set of apps and services that puts AI and other cutting-edge innovations to work for you. And for small and medium-sized businesses, that includes new capabilities in Microsoft Teams to help you host rich meetings and events online; cloud file storage and sharing capabilities so you can collaborate from anywhere; and security and identity solutions to safeguard your businesses. Second, we’re always looking for ways to simplify. This new approach to naming our products is designed to help you quickly find the plan you need and get back to your business.
Q. How does Office fit into Microsoft 365? Will I still be able to use Word, Excel, and PowerPoint? A. The Office suite is core to the Microsoft productivity experience, and that’s not changing. But over the last several years, our cloud productivity offering has grown well beyond what people traditionally think of as “Office.” Word, Excel, and PowerPoint are more important than ever before. But in Microsoft 365 we’re breathing new life into these apps with the help of the cloud and AI, and we’re adding new, born-in-the-cloud experiences like Teams, Stream, Forms, and Planner. All of this is underpinned by a set of common services that keep your data safe and secure. It’s Office and a whole lot more.
Q. Is there anything new or different in Microsoft 365 Apps for business or Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise plans that wasn’t in Office 365 Business or Office 365 ProPlus plans? Any new features? A. There are no price or feature changes to plans at this time.
Q. When will the Microsoft 365 Business and Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise plans be available? A. All plans will become available for customers on April 21, 2020.
Q. Are allof the Office 365 plans going away? What isn’t changing? A. None of the plans are going away. The same plans are available, only with updated names. And in the case of Office 365 Enterprise, the name will remain the same and there will be no changes.
Q. I’m an existing SMB or ProPlus customer. Do I need to take any action? A. Customers with the Office 365 Business, Office 365 Business Essentials, Office 365 Business Premium, or Microsoft 365 Business plans do not need to take additional action. The above changes will happen automatically.
Q. My company uses Office 365 ProPlus, and I have questions about this change. Where can I learn more? A. Customers with the Office 365 ProPlus plan should consult this site for further details.
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