Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) vs. Office 2016: a com­par­i­son of both models

If you opt for Office 2016, the pur­chas­ing process is barely any different from buying previous versions of Office. This means that you buy Office at a store or online for a one-time fee and receive the full version of the software as per usual. Microsoft offers the software plans in different versions, each of which differs in range: the customary in­di­vid­ual ap­pli­ca­tions Word, Excel, Pow­er­Point and OneNote are always included (e.g. in the smallest plan Home & Student). Larger plans (such as Home & Business) include the Outlook email client. Office 2016 Pro­fes­sion­al provides you with even more such as the Publisher and Access ap­pli­ca­tions. Office 2016 is available for Windows PCs (from Windows 7 onwards) as well as for Mac OS.

Since it’s a download, this means that an internet con­nec­tion is required for Office 2016’s initial in­stal­la­tion and setup. Once the software is installed on your computer, you don’t need an internet con­nec­tion anymore. This means that you can also use the ap­pli­ca­tion when you’re on the move i.e. on your laptop on public transport.

In addition to the rel­a­tive­ly high purchase costs, the big dis­ad­van­tage of this model is that only the most necessary security updates are provided. New features that sup­ple­ment sub­se­quent Office releases are no longer available – at least until you purchase sub­se­quent versions Office 2019 or Office 2021 at full price. Office 2016 also lacks an upgrade feature: the software comes as it is and there’s not much you can do to expand it.

On the contrary to a one-time purchase of Office 2016 and sub­se­quent editions, you pay a monthly or annual fee with Microsoft 365, this also includes access to Office ap­pli­ca­tions Word, Excel, Pow­er­Point, OneNote, and Outlook. Publisher and Access are also included for PCs. Unlike with the one-time purchase of the Office 2016 beginner versions “Home & Student”, these programs are also included in the low-cost plans “Microsoft 365 Personal” and “Microsoft 365 Family”. If you decide to pay the yearly fee, it is slightly cheaper than paying the monthly fee for a year. The in­di­vid­ual Microsoft 365 license models and the cor­re­spond­ing prices have already been described in detail in one of our articles.

One of the most important dif­fer­ences between Microsoft 365 and Office 2016 is that with the sub­scrip­tion model, you always get the latest versions of the entire Office programs in addition to the full range of ap­pli­ca­tions. This means that as soon as a new Office version is released, sub­scrip­tion users can upgrade without having to pay again. Regular feature updates are also included as well as the security updates.

If many users want to use the software, it is crucial that it can be installed on several devices with only one sub­scrip­tion. For example, Microsoft 365 Family lets you use in­di­vid­ual ap­pli­ca­tions on up to five devices, whether it’s Mac or PC, an iOS or Android device.

The range of functions is also extended to tablets and smart­phones which a one-time purchased version doesn’t offer. On mobile devices, you can work in Microsoft 365 Word with “Track Changes”, edit headers and footers, or insert section and page breaks. With Excel you can also use shadow and mirror effects or insert WordArt, while Pow­er­Point’s features include freehand an­no­ta­tions and speaker notes. This extended set of features applies to five smart­phones and five tablets. In addition, there is 1TB OneDrive cloud storage for each user, which isn’t included with Office 2016. Technical support from Microsoft is available during the entire sub­scrip­tion period, instead of only during the in­stal­la­tion process.