Microsoft Office for Mac & Microsoft 365 Deals

• Standalone Office for Mac Home & Business 2021 license: $79.97 at StackSocial (68% off)
• Microsoft Office 2021 Home & Student (for PC/Mac) $119.99 ($30 off) at Amazon
• Save up to 35% on Microsoft 365 Personal & Family subscriptions at StackSocial

Microsoft Office for Mac vs Microsoft 365

Many software distributors have shifted to a subscription model to reduce the barrier to entry and increase long-term customer retention. However, Microsoft still offers both a subscription model dubbed Microsoft 365 and a license model for its Office software.

Microsoft 365 Family and Personal

Customers can choose between a personal plan or a family plan for Microsoft 365. Both subscriptions include identical software, however, the family plan enables up to six accounts to access.

Subscribers get a suite of Office products including Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and Outlook. They also get OneDrive storage, Microsoft Teams, and access to Editor, a grammar and spell checking tool.

The personal plan includes only 1TB of OneDrive storage while the Family plan gets 6TB of storage to share between the six accounts.

Microsoft 365 Personal retails for $69.99 per year or $6.99 per month. Microsoft 365 Family retails for $99.99 per year or $9.99 per month.

Microsoft Office Home & Student

This is the separate single-use license for Microsoft Office apps. It's a one-time purchase that includes downloads for Microsoft Word, Excel, and Powerpoint only.

When a new version comes out, for example, Microsoft Office 2022 after 2021, license owners will not get the update. They must buy the license each time a new version is released.

The Microsoft Office Home & Student license allows the purchaser to install the included software on one device, be it a Mac or PC. It costs $149.99 and includes 60 days of support.

Microsoft 365 Business

Businesses looking for Office apps have a few subscription options to choose from. There's Business Basic, Apps for business, and Business Standard.

Microsoft Office Business Basic is the lowest price at $5 per user per month. It comes with access to the web and mobile versions of Office apps like Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and Outlook. It also includes access to Exchange, 1TB of OneDrive storage, and Sharepoint.

The Microsoft Apps for business subscription focuses on giving businesses access to the primary Office apps for $8.25 per user per month. It offers the premium desktop applications for Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and Outlook with 1TB of OneDrive. The PC-only apps for Publisher and Access are also included in the bundle.

The Microsoft Business Standard subscription is essentially a combination of the other two for $12.50 per user per month. It includes all of the cloud features of the Business Basic subscription with the premium desktop apps of the app bundle. You can compare the differences between the plans here.

Microsoft Office Professional

Like the Microsoft Office Home & Student license, the Microsoft Office Professional license is a one-time purchase for a single download of Microsoft's apps. This purchase includes desktop versions of Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook, Publisher, and Access.

Customers must buy a new license after each new version is released. The Microsoft Office Professional license is available for PC and costs $439.99 and includes 60 days of support.

Commonly asked questions

Does Microsoft Office work on Mac?

Yes, there is a Mac version of each of the Microsoft Office apps available in the App Store. They are free to download but require an active Microsoft 365 subscription to use.

Is Microsoft Office Free?

No. Microsoft Office is available via a Microsoft 365 subscription. However, students with a valid education email can get a Microsoft 365 subscription for free.

Does Microsoft Office offer a free trial?

Yes, Microsoft Office apps all offer a one-month free trial when picking Microsoft 365 subscription options. Purchase is not required until the free trial ends.

How much is Microsoft 365?

Customers who need an individual plan can get Microsoft 365 for $69.99 per year. Family plans for up to six users cost $99.99 per year with 6TB of cloud storage included.