Microsoft ships subscription-free version of Office 2016 for Mac [u]

Posted:
in Mac Software edited September 2015
Microsoft on Tuesday launched standalone editions of Office 2016 for Mac for people who don't want or need an Office 365 subscription, which costs at least $7 per month or $70 per year.




The Home & Student edition costs a one-time fee of $150, and limits users to one Mac and 15 gigabytes of OneDrive cloud storage, versus the 1 terabyte assigned to 365 subscribers. Users can't fully unlock the mobile version of Office, and lack other perks like free tech support and Skype minutes.

A Home & Business edition costs $230. The only difference is the inclusion of Outlook.

For Office 2016 for Mac, Microsoft redesigned its apps with new interfaces in line with its flagship Windows software. Some features are still missing on the Mac, such as Quick Analysis in Excel.

The company released a Mac suite for Office 365 subscribers back in July. At the time it promised only that standalone software would ship sometime in September, leaving out pricing or what would be included.

Update: The article has been updated with information about the Home & Business edition.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 48

    To me, 365 is worth it. $10 per month gets you five desktop licenses and five mobile licenses, as well as a terabyte of OneDrive storage. There are much worse things you could spend $10 a month on.

     

    Pages really isn't an option unless you don't collaborate with anyone or only collaborate with people using only the latest version of Pages.

  • Reply 2 of 48
    Not going back. Wiped MS Office from my mac, never regretted it.
  • Reply 3 of 48

    1. What are the compelling new features?

    2. How is MS enforcing the 1 Mac per license? How difficult is it to bypass the limit?

  • Reply 4 of 48
    pmzpmz Posts: 3,433member
    Still no OneDrive for Business client for OS X.
  • Reply 5 of 48
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by TheWhiteFalcon View Post

     

    To me, 365 is worth it. $10 per month gets you five desktop licenses and five mobile licenses, as well as a terabyte of OneDrive storage. There are much worse things you could spend $10 a month on.

     

    Pages really isn't an option unless you don't collaborate with anyone or only collaborate with people using only the latest version of Pages.


    and what happens to YOUR documents etc if you can't afford the $120/year?

    Say you lose your job? What if you couldn't update your resume because you MS monthly tithe has expired. Bang goes your next job then?

    Tithe?

    Yes. That is what is it. You pay them money for them to let you have the priviledge to access you information for another month.

    I will never ever purchase a subscription for software where if I stop paying, it stops working.

    I will pay for support but not where if I stop the software stops working.

  • Reply 6 of 48

    I will be the first to admit that I don't know what is happening on the backend, but this rollout has been kind of a rough.  I still experience frequent crashes with Office 2016, and have since the beta. I also wish that Microsoft offered some more developer support to get Endnote and Mendeley working before launch.  I know that I'm just one specific use case for Microsoft, but it was surely a disappointment to download new software only to have to rollback to my old workflow until everyone gets up to speed.  

  • Reply 7 of 48

    The article says there is no standalone business version for the Mac. However, Microsoft's website says different.

     

    Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook, OneNote: $229

     

    And, ditto on the "not going back" comment.

  • Reply 8 of 48
    $150 for just one computer! You used to get three licenses per purchase. Software companies going to subscriptions as primary model are extortionists. Sorry, but no thanks.
  • Reply 9 of 48
    >There is no standalone business option.

    What. The. Absolute. F---?

    EDIT: It certainly looks as if there's a [URL=http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/Office-Home-amp-Business-2016-for-Mac/productID.323023600?tduid=(b086461b2eb456c4959ad111b4ab0e20)(256380)(2459594)(je6NUbpObpQ-wpSXwQZ4dHaOmFhmPA9s6Q)()]$229 standalone option[/URL].

    Perhaps what the authors meant is that there is no volume enterprise license version. We certainly do not want to have to manage thousands of individual licenses.

    If MS wants business to stick with Office 2011 or move to a different product, this is a great way to do so. :no:
  • Reply 10 of 48
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by davebarnes View Post

     

    1. What are the compelling new features?

    2. How is MS enforcing the 1 Mac per license? How difficult is it to bypass the limit?


     

     

    1) in four months of use, the 2016 beta has crashed less than the retail 2011 for me   :)

     

    2) i assume the same scheme as 2011, where after 3 activations with that serial number, you need to waste 45 minutes on the phone with MS support to get them to allow one more activation. This has been a huge pain in an 24x7 environment where HDD were failing, have been swapped out and now we are switching again to SSD....

  • Reply 11 of 48
    and what happens to YOUR documents etc if you can't afford the $120/year?
    Say you lose your job? What if you couldn't update your resume because you MS monthly tithe has expired. Bang goes your next job then?
    Tithe?
    Yes. That is what is it. You pay them money for them to let you have the priviledge to access you information for another month.
    I will never ever purchase a subscription for software where if I stop paying, it stops working.
    I will pay for support but not where if I stop the software stops working.

    What? You realize that you keep your documents, right? It's not like they own them.
  • Reply 12 of 48
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by rotateleftbyte View Post

     

    and what happens to YOUR documents etc if you can't afford the $120/year?

    Say you lose your job? What if you couldn't update your resume because you MS monthly tithe has expired. Bang goes your next job then?

    Tithe?

    Yes. That is what is it. You pay them money for them to let you have the priviledge to access you information for another month.

    I will never ever purchase a subscription for software where if I stop paying, it stops working.

    I will pay for support but not where if I stop the software stops working.


    You can open Office documents in many other programs. Open Office is free and open source. Apple Pages is 20 bucks. You won't lose your files.

  • Reply 13 of 48
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by TheWhiteFalcon View Post



    >what happens to YOUR documents etc if you can't afford the $120/year?



    What? You realize that you keep your documents, right? It's not like they own them.

     

    What if the documents are stored in the cloud? (The cloud you lose access to when your subscription expires.)

  • Reply 14 of 48
    pricing seems in line with prior releases. no surprises here.

    although at $150, I'm unlikely to buy MS Office for occasional home use.

    at $50, I might bite. It's really just an extra for the average, non business user.
  • Reply 15 of 48
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by ktappe View Post

     

     

    What if the documents are stored in the cloud? (The cloud you lose access to when your subscription expires.)




    I would think that you know when your subscription expires, and have the forethought to copy your files.

     

    honestly, i would hope you have a backup of your files anyway.

  • Reply 16 of 48
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by sandor View Post

     



    I would think that you know when your subscription expires, and have the forethought to copy your files.

     

    honestly, i would hope you have a backup of your files anyway.


    Seriously, I didn't think anyone did use "the cloud" as a primary and only storage option. I use iCloud because it's convenient for syncing between devices and all that, but even our Glorious Apple has glitches. In one of these software updates on something, not sure if it was my Macbook or iPhone or a backend update, but something definitely deleted my entire documents folder on iCloud. so I restored files from my backup hard drive, but man.. that would suck to have some cloud glitch wipe out all your stuff. Don't trust them. 

  • Reply 17 of 48
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by TheWhiteFalcon View Post





    What? You realize that you keep your documents, right? It's not like they own them.



    Isn't the default 'save to' device the cloud? Do you lose access to your data on One Drive? There are reports of Office 365 on PC's stopping working if you can't connect to the MS Mothership for less than a week. This is sily. I went on a sea trip to the Southern Ocean last year. We were without internet for more than a month. Satellite internet is not a viable option. So no working office after a week. Yeah right.

    The subscription future is [redacted]. I'm really glad that I'm retiring in 18 months or so.

  • Reply 18 of 48
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by rotateleftbyte View Post

     

    and what happens to YOUR documents etc if you can't afford the $120/year?


    All of your Office documents can be opened, edited, and saved for free with Google Drive or Open Office so you aren't out of options if you suddenly can't afford it. It's worth the $10 a month for the cloud storage alone (1TB of iCloud storage is the same price). Plus I get the professional standard office suite as local apps installed on all of my devices with syncing, sharing, and collaboration functionality? That's a bargain. As much as people moan about subscription licensing, products like Office and Adobe Creative Cloud remain the industry standards.

  • Reply 19 of 48
    OpenOffice is still free.
  • Reply 20 of 48
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by schlack View Post



    pricing seems in line with prior releases. no surprises here.

     

    My 3 computer license for the previous version was $105. I might pay $150 for a 3 (or even 2) computer license (one desktop/one laptop), but for a single machine I'll stick with the previous version.

     

    I'm glad they finally offered an option to own your software though, even if they have priced it out of the casual home user market.

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