Microsoft released a year ago Office 2016 which succeeded both Office 2013 and Office made for Mac in 2011 and it is a productivity suite. In order to get it Office applications for one computer, you have to pay up-front the cost which means that it is sold as a one-time purchase. Microsoft Office 2016 has 2 versions Office Home and Student for both PCs and Macs. This Office version doesn’t have an upgrade option. This means that after one essential update if you want an upgrade you will have to buy it again and pay the full price for it.
Office 365 is a subscription service which makes sure that you have all the tools that Microsoft offers with the latest update. Same as the Office 2016 they provide productivity software as well as some other services. Office 365 has a variety of plans for personal use and for small businesses, enterprises, schools and nonprofits, which will allow you to create the best set of tools you need.
When it comes to Office 365 plans for home and personal use, they include Office applications which we all know and use like Word, Excel, PowerPoint as well as extra online storage space and free tech support at all times. With Office 365 you get to choose do you want to pay for it on a monthly or yearly basis and they allow you to share your subscription with four other members of your households, which is a great thing for large families.
Office 365 plans for business, enterprises, schools and nonprofits offers the same fully installed applications as Office 365 for personal use, but the bonus here is that you get to personalize it, choose what you need it for as well as have online versions of Office besides extra online storage space and email.
So, let’s summarize it a bit, in order for you to decide which version will completely meet your needs. With Office 2016 as a one-time purchase, you will get applications like Word, Excel and PowerPoint, but they won’t be updated after new features are added, whereas with Office 365 you will get updates as well as new features. It is designed as a single operating system, which means you either use it for one PC or one Mac, whereas with Office 365 you can share it between 5 computers and you don’t have to choose between Macs and PCs. Technical support is available only until you install it and extra storage space online is not available, whereas with Office 365 you get free technical support as well as 1 TB of storage online.