After my recent post and video regarding Office 2024’s release:

Microsoft Office 2024 Released!

Did you know, Office 2024 launched yesterday! That’s right, if you want a perpetual license (1 time purchase rather than the MS365 Subscription model) of the latest and greatest version of Office then 2024 is now on the market. Here’s Microsoft’s official announcement:  

I’ve seen a few questions on my YouTube channel and in various forums where people are trying to understand the difference between Microsoft 365 (also referred to as MS 365 or MS365) and this latest release of Office 2024.

As such, I thought this an important subject to cover.

What is MS365?

Subscription Based

Microsoft 365 is Microsoft SAAS (Software As A Service) offering of Office (and much more).  So you rent access to the software on a month-to-month basis (billed monthly or annually).

If you don’t renew your subscription, the software ceases to work and you can no longer work with any of those files on that PC.

Feature & Security Updates

The main benefit of Microsoft’s SAAS MS365 subscription is that you get continuous Feature and Security updates.  So you will always have the most current version of the software.

Bugs

The biggest drawback to this continual updating approach is that because of a lack of proper internal testing (QA) at Microsoft, users typically are exposed to many more bugs and thus experience more issues leading to downtime and loss of revenues.

Costs

Initial up-front cost are less with the MS365 subscription model when compared to Office 2024, but in the medium to long term SAAS is always more expensive. Also, with such subscription models, you are at the mercy of the company for pricing and fees can change without any notice. Refer to the Pricing Comparison below for a couple examples.
 

What is Office 2024?

From my understanding of things, Office 2024 is merely a static snapshot of MS365 at a given time.  So basically, one day, Microsoft took a copy of MS365 and called it Office 2024.

Perpetual License

Unlike MS365, when you purchase Office 2024, you are purchasing a perpetual license and not renting access to the applications.  By doing so, you have a perpetual right to run/use the software.

Security Updates ONLY

As mentioned above, Office 2024 is a static snapshot of MS365 and you will NOT receive any Feature updates.  You are only entitled to receiving Security updates for the duration of the support cycle (for Office 2024 that would be until Oct 9, 2029).

The software will continue to work beyond that date, but you will no longer receive any update after that point in time.

Bugs

Because Office 2024 is a static copy, and not continuously updating/changing, it is typically a more stable version of Office, less likely to experience bugs causing less downtime.

Cost

Official 2024 is initially more expensive when compared to a comparable MS365 plan, but over the medium to longterm is cost substantially less. Refer to the Pricing Comparison below for a couple examples.

Pricing Comparison

If we take a moment to try and compare cost between the 2 options we might get something like

Summary