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Microsoft Office

Microsoft Office licensing, perpetual or subscription

Both models remain available, and the right one depends far more on how long you keep a release than on the headline price.

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A perpetual Office licence costs more up front and nothing thereafter. A subscription costs less initially and always runs the current release. Over a five-year horizon, perpetual with one mid-cycle upgrade is usually cheaper for organisations that do not need current features.

The factor that most often forces the decision is not cost but file format compatibility with clients and suppliers. If you exchange documents with people on current versions, staying several releases behind eventually stops being a choice.

Choosing between them

Perpetual is the better fit when

Budget is capital rather than operating, machines are replaced on a long cycle, cloud services are not required, or the system is regulated and any change requires revalidation.

Subscription is the better fit when

You also need business email and cloud storage, staff work across several devices, headcount changes regularly, or you want the licence to follow the person rather than the machine.

Office licensing in the catalogue

Full catalogue

Frequently asked questions

Yes. Moving the billing relationship to a Cloud Solution Provider is an administrative change. Your tenant, data, configuration and users are unaffected, and there is no downtime.

Yes. Subscriptions through CSP, and perpetual licences such as Windows Server, SQL Server and Office LTSC through volume licensing. We will price both where both are viable for your scenario.

Additions can be made at any time. Reductions take effect at the subscription anniversary, which is why the renewal date is the point at which a genuine review is worth doing.

Related pages

Office LTSCMicrosoft 365 plansLicensing guide

Get Office pricing both ways

Tell us the device count and replacement cycle. We will price perpetual and subscription side by side across a realistic horizon.

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