Office 2016 vs Office 365

[netdudeuk]

Hi

I have a licensed copy of Office 2016 on my MBP.

I have also bought an Office 365 subscription which includes support for Macs.

Are the Office 365 versions better on the Mac than the 2016 versions ?

Thanks

 

[chscag]

The O365 version will have the latest updates and options while the 2016 stand alone version may not. I have the 2016 stand alone version but continue to use my 2011 version instead which continues to work fine with High Sierra 10.13.6.

 

[CTHarrryH]

I get updates on my standalone version of 2016 all the time - just in the last couple of days all the different programs were updated. Happens every month - 6 weeks. I don't think either one is more up to date than the other.
I think it is really what you are used to and like - I use stand alone at home and 365 at work. I'd rather have stand alone but understand why companies would rather run 365 due to software installation and maintenance on every PC.

 

[Intell]

They both use the exact same code and programs. The only difference is that the Office 365 version enables more features than the Office 2016 disc does.

 

[mikzn]

I get updates on my standalone version of 2016 all the time - just in the last couple of days all the different programs were updated. Happens every month - 6 weeks. I don't think either one is more up to date than the other.
I think it is really what you are used to and like - I use stand alone at home and 365 at work. I'd rather have stand alone but understand why companies would rather run 365 due to software installation and maintenance on every PC.

Yeah I don't think there is any difference - I also have the stand alone version and AFAIK the updates are in line with the subscription version.

Here is a MS link that confirm it - Update history for Office for Mac

 

[netdudeuk]

Thanks folks.

I noticed the other day that there seems to be at least one difference between the versions running on Windows. My work PC got an update to the O365 versions last week and now the right click spell checker includes the meanings of the suggested words. Maybe that's just a setting though ...

 

[campyguy]

OP, chiming in late here from a personal and company owner perspective. The O365 version will be include an update to the equivalent of "Office 2019" in the next few months; there will be no upgrade path from the 2016 to the 2019 perpetual license - full price only.

From the personal version perspective, the O365 version will include a license to use Office on a Mac/PC, a mobile smartphone, and an iPad - Personal gets 1 set, Home gets 5 sets. Each Outlook.com user account tied to an O365 license gets a storage upgrade from 5GB to 50GB and no ads plus upgrades of OneDrive storage from 5GB to 1TB.

What I'm trying to find out from my MS rep but haven't heard back yet is about the Windows version, which I use 95% of the time right now is whether or not the Win O365 suite will include Visio and Project - I'm testing the Win 2019 suite and both Visio and Project are included in the perpetual license option (this test suite is only available for commercial users at this point) but this is a big deal for me as I can ditch some or all of my Visio and Project CALs. On my Mac, I use O365 in a Win 10 VM, and, on that note...

The Mac and Windows suites do not yet have code parity, but they will around the time that Office 2019 is issued. I'd offer that you check out the Mac suite's Fast Ring option if you want to see more of what's coming - I rarely use the Mac suite but do have it installed and the updater set to the Fast Ring - the apps are currently on v. 16.16. My MS rep related to me that the fully-unified code per app will be present in the next 90-odd days - the full Office 2019 updates will likely hit the interwebs around mid-October.

There's plenty of other changes coming to O365 in the near future, and I'd offer that you check out the Redmond Channel Parter web portal - there's plenty of in-depth content there. A for-instance is that, if you have the OneNote 2016 app installed on your Win10 PC (no word on Macs yet, and only Win10 will be supported for Office 2019), sub to O365, and haven't used OneNote 2016 (the current desktop version), a future O365 update will delete the desktop app - plenty of insights on that web site...

 

[mikzn]

What I'm trying to find out from my MS rep but haven't heard back yet is about the Windows version, which I use 95% of the time right now is whether or not the Win O365 suite will include Visio and Project - I'm testing the Win 2019 suite and both Visio and Project are included in the perpetual license option (this test suite is only available for commercial users at this point) but this is a big deal for me as I can ditch some or all of my Visio and Project CALs. On my Mac, I use O365 in a Win 10 VM, and, on that note...

Visio and Project included would be a very big deal if included in the office 365 windows version - but not available on the mac side - there is no mac version as far as I know? Come to think of it, there is also "MS Access" is that also part of the subscription?

 

[campyguy]

Visio and Project included would be a very big deal if included in the office 365 windows version - but not available on the mac side - there is no mac version as far as I know? Come to think of it, there is also "MS Access" is that also part of the subscription?

The full Windows Commercial Preview suite does include Access (as the O365 suite has in the past), it's the addition of Visio and Project to the perpetual version of Office 2019 that has me stoked a bit. It's buried more than a bit on MS's web portal for my commercial preview, but there's more info at the link below, with more info on both perpetual offerings at this point - the Windows suite offerings are in the second fly-down under "Preview"). Both Mac and Windows suites are discussed. Keep in mind that the Commercial suite is generally identical to the personal suite on the Mac side, there may be two offerings on the Windows side - as in "Office" and "Office Pro" but I've seen no such differentiation in my Windows suite preview.

Office 2019 Commercial Preview FAQ

 

[netdudeuk]

OP, chiming in late here from a personal and company owner perspective. The O365 version will be include an update to the equivalent of "Office 2019" in the next few months; there will be no upgrade path from the 2016 to the 2019 perpetual license - full price only.

From the personal version perspective, the O365 version will include a license to use Office on a Mac/PC, a mobile smartphone, and an iPad - Personal gets 1 set, Home gets 5 sets. Each Outlook.com user account tied to an O365 license gets a storage upgrade from 5GB to 50GB and no ads plus upgrades of OneDrive storage from 5GB to 1TB.

What I'm trying to find out from my MS rep but haven't heard back yet is about the Windows version, which I use 95% of the time right now is whether or not the Win O365 suite will include Visio and Project - I'm testing the Win 2019 suite and both Visio and Project are included in the perpetual license option (this test suite is only available for commercial users at this point) but this is a big deal for me as I can ditch some or all of my Visio and Project CALs. On my Mac, I use O365 in a Win 10 VM, and, on that note...

The Mac and Windows suites do not yet have code parity, but they will around the time that Office 2019 is issued. I'd offer that you check out the Mac suite's Fast Ring option if you want to see more of what's coming - I rarely use the Mac suite but do have it installed and the updater set to the Fast Ring - the apps are currently on v. 16.16. My MS rep related to me that the fully-unified code per app will be present in the next 90-odd days - the full Office 2019 updates will likely hit the interwebs around mid-October.

There's plenty of other changes coming to O365 in the near future, and I'd offer that you check out the Redmond Channel Parter web portal - there's plenty of in-depth content there. A for-instance is that, if you have the OneNote 2016 app installed on your Win10 PC (no word on Macs yet, and only Win10 will be supported for Office 2019), sub to O365, and haven't used OneNote 2016 (the current desktop version), a future O365 update will delete the desktop app - plenty of insights on that web site...

Thanks for the comprehensive reply. I'm now an Office Insider.

I'll stay with my standalone Office 2016 licenses on my PC and Mac for now and activate my 5 user O365 license as late as I can get away with.