Office 365 Subscription Question

I understand that when you buy the personal or family subscriptions to Office 365, you get 1TB of OneDrive storage, some Skype minutes, and access to install the local client versions of the Office apps. Are there any other upsides to subscribing? I’m wondering if it’s actually worth the sub fee to gain access to the local client installs of the Office apps when the web apps seem pretty powerful. Curious on what others think about this.

Conversation 6 comments

  • geekwithkids

    Premium Member
    10 January, 2020 - 11:00 pm

    <p>For most things the web apps are enough, I'm not sure what limitations there are without an active Office 365 subscription. I do think they restrict some features, but I haven't tried it without a subscription so I'm not sure. </p><p><br></p><p>Personally I signed up my family as much for the unlimited storage in one drive as for the desktop office applications. Of course that unlimited storage has been limited to a single terabyte since then, but it's still worth it for me.</p>

  • anoldamigauser

    Premium Member
    10 January, 2020 - 11:01 pm

    <p>For an individual, if you are good with the web apps and 5 GB of storage, then why pay? If you need to use Word forms, or Excel pivot tables, or any of the other advanced features then paying for Office 365 Personal probably makes sense.</p><p>The real value is in Office 365 Home, which gives up to six people, or accounts, all of the Office 365 goodness on up to five computers and devices. You could conceivably go in with five friends for $16.50 per person per year; or split it with siblings and treat your parents, or whatever.</p>

  • jimchamplin

    Premium Member
    10 January, 2020 - 11:03 pm

    <p>I've got 365 Home, and it means that I can ensure that my roomie and me can both be running the newest applications, and that we both have OneDrive space for backup.</p>

  • srp4597

    11 January, 2020 - 6:59 am

    <p>Similar to the others, I have the subscription for mostly one thing only: sharing One Drive. Right now myself 4 other users for pics, videos even using it on the iPhones.</p>

  • Vladimir Carli

    Premium Member
    11 January, 2020 - 10:28 am

    <p>the web apps are very limited. Word on the web doesn't even support track changes, which is a dealbreaker for me. If you have to use the web apps you are better off with the google apps</p>

  • hrlngrv

    Premium Member
    12 January, 2020 - 11:26 pm

    <p>The web version of Excel is advanced in some places, crippled in others. It now supports spilled formulas, dynamic arrays, FILTER, SORT and UNIQUE functions, but not yet regular expressions. OTOH, no custom number formats, and <strong>;;;</strong> (show nothing) isn't included; no defined names; no VBA; no cell comments.</p><p>IMO, Google Sheets and the spreadsheet in Zoho Office are both more capable as online spreadsheets.</p><p>That said, you've listed everything which comes with Office 365. US$100/year for Office 365 Home is a damn good deal on 1TB cloud storage, and the desktop Office programs are included for free. If the online storage is worth it, it's a no-brainer. If not, MSFT has gone out of its way to make non-subscription desktop Office unattractive.</p>

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