Microsoft Increasing Price of Commercial 'Microsoft 365' Plans Next Year

[MacRumors]

Effective next year, pricing for all commercial plans of Microsoft 365 will be increased as a way to compensate for the "increased value" Microsoft's suite of tools has provided to customers over the last ten years, Microsoft has announced.

In a blog post late last week, the company says the new changes are the first time it has substantively increased the price of Office 365 since it launched a decade ago. Microsoft notes some of the ways that Microsoft 365 has grown in prominence over the last year, including that it has added 24 different apps to its suite of tools.

Since its launch a decade ago, Office 365 has grown to over 300 million commercial paid seats. Along the way, we have continuously re-invested to meet the changing needs of our customers. Four years ago, we introduced Microsoft 365 to bring together the best of Office, Windows, and Enterprise Mobility and Security (EMS). That same year we added Microsoft Teams as the only integrated solution where you can meet, chat, call, collaborate, and automate business processes—right in the flow of work.

In fact, since introducing Microsoft 365 we have added 24 apps to the suites—Microsoft Teams, Power Apps, Power BI, Power Automate, Stream, Planner, Visio, OneDrive, Yammer, and Whiteboard—and have released over 1,400 new features and capabilities in three key areas.

The pricing increases are small, consisting of only $2-$4 hikes, and are as followed:

Microsoft 365 Business Basic (from $5 to $6 per user), Microsoft 365 Business Premium (from $20 to $22), Office 365 E1 (from $8 to $10), Office 365 E3 (from $20 to $23), Office 365 E5 (from $35 to $38), and Microsoft 365 E3 (from $32 to $36).

All of the changes will apply globally on March 1, 2022.

Article Link: Microsoft Increasing Price of Commercial 'Microsoft 365' Plans Next Year

 

[Manatlt]

The positive of this happening is now all plans will include dial-in conference calls for Teams.

 

[NZP]

What increased value? Close MS for the max benefit of humanity.

 

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

"increased value"

Baha! If it wasn't for the fact that Office is an industry standard, I would say the value has actually decreased compared to the likes of Google Workspace.

 

[Manzanito]

Where’s the increased value for customers that don’t use those applications? I see where the increased value is for microsoft in the price hike, and lots of people benefited from teams, but seems like a lame reason to justify the price increase for everyone. Maybe introduce different plans like adobe does?

 

[Chicane-UK]

So now that so many companies are entirely dependent on it and they're raking it in.. seems like a great time to stick the prices up. Never change, Microsoft.

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

Instead of cutting the price. Microsoft is increasing the price. Smh!

 

[smoking monkey]

I've never disliked a program like I dislike MS Word. Yes, it's extremely powerful, but it's quite unintuitive.
I was so happy to walk away from it 18 months ago and not pay the outrageous costs for a normal licence. Sure Pages doesn't format as well as Word, but there are work arounds and I'll take that over having to use MS Word again.

 

[incoherent_1]

“Increased value…”

So, in other words, inflation.

 

[kcslc]

And all the Xbox game pass subscribers think their $9.99 plan is safe. Just wait!

 

[andrewxgx]

“Increased value…”

So, in other words, inflation.

but hey, its only transitory

 

[yabeweb]

Well, another reason why I dislike renting software, the price can go up when you absolutely cannot work without it.

Glad I moved a long time ago from subscriptions!

 

[10anta]

Let’s be honest, no-one else is buying any other Microsoft product, so they’ll milk the Office 365 cash cow until businesses see sense and it keels over.

 

[rweiser]

Let’s be honest, no-one else is buying any other Microsoft product, so they’ll milk the Office 365 cash cow until businesses see sense and it keels over.

Azure? Windows? Xbox?

Microsoft's Revenue Breakdown by Product (2016-2023)

This chart shows Microsoft's Revenue Breakdown by Product, across Gaming, LinkedIn, Devices, Windows, Surface and other products.

businessquant.com

 

[Mr. Dee]

Ever since I installed Office 365 on my M1 MBP, I am always getting a nag screen about dismiss, deny when I launch any of the apps. Its very annoying! I have a few copies of subs I bought at the campus for a significant discount so, I will use those until I run out then eventually move over to using a combination of Office Online and iWork.

 

[TGM85]

Microsoft cashing in on the COVID pandemic. The number of Office 365 installations must have doubled since everybody started working from home.

 

[0924487]

I think everyone should look into the Open Source alternative NextCloud.

 

[ProfessionalFan]

And all the Xbox game pass subscribers think their $9.99 plan is safe. Just wait!

I stacked 3 years for a reason

 

[Expos of 1969]

I've never disliked a program like I dislike MS Word. Yes, it's extremely powerful, but it's quite unintuitive....

100% correct. I had to use it at work a number of years ago. Hated it. Tried to avoid it as much as possible. I still have bad dreams about a large document that required five of us to review and make individual changes over a period of a few weeks.

I much preferred WordPerfect but we were forced to switch to Word.

 

[janwerbinski]

I'm still using perfectly good and incredibly fast MS Office 2003.
Sometimes experimenting with Libre Office 7 only because it can import export to/from other file formats.
Why people paying so much for simple office suite is beyond me.

 

[SurferPup]

I've never paid full price and always bought the programme through workplaces. Office For Mac: 2016 cost me $16.50 which includes Outlook. I've grown to prefer iWork applications - free, synchronising across my devices seamlessly, not completely reinventing like Microsoft Office.

 

[throAU]

i am altering the deal
pray i don’t alter it any further

 

[thisisnotmyname]

oh, they added Teams? The app that's free without a plan? The app that took them literally years to support native MacOS notificiations? The app that still doesn't run natively on the M1? Well that makes it all worth while then doesn't it?

 

[kamalds]

There are several never-ending subscriptions of Office 365 so I just bought them and they work just fine on my M1 Macbook Air.

 

[bLackjackj]

So now that so many companies are entirely dependent on it and they're raking it in.. seems like a great time to stick the prices up. Never change, Microsoft.

Well they're not a charity ?,..they have shareholders to appease! ??‍♂️

All companies do this, including Apple!