Microsoft Stops Offering New Outlook.com Premium Subscriptions, Rolls Features Into Office 365

[MacRumors]

Microsoft today announced that its Outlook.com Premium feature, which offered features like an ad-free Outlook experience for $19.95 per year, is closed to new subscribers.

Outlook.com Premium features are now being added to Office 365 Home and Office 365 Personal subscriptions.

Today, we began rolling out new benefits for Office 365 Home and Office 365 Personal subscribers who use Outlook.com. These premium email features include an ad-free inbox, enhanced protection against malware and phishing, larger mailbox sizes, and premium customer support. In the coming months, we'll be introducing additional premium Outlook.com features to make personal email and calendar experiences for Office 365 subscribers more powerful, productive, and secure.

Office 365 subscribers will now get the same ad-free experience that was available with Outlook Premium, eliminating banner ads and advertisements in the message list.

More mailbox storage is also included, as is advanced security against email threats, including a feature for scanning attachments and checking incoming links. All Office 365 subscribers now get 50GB of mailbox storage, while free Outlook.com accounts will get 15GB of storage space.

Microsoft says that in addition to 365 subscribers, all loyal Outlook.com users whose mailbox is 12GB or larger will be updated to 50GB.

The premium Outlook features will be added to all 365 Home and Personal subscription accounts automatically for users that have @outlook.com, @hotmail.com, @live.com, and @msn.com accounts. Advanced email security features will not apply to @gmail, @yahoo, or other third-party email accounts.

Existing Outlook.com Premium subscribers can continue to renew their Premium subscriptions and receive the same benefits. Premium customers who have custom domains will be able to continue to use them, with domain renewal automatically included in yearly subscription fees. Custom domains are not a feature included in the new 365 options.

Office 365 Home is priced at $99.99 per year or $9.99 per month, while Office 365 Personal is priced at $69.99 per year or $6.99 per month. Office 365 Home can be installed on up to five PCs or Macs and five tablets and five smartphones, while Office 365 Personal is limit to 1 PC or Mac and can be installed on one tablet and one smartphone.

The new premium Outlook functionality is rolling out to Office 365 subscribers starting today, but could take a month to become available to all customers.


Article Link: Microsoft Stops Offering New Outlook.com Premium Subscriptions, Rolls Features Into Office 365

 

[macpanzer]

Custom domains are not a feature included in the new 365 options.

Oh come on, MS... everything else, but not that?
that sent by <outlook_4J4J3KKE....@outlook.com> is so annoying.

 

[QCassidy352]

I don't really care for subscription software generally, but MS really does offer good value with Office 365.

 

[ugahairydawgs]

Didn't they just rollout Outlook.com premium in the past 6 months or so?

A good value (compared to $20/month for just email) for someone who wants to use it. But stories like this make me glad that iCloud email is free and also ad free. Really appreciate Apple's philosophy on this.

 

[cRuNcHiE]

Haha, I only just signed up to this to use with a spare domain...

It's pretty bad, there are so many problems like sending from aliases no longer works on android ( it looks like the email comes from a weird address to recipient) and there contact syncing bugs where you can end up with duplicates

 

[satchmo]

That's $19.95/month too much.

I think $5-10 is more appropriate.

 

[hagar]

I don’t understand how Outlook on the web, Mac and iOS are so completely different and confusing. And how many bugs and inconsistencies they all have. Microsoft had 30+ years to refine the experience but basic things like sharing calendars between organisations, shared address books, etc are still a complete mess. And don’t get me started on sharepoint, teams ans all these other half baked solutions. I have to use office 365 at work or otherwise I would never use or pay for this.

 

[Rigby]

That's $19.95/month too much.

I think $5-10 is more appropriate.

Macrumors made a mistake. Outlook.com Premium (and before that Outlook ad-free) was $19.95 PER YEAR.

 

[69Mustang]

Macrumors made a mistake. Outlook.com Premium (and before that Outlook ad-free) was $19.95 PER YEAR.

There's a pretty big difference between month and year. Sorta changes the value proposition doesn't it?

 

[theelysium]

Office 365 is garbage! My work when to it instead of our own hosted Exchange. It is the worst email, slow as ****, setup problems, not enough seats as before, cost is $$$$ and you get to use ****** Office. Like, why would you pay to use a ****** desktop or mobile App or web version of software when you can use iWork or Google Drive for free? The new Office 2016 is trash. I still use 2011, for excel, but everything else I do is iWork or Google Drive.

Keynote > Powerpoint
Pages = Word
Numbers < Excel

 

[canadianreader]

For those looking for a free alternative to outlook premium and gSuite check Zoho Mail

 

[jellyjeff]

Office 365 is garbage! My work when to it instead of our own hosted Exchange. It is the worst email, slow as ****, setup problems, not enough seats as before, cost is $$$$ and you get to use ****** Office. Like, why would you pay to use a ****** desktop or mobile App or web version of software when you can use iWork or Google Drive for free? The new Office 2016 is trash. I still use 2011, for excel, but everything else I do is iWork or Google Drive.

Keynote > Powerpoint
Pages = Word
Numbers < Excel

I've never seen the balance between Microsoft and Apple's office suites so succinctly and accurately described as that.

 

[forerunnerg34]

I had it for a year and cancelled after that, I was annoyed that suddenly I stopped receiving emails in Outlook because the service was deactivated on my Mac and had to log in to MS account again. At least once a week. I contacted support but no real answer, also I realize it didn't had any value because Google docs was just better for working on the same file, office just locks the file , I couldn't even work on the same file from my PC and tablet. I found that my co-workers and friends just prefer Google docs. OneDrive was good though

 

[itguy06]

Office 365 is garbage! My work when to it instead of our own hosted Exchange. It is the worst email, slow as ****, setup problems, not enough seats as before, cost is $$$$ and you get to use ****** Office.

That sounds like the pile of **** that is Exchange and Outlook...