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Office 2016 for Mac Now Available as One-Time $150 Purchase

I still can't tell if the subscription is worth it. I mean, how often will we see Office updats. If it's every three years, then really the cost is almost $300 ($99x3 years). Sure the $99 gets me 1TB of One Drive, but I prefer Dropbox.

However, do to me not willing to pay $99 for Office AND $99 to Dropbox, I've settled on Google Drive for $2/month since it's a nice compromise between Office and Dropbox. I don't do anything fancy with my word processing and, as an accountant, I find that Google Sheets does everything I need it to do (so far) plus the fact Google has storage options that don't make me feel I'm paying for space I'm not using.
 
MacRumors said:



Microsoft has announced that Office 2016 for Mac is now available as a one-time $149.99 purchase without an Office 365 subscription. Office Home & Student 2016 includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote for home use on one Mac. Office 2016 for Mac requires Mac OS X 10.10 or later.

Office-2016-Mac.jpg

The standalone version of Office 2016 for Mac features offline storage and 15GB of OneDrive cloud storage, but lacks Outlook, Publisher, Access, tablet and phone support, 60 minutes of Skype calling, instant updates and technical support included with the Office 365 version.

Office Home & Business 2016 for Mac is also available for $229.99 and includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Outlook on one Mac. Comparatively, subscription-based Office 365 Personal and Office 365 Home cost $69.99 per year and $99.99 per year respectively.

Office Home & Business 2016 for Windows is also now available through Office 365 for between $69.99 and $99.99 per year, or as a one-time $229.99 purchase. Office Professional 2016 for Windows is also available with Publisher and Access for $399.99. Windows 7 or later is required.

Article Link: Office 2016 for Mac Now Available as One-Time $150 Purchase
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firedept said:
Nice to see it has finally arrived. Little costly (price you pay for all the work they do) and overdue, but I will have to update to it sooner or later. Will be nice to see what they have done to it.
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BasicGreatGuy said:
I agree about it being pricey. In my opinion, $125.00 would be better.
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Bet they put a lot of work into it though. Been a long time since last upgrade (2011). Will be even pricier for me as a Canadian with the exchange. With exchange it will probably put it at $225-250 CDN for me. Yeah would have been nice to see it a little cheaper say maybe even $99.99 US, but what you gonna do. Still better than a subscription! ;)
 
To me, it is not worth it, since the old version was good for three computers and the new one is good for a single computer. As for Google, it doesn't do what I need. I might try Numbers but for the moment I will squeeze every last day out of Office 2011 instead. I tried 2016 and found it clunky and hard to use compared with 2011, and aside from Excel, each version of Office has been bigger, slower, and less well designed than the one before it. If they are indeed going to annual releases, I suspect Office 2017 will be faster and smaller.

I can get better and more reliable statistical add-ons for much less than the new purchase price.
 
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Over priced and if I suspect still full of hackable holes just like Office for Mac was and still is. Reminds me of all the fixes that Adobe does on Flash Player.
 
Well, this is pleasing news. For those of us who were never in any doubt of the regularity with which we would use Office software, the single license plan is definitely the way to go. It's nice to see the student and home versions at a reasonable cost. As long as my university keeps providing staff with 365 access, I won't make the plunge, but it's nice to know I can if I want.
 
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I can only pray it's not as flakey as their past versions. 2008 was crap, 2011 was certainly an improvement, but still isn't as smooth as the Windows version.

Google Docs is great for what it is, but doesn't like others have said doesn't come close to the power of MS Office. Pages is garbage but Keynote (IMO) makes the sauvest presentations.

Perhaps one of these days MS will come out with Access and Publisher for Mac. That would be nice. Publisher is a great program if you quickly and easily need to throw something together.
 
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EddyBlowsCook said:
Over priced and if I suspect still full of hackable holes just like Office for Mac was and still is. Reminds me of all the fixes that Adobe does on Flash Player.
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It's software people use to make their living. It's only 'overpriced' in the way that Photoshop is.

All software is full of holes. Office gets targeted as it is reasonable to assume that any computer in the corporate world has it installed. Try again.
 
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A.Goldberg said:
I can only pray it's not as flakey as their past versions. 2008 was crap, 2011 was certainly an improvement, but still isn't as smooth as the Windows version.

Google Docs is great for what it is, but doesn't like others have said doesn't come close to the power of MS Office. Pages is garbage but Keynote (IMO) makes the sauvest presentations.

Perhaps one of these days MS will come out with Access and Publisher for Mac. That would be nice. Publisher is a great program if you quickly and easily need to throw something together.
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This is leaps and bounds better. 'Old Microsoft' was not interested in improving Mac Office, their goals were to sell Windows to the enterprise. 'New Microsoft' drags Excel up to par with the Windows version.

There's a 30 day trial if you want to give it a go.
 
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Price seems fair enough, but no editing on tablet or phone? Deal-breaker.

I can understand it being limited to the same license as activated on your Mac/PC, or even access to one login at a time.

But to OMIT entirely? I call BS.
 
macintologist said:
I'm really glad they are moving to a hybrid model where the people who don't know how to budget and save can do the low cost monthly option, and those of us who know how to spend a little more in the present to save a lot over the long term can buy the one-time purchase option. Best for everyone. Adobe on the other hand is forcing everyone to subscribe to software.
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I don't mind getting subscription if I'm getting a better value over buying a hard copy.

If I get 1TB of storage vs the 15GB that alone is a big cost savings to me over 3 years or whenever MS updates Office.

I also like editing online and doing collaboration between users.
 
Only thing I didnt like is I could't select which components to install... I only need 3 of the programs. Now 2,6 gig is wasted on my hdd (Powerpoint + Outlook)...
Sure I delete them manually,... but still.. Its like an installer that installs all Adobe CS apps or somehting... Just not handy...
 
super tomtendo said:
No subscription. That's nice. But.... Google Apps is free and just as good. :)
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Excel hounds always say excel is better. Word and PowerPoint do have several viable alternatives, however.

Nimrad said:
Google apps is faar from just as good. For very basic use, maybe, but I can't even do half of what I use excel for in google apps.
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I suppose that is also true of Numbers and openoffice variants? I prefer to stay away from work that requires heavy Excel use myself.

MTW said:
This is an incredibly stupid post.
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Say what?!?!

vreedy76 said:
I wish Visio and project ran on the mac as well. I would have zero need for a windows machine if that were the case.
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Omnigraffle is a great alternative.

MTW said:
That changes with Office 2016. Office now gets refreshed yearly on both PC and Mac. It has previously been announced.
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This version is still 32-bit, right? At least, that is what they said at pre-announcement.

allpar said:
To me, it is not worth it, since the old version was good for three computers and the new one is good for a single computer. As for Google, it doesn't do what I need. I might try Numbers but for the moment I will squeeze every last day out of Office 2011 instead. I tried 2016 and found it clunky and hard to use compared with 2011, and aside from Excel, each version of Office has been bigger, slower, and less well designed than the one before it. If they are indeed going to annual releases, I suspect Office 2017 will be faster and smaller.

I can get better and more reliable statistical add-ons for much less than the new purchase price.
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Yes, the old version was good for the family computers. If this is only good for one of those computers, that makes it a huge price increase for many people. I'm still running the 2008 version myself, when I have to use Office. Works most of the time.
 
super tomtendo said:
No subscription. That's nice. But.... Google Apps is free and just as good. :)
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super tomtendo said:
Somewhat true, but it does 95% of what most users want. Sure, Excel can do more intense work, but let's be honest here... not many people need that.
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Well that's an unfounded sweeping statement.

1. Google apps is a terrible idea for any business because of their terrifying T&C
When you upload, submit, store, send or receive content to or through our Services, you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes we make so that your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content.
http://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/terms/

Oh and even if you stop using their service. Everything you have uploaded is still their's to use.

This license continues even if you stop using our Services

This alone is an utter no go for anyone. This includes all their apps. You can store photos, say of you kids, and they can legally use them and sell them onto someone else... therefore if you use it you are insane.

2. Google Apps is unreliable and ofline storage is twitchy.

3. No Powerpoint or publisher equivalents with Google.

4. Point 1.

5. Point 1. etc.

Personally if you only need simplish stuff use Pages/numbers etc. The Online version is way better than google and they don't steal all your stuff.
 
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Wait...so if I want Office on my desktop and laptop, I either have to buy it twice for $150 or subscribe to Office 365? That seems like a huge step backwards versus previous versions of Office. And that doesn't include Outlook?
 
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Unless it's no longer free then this package is sort of a rip off at $149. Office Home and Student comes with One Note, but One Note is free for Mac. So the $149 is going to Word, PPT and Excel. Come on Microsoft! Don't throw in stuff that's already free and make the consumer think they got a great package for $149. Same goes for the Home & Business version. :rolleyes:
 
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macintologist said:
I'm really glad they are moving to a hybrid model where the people who don't know how to budget and save can do the low cost monthly option, and those of us who know how to spend a little more in the present to save a lot over the long term can buy the one-time purchase option. Best for everyone. Adobe on the other hand is forcing everyone to subscribe to software.
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You've also got the people who rent who save money over those who buy. Like the people who only need it for a month or two.
 
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