The price of Microsoft 365 used to be simple to explain. But with price increases, limited time "classic" sub tiers, and deals bouncing around, things have gotten more complicated. I regularly track the best Microsoft 365 deals, and I don't think people realize just how big of a discount is available right now. StackSocial has a deal that gets you 12 months of Microsoft 365 for $59.99.
Microsoft 365 price increase
Microsoft announced a price increase for both Microsoft 365 Personal and Microsoft 365 Family recently. It's the first time those subscriptions have gone up in price in 12 years, but subscription fatigue is real and price increases across services add up.
The Microsoft 365 price increase came shortly after the tech giant added Copilot to the service. The subscriptions will go up in price by $3 per month in the United States.
For a limited time, you can drop your plan down to the "classic" sub tier, which lowers the price back down to what it was before. Those on the classic sub tier will not have access to Copilot in Microsoft 365.
Microsoft allows you to stack Microsoft 365 subscriptions. That makes the current discount on Microsoft 365 even more valuable.
The real cost of 12 months of Microsoft 365 is $129.99 if you go through Microsoft or other retailers. StackSocial is cutting itself a bit short listing the retail price of 12 months of Microsoft 365 as $99.99, though it makes sense considering the more expensive Microsoft 365 includes Copilot. Since many users don’t want Copilot in Microsoft 365, the StackSocial deal offers excellent value. Why pay for a feature you don’t need?
Free Office vs Microsoft 365
Microsoft is testing free versions of its Office apps, making some people wonder about how much they're paying for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. It's important to note that those free Office apps are only in testing and are for emerging markets, at least for now. But you may have seen "Free Office apps" trending online, so it's worth mentioning them.
The free Office apps have several limitations, which are to be expected. The free versions of the Office apps are meant for basic writing or editing. They lack features such as add-ins, advanced formatting, designer, dictation, and SmartArt.
Some users could likely get by with the limited versions of Office apps for basic editing. But the fact that free Office can only save documents to OneDrive is probably a deal breaker for many. Seeing ads in a Word document or Excel spreadsheet could also turn people away from the free Office apps.
A paid Microsoft 365 subscription, such as Microsoft 365 Personal or Microsoft 365 Family, comes with the full versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. The subscription also gets you access to Microsoft Defender, Microsoft Editor, and comes with quite a bit of OneDrive cloud storage (the exact amount depends on your plan).
The free version of Office is not meant to compete with Microsoft 365. The free Office apps are in testing and intended for emerging markets, at least for the moment.
The free Microsoft 365 web apps are still the recommended way to use the Office apps for free.
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