Microsoft Office has long been the industry standard when it comes to productivity software. Word, Excel and PowerPoint are the apps that others are judged by and in the business world they are pretty much essential.
They were recently updated to the 2024 versions, with the Microsoft 365 monthly subscription plan being the method the company wants you to use rather than buying them outright. But if you’d prefer to pay once and then keep the software, you can do so both on the Microsoft site as well as Amazon. It’s not all equal though, as UK customers will discover.
Microsoft Office Home 2024
One of the most popular versions of Office, especially for individuals with a laptop or PC, is Microsoft Office Home 2024 (which was previously also known as Home & Student).
This includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote, all of which are the fully-featured 2024 editions. One omission is Outlook, as Microsoft seems to regard that as a business feature and therefore include it in the next package we’ll cover.
With Home 2024 you can use the software on 1 PC or Mac and it’s compatible with Windows 10, Windows 11 and macOS. As you’d expect, you still get access to the various support resources, and these versions are compatible with Microsoft Teams.
In the US, you can either choose to buy the software for $149.99 on the Microsoft site or from Amazon US.
It’s a little different in the UK, as you can still get the apps from the two vendors, but while it’ll cost you £149.99 on Amazon UK, it’s a more reasonable £119.99 from Microsoft UK.
Microsoft
Microsoft Office Home & Business 2024
With this package, you get the same core products of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote that come with the Home edition, but there’s also Outlook for all your email and communication needs.
Again, it gives you access to support, works with Microsoft Teams and can be installed on a single PC or Mac (with the same supported operating systems). The price is substantially higher, but if you’re an Outlook user then it will probably be worth it.
At the time of writing you can get Microsoft Home & Business 2024 for $249.99 on Microsoft US or Amazon US.
In the UK, we found that the package was absent from Amazon UK, but you could buy it directly from Microsoft UK for a cost of £249.99.
Microsoft
If you’re unsure which version would be best for you, then you can always read our Microsoft Office buyers’ guide to see all of the differences in terms of features and included apps.
It’s worth noting that if you only want a couple of the apps, then you might not have to pay at all.
Take a look at our helpful tips on how to get Microsoft Word for free and how to get Microsoft Excel for free to see if this will give you all the tools you require without having to spend any cash.
