What you need to know about Microsoft Office 2024
Microsoft released a new non-subscription version of Microsoft Office for home users and businesses. This one differs from the subscription-based Microsoft 365 version of Office in several meaningful ways.
The following paragraphs highlight these differences. Office 2024 is the successor of Office 2021, which Microsoft released in October 2021.
Which Microsoft Office 2024 editions are available? There is Office 2024 Home for a one-time payment of $149.99 and Office Home & Business 2024 for a one-time payment of 249.99.
Third-party online shops will sell Office 2024 as well. The price is often discounted at these shops. There will also be options to buy a key for Office 2024, but this may not be legal in all jurisdictions.
What is the difference between the two Office 2024 editions? Both Office 2024 editions include the desktop apps Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. Office 2024 Home & Business includes Outlook next to that, and it may be used in commercial environments.
What is the difference between Office 2024 and Microsoft 365? Here is the list of core differences:
| Office 2024 | Office Home & Business 2024 | Microsoft 365 Personal | Microsoft 365 Family | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $149.99 once | $249.99 once | $69.99 per year | $99.99 per year |
| Included | Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote | Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook | Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Microsoft Defender, Outlook, OneDrive, MS Editor, Clipchamp, | |
| Storage | none | none | 1 TB | 1TB for each user |
| People | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 |
| Devices | 1 | 1 | 5 | 5 |
| Platforms | PC or Mac | PC or Mac | PC, Mac, or Web | PC, Mac, or Web |
| Upgrades | not included | not included | included | included |
| Updates | included | included | included | included |
For how long will Office 2024 be supported? Microsoft will support both Office 2024 editions for five years. This means that they won't receive security or non-security fixes after October 2029 anymore.
Note that you need to purchase the next version of Office by the time to continue using it. It is not clear at this point whether Microsoft will release another non-subscription version of Office.
A switch to Microsoft 365 is always possible as well.
Can documents created with Office 2024 be opened in earlier versions or Microsoft 365? Yes, the format is compatible. Documents may be created and opened in the following Office versions without any issues:
- Microsoft?365
- Office 2024
- Office 2021
- Office 2019
- Office 2016
- Office?2013
- Office?2010
- Office 2007
- Office for Mac 2011
- Office for Mac 2008
Is Internet access required for Office 2024? Internet access is not required for use, but Office needs to be activated, and that is done over the Internet.
More about this:
LibreOffice 24.2 released: enables automatic recovery of documents
How many Office 2024 licenses can a single Microsoft account hold? Microsoft limits the number of licenses to 25 for Office Home 2024, Office Home & Business 2024, and Office Professional 2021.
Is there a free alternative to Office 2024? Yes there is. LibreOffice is an open source Office suite that is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Is it not 100% compatible with Office, but very close. Most Home users probably never encounter issues with compatibility.
What about you? Do you use Microsoft Office, Microsoft 365, or another Office solution? Feel free to leave a comment below.
I stopped reading the article when I saw the price. $149,99! Supermarkets are fond of pricing stuff with that one cent deducted, but for Microsoft to try and pretend it’s a good deal at $150 minus one cent is a travesty.
Microsoft seems to think that we’re all multi-millionaires and will gladly hand over our hard earned cash for their crap products. Presumably it’s a cloud product into the bargain which means you’ll need to be logged in to use it, and with an M$ account as well no doubt.
Well, as far as I’m concerned they can stick it where the sun don’t shine.
So you buy it, then in 2029 it stops working. So you will need to buy the new version.
No thanks.
Libre office is free, works great, is avalible for windows, mac, linux.
You can still use it, but it does not get any updates anymore.
The article states: “Note that you need to purchase the next version of Office by the time to continue using it.”.
So I can see were James thought it would no longer work. Glad you made clear that it would still work just no updates.
That is horrid advice. You should NEVER run EOL/EOS software, it’s like a perpetual zero day
@NoThanksMSFT,
“You should NEVER run EOL/EOS software, it’s like a perpetual zero day”
Wow, imagine what kind of life you must be living.
I mean, you do realise a software product can be finished, right? Not everything is a perpetual snow-ball running down a hill for all of eternity.
What do you even mean by EOS? When have you gotten in contact with a company and received support for a product directly? I’m guessing never… lol. Software doesn’t magically break or become more vulnerable by the sheer fact that support for it is stopping. This is flat out false and psychotic thinking.
Sincere thank you for calling this out.
One of the most pernacious myths in software security today is that the “old” version is inherently less secure than the “new” version.
People somehow forget that each change and new feature added to software opens the possibility for new vulnerabilities to get introduced into the codebase.
Following the principles of Semantic Versioning, it is likely that a slightly older, feature stable version with several security patches applied is actually more secure than the latest and greatest version with more untested features added.
Office 2007 (maybe 2010 if you like fiddling with graphics) still does the job, and looks beautiful.
I use MS Office 2010 for Word and Excel, and never had any reason at all to even consider updating it. My site license allowed me to use it on up to five devices, so I have been able to keep it on both my desktop and laptop when I changed computers. I also have Libre Office, and already use it in place of Powerpoint because it supports some newer MS Office file types that Office 2010 no longer does. I don’t want or need to create complicated Powerpoint type presentations, but do need to review and edit presentations on them. Libre Office’s Impress Presentation module works fine for that, and their word processing module and spreadsheet are also good MS Office substitutes.
When the day comes that I can no longer use Office 2010, I’ll simply use Libre Office for everything (and feel good about cutting the Microsoft cord entirely for those applications).
Hey Herman,
Had no idea Powerpoint of all things had compatibility issues, as a strictly word or excel user, I had no idea, but that’s good to know.
I got into graphics a bit, and on 2007, powerpoint is the only office program that has the advanced gradient/color/graphic tools (in 2010 they ported that functionality to the rest of the office apps), so I’m actually using powerpoint sometimes for primitive (but nice) graphics, and copying my creations into the other office apps from there.
I must say I don’t mess with licensing – my parents paid for Office 2007 back when I was about 7-8 years old, and since given it to me in ~2012. As far as I’m concerned, we legally own the software and the right to use it on at least one computer, but I don’t mess with licensing/activation, if you catch my drift.
The only thing I need to know is right there in the name, “Microsoft”.
I will continue using the malware free version called Libre Office.
I love Text Maker by SoftMaker [FREE version] . . . It does WHAT it needs to Do
Period.
@Gil-StarX That’s what I use too. It is fully compatible with Word, and has many nice options although it is a bit slow when opening. One big plus is not being connected to one drive at all.
LibreOffice is free and if you are not someone who uses an office suite a lot it might save you some bucks. I think the single license one time purchase sounds better for a one device home user. But how many are there of those people? Free Office is another suite that supports Microsoft documents. Just doing a search I found a half dozen free options that might work for a casual office suite user.
My uncle paid a lot of money for MO 2019 and it was the worst investment he did in software. Mostly the worst part was when he discovered than there is available an online FREE version of MO 365 at Windows Store, which is more than enough for almost 90% or users.
Thanks for the article! :]
No more Office or LibreOffice for me. I switched to ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors.
It has better compatibility with MS Office files but it has bad performance due to being basically a web app. Mobile version is also not good.
I guess this is a step in the right direction. Not everybody wants perpetually online software. I am worried about a few things.
1) One time activation is fine. But what happens if you change computer? Will you be forced to buy another license?
2) What if a program becomes corrupted, and you have to reinstall it or reinstall Windows. Will you be able to reactive Office?