Earlier this month, Microsoft finally released the latest version of Microsoft Office that isn’t tied to Microsoft 365, meaning you can now buy access to the latest versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint with a one-time payment instead of shelling out cash on a subscription.
With Office 2024, Microsoft promises improved performance, updated user interfaces, and more tools for analyzing data and embedding images in Excel, as well as support for new features over Office 2021. See all the new features in Office 2024 on this support page.
Office 2024 without Outlook
Microsoft Office Home 2024 is the base version that’s meant for private users and students. It costs $149.99 and can be installed on a single Windows PC or Mac computer.
Microsoft Office Home 2024 is now available on Amazon
Microsoft describes the difference between a Microsoft 365 subscription (which is the one that Microsoft prefers you use) and the locked-in-time Office 2024 suite as follows:
Microsoft 365 is a subscription that comes with premium apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher, and Access (Publisher and Access available on PC only). The apps can be installed on multiple devices, including PCs, Macs, iPads, iPhones, Android tablets, and Android phones. Microsoft 365 also comes with services like 1 TB of OneDrive storage, 60 Skype minutes per month, and Microsoft chat and phone support. With a subscription, you get the latest versions of the apps and automatically receive updates when they happen.
Office 2024 is a one-time purchase that comes with classic apps like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for PC or Mac, and does not include any of the services that come with a Microsoft 365 subscription. One-time purchases don’t have an upgrade option, which means if you plan to upgrade to the next major release, you’ll have to buy it at full price.
Office Home 2024 is also available directly from Microsoft for $149.99, so the price is identical whether you get it on Amazon or not.
Office 2024 with Outlook
Office 2024 is also available in a version that includes Outlook, which is called Microsoft Office Home & Business 2024. This one costs $249.99, can be installed on a single Windows PC or Mac computer, and is meant for small businesses and other commercial uses.
Microsoft Office Home & Business 2024 is also on Amazon
Whereas Office Home 2024 only includes Word, Excel, and Powerpoint, Office Home & Business 2024 includes Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and Outlook. As before, the main difference between this and Microsoft 365 is that you’ll only get security updates, no feature updates.
Office LTSC 2024
Microsoft Office LTSC 2024 (with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneDrive, OneNote, and Access) has been available since September.
The LTSC version of Office 2024 is also a one-time payment option, but this one is expressly meant for commercial use by larger companies. It is not intended for private users.
This article originally appeared on our sister publication PC-WELT and was translated and localized from German.