How to get cheap microsoft office: Where to buy Microsoft Office — best deals in October 2022

Where to buy Microsoft Office — best deals in October 2022

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Where to buy Microsoft Office isn’t as simple as it used to be. These days there are multiple ways to buy Microsoft Office 365. There are also various plans based on your needs. Microsoft has splintered its suite of services for home use, businesses, enterprise, and students. 

As a reminder, Microsoft Office 365 includes Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher (PC only), and Access (PC only). Different plans might include additional services. For instance, the Microsoft Office 365 Business Standard plan includes SharePoint and Teams, whereas the Microsoft Office Home & Student 2021 only includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote.  

To help you find the lowest price and best Microsoft Office deals — we’re rounding up where to buy Microsoft Office online. While you could buy it directly from Microsoft, deal hunters know that retailers sometimes undercut manufacturer prices, which could wind up putting cash back in your wallet. 

Where to buy Microsoft Office 365

Microsoft Office 365 is a subscription-based service. Personal plans go for $69.99/year when purchased from Microsoft. However, we’ve tracked deals that save money on your annual subscription. These Microsoft Office 365 deals are for personal (one person) plans and allow you to access Microsoft Office 365 from your computer, tablet, or mobile.  

Today’s best Microsoft Office 365 deals

462 Amazon customer reviews

☆☆☆☆☆

$69.99

View Deal

Microsoft 365 Personal | Office 365…Microsoft 365 Personal | Office 365 apps | 1 user | 1 year subscription | PC/Mac, Tablet and phone | multilingual | box

$58. 99

View Deal

MICROSOFT OFFICE 365 SKU-QQ2-00673…MICROSOFT OFFICE 365 SKU-QQ2-00673 PERSONAL SUBSCRIPTION SOFTWARE

$6.99

View Deal

Microsoft 365 Personal

$34.99

View Deal

Microsoft Office 365 Ultimate Bootcamp…Microsoft Office 365 Ultimate Bootcamp 2023

$29.99

View Deal

Microsoft Office 365 入門

$99. 99

$84.99

View Deal

Microsoft Office 365 Home | 1-year…Microsoft Office 365 Home | 1-year subscription, 5 users, PC/Mac Key Card

$99.99

$84.99

View Deal

Office 365 Home 32/64-bit

Show More Deals

Where to buy Microsoft Office 2021 

Microsoft Office Home & Student 2021 is a basic version of Microsoft Office. It’s sold as a one-time purchase for $149.99 from Microsoft. However, various retailers offer Microsoft Office 2021 deals you can take advantage of. With students slowly heading  back to school, Microsoft Office 2021 deals are in high demand. Currently, the best price comes courtesy of Amazon. Amazon has Microsoft Office 2021 on sale for $124.99 . That’s $25 cheaper than Microsoft’s direct price. Other deals are listed below. 

Today’s best Microsoft Office 2021 deals

519 Amazon customer reviews

☆☆☆☆☆

$129.99

View Deal

Office 2021 Professional Plus — Product…Office 2021 Professional Plus — Product Key

$139.99

View Deal

Microsoft Home & Student 2021 |…Microsoft Home & Student 2021 | One-Time purchase for 1 PC or MAC | Word, Excel, PowerPoint | Instant Download

$149. 99

View Deal

Microsoft Office 2021 Mac/Apple Bundle…Microsoft Office 2021 Mac/Apple Bundle » Includes Software «

$149.99

View Deal

Office Home & Student 2021

$224.99

View Deal

Microsoft Office Home and Business 2021…Microsoft Office Home and Business 2021 (Electronic Download)

$249.99

View Deal

Download Microsoft Office Home and. ..Download Microsoft Office Home and Business 2021 All Languages Online Product Key License 1 License

Show More Deals

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As deals editor at Tom’s Guide, Louis is constantly looking for ways to avoid paying full price for the latest gadgets. With over 10 years of deals-hunting experience, Louis price checks against multiple retailers and searches high and low for the best deals to bring readers. A born-and-bred New Yorker, Louis is also an avid swimmer and marathoner. His work has appeared on Gizmodo, CNET, and Time Out New York.

How to get Microsoft Office for cheap

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How-To

Shop carefully so you don’t get scammed.

By JD Sartain

PCWorld Oct 12, 2020 3:34 am PDT

Image: Microsoft

Some users want Office but don’t want to pay for the current products—Office 2019 standalone software, or Microsoft 365’s subscription-based Office apps. You can get Microsoft Office for cheap if you’re willing to buy an older version, but you need to shop carefully. Here’s what to consider before you buy.

Check the expiration date   

First of all, check product lifecycles and compatible Windows versions before you invest. Office 2000 through 2007 no longer work in Windows 10. Office 2010 ends October 13, 2020. Office 2013 is scheduled for termination on April 11, 2023. But Office 2016, which was originally slated to die much sooner, was extended through October 14, 2025—which is also the last day for Office 2019.

Microsoft says these products will still function normally after death, but there will be no more updates. At the least, you will want a robust antivirus program to fend off attacks.

Shop carefully

We’ve all shopped online long enough to know that extra care is required when buying used or older products. Because Amazon offers some buyer protections, it’s a good place to start. As of this writing we found Office 2016 Home & Student for $79 on AmazonRemove non-product link, and Office 2013 for $200-$240 on AmazonRemove non-product link. 

You could also try eBay, where Office deals could be had for as little as $9. However, deals this cheap should be scrutinized carefully. 

JD Sartain / IDG

Check Amazon or eBay for Office 2016 and 2019

Beware of software scams and unreliable vendors

Wander further afield on the Internet, and you’ll find other deals that may be too good to be true. For instance, SoftwareKeep.com has Office 2010 for $88 and Office 2013 for $58. Prime Software has Office 2019 for $99. Both businesses advertise that they are a “Microsoft Partner & Solution” company, but the complaints and reviews on both organizations are bad. SoftwareMax has Office 2016 for $58, but a quick search online shows the business is closed, and it has an ‘F’ rating with the Better Business Bureau (BBB). Complaints abound in various reviews, including RipOff Report.com

School discounts

One more avenue to explore is university bookstores. They offer discounts to students and faculty, of course, but they may extend that to alumni—it never hurts to ask.

Related stories:

  • Microsoft ends support for Office 2010: What you can do
  • How to upgrade from Office 2010 to Office 365
  • Office 2019 vs. Office 365: Microsoft Office plans compared

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How to get Microsoft Office for free

From school to life, there are many reasons why you might want to get Microsoft Office for free.

Microsoft Office, now called Microsoft 365, includes everything you need to be productive in the office and bring your ideas to life.

However, plans start at approximately $70 per year for a personal license, $6 per month and up for each business user, and $150 for a one-time purchase for home and office use.

This post shows you how to get and use these Microsoft office apps for free.

Microsoft Office vs. Microsoft 365

On April 365, 365, Microsoft changed the name of their productivity suite from Office 21 to Microsoft 2020. It’s still the same productivity suite, but with a few differences.

Microsoft 365 now includes Office 365, which originally offered cloud services such as Word and Outlook, as well as Windows and enterprise services.

If you feel a little confused, please don’t be embarrassed. Microsoft has a relatively chaotic organizational structure compared to Apple or Google, and this often shows up. So feel free to call Microsoft Office, 365, MS Office, or whatever you want.

Microsoft Office 365 Features

Microsoft Office 365 comes with the apps and features you need to bring your ideas to life in a safe and secure environment. Some of these apps are classics from the early days of Windows, while others are newer additions.

Here is a summary of the included apps in Microsoft 365:

  • Word – A popular word processor for creating all types of documents.
  • Excel – Microsoft’s popular spreadsheet software used by many professionals around the world.
  • PowerPoint — Versatile software for creating, editing and creating slideshow presentations.
  • Outlook is a Microsoft mail client.
  • One disk — Cloud storage platform.
  • Teams — Collaboration platform for chats, calls and video conferencing.
  • SharePoint — Store, share and edit files.

6 ways to get Microsoft Office for free

There are six main ways to get and use Microsoft Office or related applications for free. Each method has its pros and cons, so it’s up to you to decide what’s best for you. Here are the ways:

1. Office.com

This is Microsoft’s cloud offering with its core productivity apps and OneDrive cloud storage. Just head to https://office.com and either sign in or sign up for a new account. Microsoft accounts include Skype, Outlook, Live accounts, etc.

Please note that there are limitations to using office.com as these applications are not fully functional like their desktop options. They are also cloud based so everything is stored in the cloud and you always have access to your work from anywhere. However, you always need to be online to work.

2. Smartphone Apps

Microsoft also offers free smartphone apps for iOS and Android users. Just go to the app store or Play on your device to download the Microsoft Office 365 mobile app and get started.

Like its web counterpart, the smartphone apps let you work and save documents on the free 5 GB OneDrive cloud storage. You can also upload documents and edit them and then share them or download them back to your smartphone.

Applications support Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. Additional features include scanning documents and converting them to PDFs, scanning images to documents, and signing PDF documents on your smartphone.

3. Microsoft Office 365 Education

Students and teachers in select schools can access and use Microsoft Office applications, including Word, Excel, OneNote PowerPoint, and Teams, for free.

So, if you are a student or affiliated with an educational institution, you can go to the Microsoft Office for Schools page. here and enter your email address to see if you qualify.

If you fit, great! Otherwise, you can still check with your school administration because Microsoft also offers discount packages for educational institutions. Here.

4. Microsoft 365 Free Trial

Another way to get Microsoft Office apps for free is to start a free trial of Microsoft 365 Family Suite. Note that you will need a credit card to do this and the plan costs $100 per year. So, if you don’t cancel your subscription before the free month ends, you’ll be charged a hundred bucks.

Company The Microsoft 365 Family Pack costs only $30 more than the Personal Pack, but it allows up to six users per account. This makes it very beneficial for home and friends who want to share and save.

Both plans allow you to sync up to five devices simultaneously across PCs, Macs, iPads, and Android devices. You can start your free trial here.

5. Join a friend’s home plan

If you have many friends or family, chances are you know someone who is already using the Microsoft 365 for home plan for $99.99 per year mentioned above.

So, another logical way to get Microsoft Office apps for free is to ask a friend or sibling to add you to the plan. Each of the six members of the plan gets a separate account with 1 TB of OneDrive storage and can download PC, Mac, or smartphone versions of the Office apps for free.

Also, dividing the $100 between 6 users gives you $16.66 per year each, which is still almost free.

6. Use Free Alternatives

Finally, it’s worth noting that there are some impressive free alternatives to Microsoft Office applications. These include Google Workspace, Apple’s iWork offering for Apple and LibreOffice users from the open source world.

Google Workspace is a premium business offering that starts at $6 per user per month, but you can still use most apps for free with just a Google account. They include full-featured cloud applications such as documents, email, spreadsheets, 15 GB cloud storage, calendar, notes, and forms.

LibreOffice is a completely free desktop suite with a full featured document editor, image editor, presentation editor, spreadsheet editor and database management.

Limitations of free Office.com apps

Free use of Microsoft Office.com apps can be great, but there are some trade-offs to be aware of. Here are the main limitations of using these applications:

  • Limited features — Office.com apps offer basic functionality for working on the go, but these features are limited. Thus, advanced users who are accustomed to many advanced features, for example, will find that many of them are missing from online versions of Microsoft Office applications.
  • Limited storage — A free Microsoft OneDrive account comes with 5 GB of free storage. This may be either enough or too little, depending on your lifestyle. However, premium plans come with 1TB of storage.
  • Limited experience — Free Office.com apps only work in a browser and require an Internet connection. You don’t get a desktop version of apps that can work offline or sync your data with your online accounts.
  • Microsoft account required — You will need a Microsoft account to use free services. You can use an existing account or create a new one from a variety of Microsoft domains and services.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Can Microsoft Office run on a Mac?

Yes, the free online versions of Office.com work on all platforms. In addition, there is a variant of the Microsoft Office desktop suite for Mac.

Are Microsoft Office and Microsoft 365 the same thing?

No, Microsoft Office is a one-time purchase. Microsoft 365 is a SaaS offering that includes the same office suites and more for a monthly or yearly subscription.

Do free online applications have a time limit?

No, there is no time limit for using the free online account. No, there is no time limit for using the free online account.

How much free storage space?

The Microsoft Online offer includes 5 GB of free storage, while the free trial and home plan offers include the standard 1 TB (1,000 GB) of storage.

Which Microsoft Office applications can I get for free?

You get all the standard office applications such as Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint. Plus new apps like OneDrive, Teams and SharePoint.

Conclusion

This completes our quick guide on how to get Microsoft Office for free, and you’ve seen plenty of ways to do it.

You have also seen the advantages and limitations of each method. So deciding which is best for you depends on your situation and work needs.

6 Ways to Get a Free Microsoft Office License • Oki Doki

If this makes your wallet cry, try these methods to use Microsoft Office for free.

1. Use Microsoft Office Online.

Microsoft itself offers a significant collection of free Microsoft Office utilities. Office on the web (that’s its official name, but many people still call it Office Online) is essentially the browser-based version of the latest Microsoft Office suite.

Currently, it includes:

  • Word
  • Excel
  • Power installation
  • One note
  • Swear
  • people
  • Calendar
  • One disk
  • , however, there is one nod. Online versions of Microsoft Office applications provide only limited Microsoft Office features.

    Programs for Windows, mobile applications, games — EVERYTHING is FREE, in our closed telegram channel — Subscribe 🙂

    Word Online, for example, does not include text boxes, WordArt, equations, charts, and more. You can still write a term paper, but you won’t be able to write a company report. Similarly, you will be able to open and view an Excel spreadsheet, but your custom macros will not load.

    Although Office Online lacks some features, it is an all-in-one free alternative to a fully paid Microsoft Office license. The free versions of Office will happily open your files, allow you to edit, and last but not least, always preserve the formatting of your document.

    If all you want is a full text editor, here’s how to get Microsoft Word for free. But don’t miss out on other ways to get Microsoft Office for free!

    2. Microsoft Office Mobile Apps

    Microsoft Office is available for free for Android and iOS. The Office mobile app includes lightweight but powerful versions of Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. How functional the Office mobile app you find depends on the screen size you’re using.

    For example, editing a Word document on my Samsung Galaxy S8 is reasonable, but trying to navigate an Excel spreadsheet is tedious and frustrating. Conversely, editing a Word or Excel document on a large, tablet-sized screen is actually quite enjoyable.

    I’m still not sure if you’ll be launching your company accounts from the Office mobile app, but in a pinch it’ll do. Plus, it’s another way to use Microsoft Office for free. At least as part of Microsoft Office.

    Microsoft has changed its Office mobile app strategy several times, switching between standalone and unified Office apps.

    Android and iOS users can currently use the unified Office app, which includes Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. The Office app also includes Office Lens (document scanning tool), PDF conversion tool, instant file sharing between nearby devices, and image and data extraction from files and spreadsheets.

    However, offline versions of apps are still available on Google Play and the App Store, which means you can choose the apps you want. Standalone Office applications also include OneDrive, Outlook, OneNote, and SharePoint, among others.

    Download: Microsoft Office for Android | iOS

    Microsoft 365 (Office)

    Developer:
    Microsoft Corporation

    Price:
    Free

    ‎Microsoft 365 (Office)

    Developer:
    Microsoft Corporation

    Price:
    Free +

    However, if you want individual Microsoft Office applications to continue to use Office for free in this way, here are the links for Android devices: One note

  • SharePoint

You can also find the Microsoft Corporation App Store page here, which has links to various free Microsoft Office apps for iPhone and iPad.

Office 2019 has made numerous package changes. If you haven’t signed up for Office 2019 elsewhere, you can give it a try before emptying your pockets. Thus, you can take advantage of a free trial of Microsoft 365 for one month.

The trial version gives you access to the full suite of Microsoft Office 2019. Plus, you get 1 TB of OneDrive cloud storage and 60 minutes of Skype Credit per month.

Of course, there is a snag. You must provide a valid credit, debit or PayPal account during the registration process. Microsoft will automatically charge your account at the end of the trial period.

4. How about an Office 365 ProPlus trial?

At the end of your 30-day trial of Microsoft Office 365, you will either be sold out or ready to try something else. Alternatively, why not try for another trial? This time using the trial version of Microsoft Office 365 ProPlus.

You have 30 more days to test Microsoft Office 2019 and access the same Microsoft Office suite as before.

5. Buy hardware with Microsoft Office.

Microsoft Office rarely comes with a new desktop or laptop. Unless it’s a special pre-deal, you’ll be buying Microsoft Office as an add-on. And if you’re building your own computer, well, you’re out of luck.

However, such trades are not impossible — you just need to strike while the iron is hot. Unfortunately, this means you need the indirect trio: new hardware with a package deal, money to take advantage of that deal, and the need to actually upgrade your hardware.

Here are three examples of laptops with a free Microsoft Office license:

Acer Aspire One 14

Acer Aspire One 14 “part of the Acer Cloudbook series, most of which have a free annual subscription to Microsoft 365. Aspire One 14” includes a processor Intel Celeron N3050, 2 GB RAM and 32 GB storage.

HP Stream 14

HP Stream 14 is a smart, thin laptop with an Intel Celeron N4000 processor, 4 GB of RAM, 64 GB of storage, and a 1-year Microsoft 365 subscription.

Asus L210

The Asus L210 is an ultra-thin 11.6-inch laptop. It features an Intel Celeron N4020 processor, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, and a one-year Microsoft 365 subscription.

6. Ask your employer or school also has limitations: accessibility, functionality, equipment. However, this penultimate option offers some of you a very good chance of getting the full version of Microsoft Office 2019.or Microsoft Office 365 completely free.

First, you will need to contact your employer or, if you are a student, your school.

Many companies and educational institutions can offer a free or very cheap license for Microsoft Office for one reason: people who work or study there need it.

Businesses will have to pay, but bulk licenses may mean your employer can provide a free or low cost option.

In addition, Microsoft has long supported schools with free Office 365 Education packages. You may need to ask directly.

There are many ways to get Microsoft Office for free

Getting the full version of Microsoft Office for free is not for everyone.