Perpetual licensesįor businesses with more than five employees, Volume Licensing (VL) editions of Office, available for purchase through Microsoft resellers, offer a better deal than retail editions. Here are the prices you need to plug into your worksheet.

To calculate costs, you need to multiply the cost of perpetual licenses by the estimated lifespan of that software, then compare that total to the equivalent. Microsoft’s long support lifecycles mean you can squeeze five years of useful life (and perhaps a bit more) out of each edition, although that means skipping some upgrades. Office 365 subscriptions include the most recent release of the Office desktop programs, which are installed through automatic updates when they’re available. When a new edition is released, you can continue to use your old edition but must pay for a new license to upgrade. In addition, the volume license option locks you into the Office edition you purchased. The crucial difference between traditional volume licenses and the Office 365 subscription model hinges on a key distinction: Volume licenses are assigned on a per-device basis, whereas subscriptions provide per-user licensing. There’s no simple answer to the “buy or rent” question for most businesses, but it’s easy enough to calculate the costs of each option. Today, businesses that want Microsoft’s Office programs on desktop and portable PCs have to decide between traditional perpetual licenses and Office 365 subscription plans. Microsoft’s push into software as a subscription service started years ago, but it has accelerated in the past two years with the rapidly evolving Office 365. The brave new world of per-user software licensing creates confusing choices, but it also presents opportunities to save big money on licensing. Doing the math: Are Office 365 subscriptions a good deal?

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