5-Year Budget Comparison Between Office 365 VS Office 2019

Save money by purchasing the pre-owned on-premise Office 2019 license on the Softcorner marketplace rather than Office 365.

A must-have productivity solution, the Microsoft Office suite has been equipping most Windows and Apple user computers by default since 1989. The office suite has evolved considerably from the first versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint applications... which were sold individually to the most recent versions, where the applications form a connected and interoperable set. In 2011, Microsoft marketed the first version of its Office suite in SaaS mode, Office 365, which became Microsoft 365 in 2020. This cloud-based connected suite is accessible through a subscription. The offer is built on very different pricing and license management modes compared to classic on-premise versions like Office 2019.

Functional Coverage Office 365 VS Office 2019

Before addressing the economic aspect of the Office 365 vs Office 2019 licenses, it is interesting to discover each of these offers in order to establish financial as well as functional comparison criteria.

Functional Coverage Office 365    

The on-demand productivity solution Microsoft Office 365 brings together in its entry-level version, Microsoft 365 Business Basic, the applications that made the office suite successful, namely:

• Word (word processing)
• Excel (spreadsheet)
• PowerPoint (presentation tool)
• Outlook (email client)

It also includes collaborative tools like Teams (videoconferencing), Exchange (instant messaging client), Sharepoint (collaborative work and document sharing tool, workflow). With the Office 365 solution, your data is hosted on the cloud in Microsoft datacenters on the OneDrive storage space included in your subscription.

The Office 365 suite for SMEs and large companies (ETI) is available in its latest version for rent as follows: Microsoft 365 Business Basic (detailed previously), Microsoft 365 Apps for Business (including the desktop version of Office applications, Access, Publisher), Microsoft 365 Business Standard (basic version complemented by Access and Publisher applications), and Microsoft 365 Business Premium, corresponding to the standard version enriched by the Intune application (cloud-based service for managing devices and mobile applications) and Azure Information Protection.

The Microsoft 365 offer is available for large groups through the Microsoft 365 E3, E5, and F3 solutions, including advanced social networks and intranet, file and content management, analytics, work management applications... There is an Office 365 E1, E3, E5 offer built around the Office for the Web version (Word online, Excel online, PowerPoint online...) integrated with cloud services.

 Functional Coverage Office 2019

The productivity suite Microsoft Office 2019, marketed since the second half of 2018, is an on-premise solution based on a perpetual license. This recent version of the suite compatible with Windows 10 and 11 and Mac OS environments integrates many features of Office 365.

For businesses, Microsoft has developed its Office 2019 suite with the Standard solution including the applications:

• Word
• Excel
• OneNote (note-taking tool)
• PowerPoint
• Outlook

The Microsoft Office 2019 Professional edition includes, in addition to the applications of the Standard version, the Access, Publisher, and Lync (instant messaging tool) software. The Microsoft Office 2019 Professional Plus edition, which is the most comprehensive suite, includes Skype Enterprise (professional online meeting organization solution, replaced by Teams) and online storage space with the OneDrive solution.

It is possible to extend the features of the Microsoft Office 2019 productivity suite by integrating the perpetual licenses Visio standard and Professional 2019, local diagram solutions, and Project standard and Professional 2019, advanced project management solutions.

The differences between Office 365 in terms of budget and maintenance

Besides the technological aspects differentiating the SaaS version Office 365 cloud-based and the perpetual version Office 2019, the budgetary question also arises. The Office 365 solution is based on a subscription system, starting at €5.10 excluding VAT per user/month for the Microsoft 365 Business Basic version and going up to €53.70 excluding VAT per user/month for Microsoft 365 E5. This subscription automatically gives access to minor and major functional and security updates and the services included in the selected edition. Based on the intermediate Office 365 version Microsoft Business Standard, the cost of the subscription over 5 years is €10.50 excluding VAT multiplied by 12, or €126 excluding VAT per user per year.

In comparison, the on-premise Office 2019 Professional Plus license, whose functional scope is very close to Office 365, is available for just over €100 for a permanent purchase on the Softcorner marketplace. This perpetual license benefits from minor and major security updates until 2025 via extended support.

The benefits of pre-owned perpetual licenses with Softcorner

In addition to a really advantageous price, by purchasing your pre-owned Office 2019 license on the Softcorner marketplace, you regain control over the evolution of your software architecture. With the Office 2019 suite, you cover the functional needs of your collaborators and extend the lifespan of your digital infrastructure. You thus participate in the development of a circular economy for more digital sobriety while maintaining the performance of your tools.