5-Year Budget Comparison between Office 365 VS Office 2019

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

An essential productivity solution, the Microsoft Office suite has been equipping the majority of Windows and Apple user workstations by default since 1989. The office suite has significantly evolved from the first versions of the applications Word, Excel, PowerPoint... which were sold individually to the latest versions, where the applications form a connected and interoperable set. In 2011, Microsoft released 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 via a subscription. The offer is built on very different pricing and licensing management than classic on-premise versions like Office 2019.

Functional Coverage Office 365 VS Office 2019

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

Functional Coverage Office 365    

The on-demand productivity solution Microsoft Office 365 includes 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 rental version 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 with the Intune application (cloud-based mobile device and application management service) and Azure Information Protection.

The Microsoft 365 offer is available for large groups through Microsoft 365 E3, E5, and F3 solutions, including advanced social networking and intranet applications, file and content management, analytics, work management... 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 Microsoft Office 2019 productivity suite, 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 a large number of Office 365 features.

For businesses, Microsoft has released its Office 2019 office 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 Standard version applications, the Access, Publisher and Lync (instant messaging tool) software. The Microsoft Office 2019 Professional Plus edition, which is the most complete 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 functionality 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.

Differences between Office 365 in Budget and Maintenance

Besides the technological aspects that differentiate the cloud-based SaaS version Office 365 and the perpetual version Office 2019, the budget question also arises. The Office 365 solution is based on a subscription system, starting at €5.10 excl. VAT per user/month for the Microsoft 365 Business Basic version and going up to €53.70 excl. 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 subscription cost over 5 years is €10.50 excl. VAT multiplied by 12, or €126 excl. 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 Second-Hand Perpetual Licenses with Softcorner

In addition to a truly advantageous price, by purchasing your second-hand 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 employees and extend the life of your digital infrastructure. You thus contribute to the development of a circular economy for more digital sobriety while maintaining the performance of your tools.