Microsoft raises prices on Office and server products by 10 percent

[Greg S]

What just happened? Redmond has set October 1, 2018 to be the date when customers are hit with a 10 percent increase in pricing on Office and server products. Office 365 pricing is not changing, indicating a strong push to promote subscription-based licenses instead of perpetual options.

This past week, Microsoft has pushed out a message to its partner network explaining new pricing on Office and server products. Standalone licensing for Microsoft Office, Windows Server 2019, Exchange, SharePoint Server, and Project Server will all be subject to a 10 percent price increase on October 1, 2018.

Price changes are part of Microsoft's strategy to encourage more users to switch to a subscription model instead of upgrading software once every few years. For many businesses and government buyers this can make sense, but for home users that keep a single machine for years at a time this will be an added burden.

Even finding a link to the standalone version of Office on Microsoft's website proves to be a bit of challenge. Currently, Office 2016 Home & Business retails for $229.99 directly from Microsoft. Under new pricing, consumers can expect to pay $249.99 for a one-time purchase of Office 2019. Third-party retailers may still offer slight discounts, but will effectively be forced to raise prices.

Although Microsoft is raising prices, the last time that standalone Office applications saw a price increase was 2010. Perhaps the larger concern for enterprise users is the increase in pricing on Client Access Licenses required to use server products. Raising prices 10 percent on both the server license and on CALs will add up quickly.

For now, Office 365 products targeting regular consumers are not going to be seeing any price changes. Users will still be able to buy a one year subscription for $99.99 that is good for use on up to five computers.

Knowing that the price changes take effect on October 1, it would not be surprising to see that Office 2019 will be released on or after this date.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/75720-microsoft-raises-prices-office-server-products-10-percent.html

 

[Burty117]

You know what, I can understand this move for Business orientated products, But Home and Office? Na, When I buy a new machine, I want to buy a one time license, I don't want to pay a subscription to gain access to Office. All you're doing to home users is forcing them to something free. That's fine by me, but overall Microsoft, you're going to lose out on some money there.

 

[Teko03]

You know what, I can understand this move for Business orientated products, But Home and Office? Na, When I buy a new machine, I want to buy a one time license, I don't want to pay a subscription to gain access to Office. All you're doing to home users is forcing them to something free. That's fine by me, but overall Microsoft, you're going to lose out on some money there.

Use Office Online, it's free and that works for most home users anyway. As long as they keep a reasonably cheap Home Use Program offer going...I'm a happy camper.

 

[trparky]

You know what, I can understand this move for Business orientated products, But Home and Office? Na, When I buy a new machine, I want to buy a one time license, I don't want to pay a subscription to gain access to Office. All you're doing to home users is forcing them to something free. That's fine by me, but overall Microsoft, you're going to lose out on some money there.

But $99 a year gets you not only Microsoft Office for five users but also 1 TB of OneDrive storage for each user as well. Considering that getting online cloud storage at other companies are more expensive the idea that you get 1 TB of OneDrive storage for five users is great, you basically get Office for free.

 

[dualkelly]

You know what, I can understand this move for Business orientated products, But Home and Office? Na, When I buy a new machine, I want to buy a one time license, I don't want to pay a subscription to gain access to Office. All you're doing to home users is forcing them to something free. That's fine by me, but overall Microsoft, you're going to lose out on some money there.

But $99 a year gets you not only Microsoft Office for five users but also 1 TB of OneDrive storage for each user as well. Considering that getting online cloud storage at other companies are more expensive the idea that you get 1 TB of OneDrive storage for five users is great, you basically get Office for free.

Or you can use libre office which opens and saves office format documents and pay nothing all year. Maybe spend that extra 100 a year on something that will get you some pleasure.

 

[trparky]

Or you can use libre office which opens and saves office format documents and pay nothing all year. Maybe spend that extra 100 a year on something that will get you some pleasure.

But then where's my online data storage? Like I said previously, most online data storage services charge more money for less storage so the fact that you get 1 TB of storage for five users (effectively 5 TBs) for less than what most other services charge is pretty darn awesome. Throw in Microsoft Office and it's an even better deal, you practically get Office for free.

 

[trparky]

And before you ask why I need online storage, I do. I have data that I do not want to lose. Pictures and other forms of data that cannot be replaced are put up in the cloud for safe keeping in case something were to happen to my system or God forbid, my house. A natural disaster, theft (home invasion/burglary) , or just plain hardware failure can wipe out your data in an instant. If it's in the cloud, it's safe.

 

[senketsu]

I want a standalone Office product. I use Office Home and Business 2016 standalone. That was a PITA to obtain, I tried to get one that didn't require a MS account even to where I bought a physical box, impossible, box is empty except for serial number on a card (f**k couldn't they even provide a USB stick?), so you are forced into making a MS account to download Office.
I don't use the Cloud, have no use for the Cloud, OneDrive is an abomination to be kept off my computer thanks for asking.
Office by subscription only? I'm gone, no way I'm paying that.
edit: I've already dumped Adobe Acrobat Pro for going subscription only (Acrobat DC)

 

[fps4ever]

Or you can use libre office which opens and saves office format documents and pay nothing all year. Maybe spend that extra 100 a year on something that will get you some pleasure.

But then where's my online data storage? Like I said previously, most online data storage services charge more money for less storage so the fact that you get 1 TB of storage for five users (effectively 5 TBs) for less than what most other services charge is pretty darn awesome. Throw in Microsoft Office and it's an even better deal, you practically get Office for free.

Your version of "practically free" seem to be different than mine. And you can get free storage from several online sources. Businesses I can understand but for home use Libre Office is perfectly capable.

 

[texasrattler]

Libre Office is not like MS Office, most users will get lost in it which is why it's not even used by many people. Open Office was the best free version but that's gone and Libre Office took it over but it's nowhere near as good or easy to use.

Cloud storage is much better than it was 5+ yrs ago but I wouldn't just trust any company id stick to the main players and wouldn't just use some random free cloud storage. That could hurt you down the line when someone hacks them and all your stuff is gone. It ain't worth all that.

Btw, all these people that cry about subscription base Office. One, it's not new it's been around awhile. Also, the standalone aka lifetime is going away in a few years and their will ONLY be subscription based Office. At the end of 2020, standalone is gone which is why 2019 will be the last standalone office. After that, 365 takes over full time, nothing else will be offered for consumers. Yes, those who have 2013-2019 can still use the standalone but for how long, no one knows just yet.
MS can change all of this but this what they have said so far and from todays announcement seems to be right on track with everything they have said. Office 365 is the future like it or not, it's not going anywhere.

While some ppl will prefer the free stuff like Apples version, Google Docs or Libre Office, none of them are classed as Professional. Businesses and Universities will use MS Office, not those others. So some jobs will require you to use MS Office, just like a lot of Universities do. Even if a school lets you use any programs, a teacher/class may still require you to use MS Office. Same goes for any business. Your boss may say will I use MS Office, will guess what your gonna be using.

Now saying all this doesn't mean you have to buy MS Office but it does mean you will be using it. A lot of businesses/jobs and Schools/Universities do offer you a free version or a heavily discounted Office version.

 

[BSim500]

But $99 a year gets you not only Microsoft Office for five users but also 1 TB of OneDrive storage for each user as well. And before you ask why I need online storage, I do. I have data that I do not want to lose. Pictures and other forms of data that cannot be replaced are put up in the cloud for safe keeping in case something were to happen to my system or God forbid, my house. A natural disaster, theft (home invasion/burglary) , or just plain hardware failure can wipe out your data in an instant. If it's in the cloud, it's safe.

But if you really don't want / need 1TB of Cloud Storage, then it's still wasted money. The fact MS has to give away 1TB of storage shows how poor Office "rental" for the average Joe typing out 6 page documents is by itself. Also, "the cloud" is fine as one layer of offsite backup, but I sincerely hope it isn't your only backup...

Or you can use libre office which opens and saves office format documents and pay nothing all year. Maybe spend that extra 100 a year on something that will get you some pleasure.

We switched years back (both personal use plus family run small business). Haven't looked back. The biggest initial concern was file format compatibility (how ODF vs DOCX would appear on other's PC's), but since everything we send out (invoices, quotes, letters, etc) is done in PDF and literally no-one has ever asked for anything else, it turned out to be a total non-issue.

 

[Xclusiveitalian]

I use to love office, now I exclusively use Libre Office for free.

 

[Uncle Al]

I found some of the other free "Office Like" products to be every as bit as good and of course, you can't beat the price, especially since most of them are built across all the popular platforms......

 

[dualkelly]

For anyone who makes a living at writing or would like too then MS word doesn't even make a scratch or have an ounce of the features needed. Most professional writers use Scrivener at $45 for lifetime use. General every day computing like homework and basic office use again Office sucks big time for how much they charge and most small business can get away with using Libre office. Likewise any students doing homework can get away with Libre or open office. The only reason office and Microsoft hasn't failed yet is because of those mega corporation contracts. The sheer crap that is windows 10 and office 365 for home use should end microsoft if it wasnt for those pesky corporation contracts.

 

[toooooot]

I bought office 2013 from #$%%^.com for 11 dollars, wish me luck guys

 

[DelJo63]

Use Office Online, it's free and that works for most home users anyway. As long as they keep a reasonably cheap Home Use Program offer going...I'm a happy camper.

Not so great for portable laptop users (n)

 

[Evernessince]

You know what, I can understand this move for Business orientated products, But Home and Office? Na, When I buy a new machine, I want to buy a one time license, I don't want to pay a subscription to gain access to Office. All you're doing to home users is forcing them to something free. That's fine by me, but overall Microsoft, you're going to lose out on some money there.

I installed Libre Office on all my home machines simply because I didn't want to shell out cash for each of my computers. I get enough of MS Office at work anyways.

 

[lazer]

I have Libre Office and it is just as good and easy to use. Anyone who says differently is a troll for Micro$lop.

M$ makes money by giving second rate products pushed by top notch MARKETING schemes to screw the consumer.

BTW I have Ubuntu on my machine and love it.

If you have money to blow for inferior products like M$, maybe give something to charity instead!

 

[Danny101]

My use case required MS Office. I compared Office 365 to Office 2016. Stand-alone is upgraded every 3 years and Office 365 for 3 years is the same price. It ensured I had compatibility, cost me 1/3 less in investment, and if I can find a suitable alternative then I wouldn't shell out full price for the stand-alone. Also it's updated constantly without too much fuss. I've used LibreOffice. It's very comprehensive, except that it didn't integrate well with corporations steeped in Microsoft, with whom I had to deal. If you're a small business or home user, I suggest to learn LibreOffice.

 

[cliffordcooley]

I have Libre Office and it is just as good and easy to use. Anyone who says differently is a troll for Micro$lop.

I enjoy coding in Visual Basic for Applications within Excel. If you tell me LibreOffice has an equivalent within Calc, I will agree with you. If not, then I wouldn't be trolling for holding that opinion now will I? Because the last I checked, I couldn't find it.

 

[JB3543]

I have Office 365. I can't stand it. It's packed with all the idiocy MicroBrains can possible cram into it.

I switched to LibreOffice. I like it. A lot.

And I'm very close to dumping Windows and going with Linux Mint.

My opinion is that MicroBrains needs to be burned to the ground. Replaced by a dog park.

 

[noname]

I enjoy coding in Visual Basic for Applications within Excel. If you tell me LibreOffice has an equivalent within Calc, I will agree with you. If not, then I wouldn't be trolling for holding that opinion now will I? Because the last I checked, I couldn't find it.

"OpenOffice.org Basic belongs to the family of Basic languages. Many parts of OpenOffice.org Basic are identical to Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications and Microsoft Visual Basic. Anyone who has already worked with these languages can quickly become accustomed to OpenOffice.org Basic."

Guess u enjoy coding in Visual Basic for Applications within Excel ;>

 

[cliffordcooley]

Well then I guess I can agree. Thank You!