Microsoft Office: A Microsoft 365 Subscription or a One-Time Purchase — Which Is Better Value and Legal

Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook are needed on almost every computer — from a schoolchild's to an accountant's. But when buying, it's easy to get confused: a Microsoft 365 subscription, Office "for life", business plans, web versions, keys for a couple of lari on a marketplace. Let's look at how the Microsoft Office licensing options differ, which is better value for home and office, and why "cheap lifetime keys" so often end in trouble.

A Microsoft 365 subscription

Microsoft 365 is a subscription paid monthly or yearly. For individuals there's a single-person plan and a family plan for several users. The subscription includes:

• full versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and other apps;
• installation on several devices for one user: Windows and Mac computers, tablets and phones;
• a large amount of OneDrive cloud storage;
• continuous updates and new features at no extra cost;
• Microsoft technical support.

The downside is that you pay continuously. If the subscription ends, the apps switch to read-only mode, though your documents stay on your computer.

A one-time Office purchase

Office Home & Student or Home & Business is a "lifetime" licence paid for once. It installs on one computer and includes the core apps (the set depends on the version; Outlook, for example, isn't in all of them). It receives security fixes until that version's support ends, but no new features. It doesn't come with a large amount of cloud storage.

It suits people who use Office on one computer, work with documents without the cloud and don't want yearly payments.

Microsoft 365 business plans

Organisations have separate plans: with company email on your own domain, Teams, SharePoint, shared folders, management of staff accounts and data protection. This is convenient when access needs managing centrally: when an employee leaves, their account is disabled and the documents stay with the company. For an office of 3–5 people or more, a business plan is often more convenient than a set of personal licences.

Free options

• Office on the web — free web versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint with a Microsoft account. Fine for simple documents.
• Mobile apps — free on devices with small screens.
• LibreOffice, OnlyOffice — free office suites that open Word and Excel files. Good for home use, but complex formatting and macros may behave differently.
• Google Docs and Sheets — convenient for collaborating in the browser.

Why "lifetime keys" for pennies are dangerous

Marketplaces sell Office Professional Plus "lifetime" keys for the price of a lunch. As a rule, these are keys from volume licensing programmes or obtained in breach of the terms of sale. They may work for a while but then get blocked, and the installer is often downloaded from unofficial sites and bundles extra programs. "Office activators" are worse still: they tamper with system services, disable protection and often contain cryptominers and password stealers. On a work computer that's a direct risk to your data and a legal problem for the company.

Moving Office to a new computer

With a subscription it's simple: sign out the device in your account on the old computer, then sign in and install on the new one. A one-time purchase linked to a Microsoft account can also be reinstalled on a new computer after removing it from the old one. But Office preinstalled on an old laptop under an OEM licence usually can't be transferred. It's important to know in advance which account the licence is linked to — without that, recovery can take a long time.

What to choose

• A family with several devices — a Microsoft 365 Family subscription: good value per person, plus cloud storage for photos.
• One computer, basic documents — a one-time purchase or free alternatives.
• A student — check whether your university provides a free licence.
• An office — a Microsoft 365 business plan with company email and access management.

Whatever you choose, keep a note of which email address the licence belongs to and store it with your other important passwords. A surprising number of service calls about Office come down to nobody remembering which account was used to buy it.

What our technician does

1. Helps you choose the right licensing option for your needs and budget.
2. Installs Office from an official source and activates a legitimate licence.
3. Removes illegal activators and checks the system for malware.
4. Moves Office, Outlook email and templates to a new computer.
5. Sets up a Microsoft 365 business plan, company email and shared folders.

A real example

A travel agency in Mtatsminda was using Office with an "activator" on five computers. One day Windows Defender blocked the activator and Office stopped saving documents right in the middle of the season. Our technician chose a Microsoft 365 business plan, moved the staff's email to the agency's own domain, installed genuine Office on all the computers and set up a shared cloud folder for contracts. Now when staff change, access is switched off in a minute and the documents stay with the company.

Call a technician

If you need to install Office legally or move it to a new computer, we'll come to any district of Tbilisi around the clock. Learn more on our software installation, computer setup and virus removal pages.