Read on to make things more complicated if you want to.īelow is a summary table using actual prices and typical version requirements. then you can base your decision on the price you can find for 365 vs one-time in whichever plan you need and factor this against the expected life of your device, perhaps, as well as cash flow. Confusingly, the combinations available are not the same for 365 and one-time purchase, and neither is the naming!īut if you are a standard, desktop user of Microsoft Office wanting to upgrade or purchase Office for a new P.C. Essentially before you think about whether you want 365 or one-time, you need to decide which applications you want to be able to use (for example some plans do not include Access), and the purpose for which you want them (e.g. Note that both 365 and one-time purchase are sold in various 'plans', which contain assorted combinations of the Office applications and allow use for different purposes.