Microsoft Office for Mac: Microsoft 365 vs Office 2024 buying advice
You might be happy just using Apple’s free Pages, Numbers and Keynote apps on your Mac, but there are times when only the Microsoft Office apps, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, will do. Perhaps you need to collaborate with people using the Office apps and have had enough of converting your Pages documents so that they can edit them in Word. Maybe you are the one who needs to edit a Word document and are hoping that getting a copy of Word (or Excel or PowerPoint) won’t be expensive (or maybe won’t cost you at all).
In this guide to Microsoft Office for Mac we will explain what your options are, whether you can buy the Office apps separately or have to buy them together, whether you can subscribe or buy a lifetime version, and we’ll explain exactly what the difference between Microsoft Office and Microsoft 365 (previously Office 365) is. We also included advice about how to get the apps for free, and the best prices right now.
Should I buy Office for Mac?
It definitely isn’t the case that you have to buy Office for Mac, or Word, PowerPoint, Excel or any other Office apps. Apple has a set of ‘iWork’ office apps of its own that are available for free: Pages (like Word), Numbers (like Excel), and Keynote (like PowerPoint), plus there are various alternatives to Microsoft Office. Take a look at our Best Word Processors for Mac, Best Keynote or PowerPoint alternatives, Best Mac spreadsheet apps, and Best Email apps for Mac articles.
Another reason you may want to buy Office for Mac 2024 or subscribe to Microsoft 365 is that Microsoft will stop mainstream support for the older Office Home & Student 2021 and Home & Business 2021 in October 2026. This means that if you are running either of those versions you will no longer receive security updates after that time.
Wondering whether Office for Mac 2024 is any good? When we reviewed Word 2024, Excel 2024 and PowerPoint 2024 we were impressed. Here’s a summary of what we thought with links to our full reviews.
1. Microsoft Word for Mac
Microsoft Word remains king of the word processors, and while it definitely has some stylistic choices that may push some away, its combination of affordability and flexibility makes it tough to beat.
Read our full
Microsoft Word for Mac review
2. Microsoft Excel for Mac
Excel is a fantastic spreadsheet app, capable of processing large quantities of data with ease. It’s absolutely packed with features and is ideal for anyone already using Office apps and OneDrive.
Read our full
Microsoft Excel for Mac review
3. Microsoft PowerPoint for Mac
PowerPoint is a fantastic way to build a presentation, and while there are new rivals to its throne, it remains surprisingly flexible and easy to use thanks to a robust feature set.
Read our full
Microsoft PowerPoint for Mac review
How to get Office on the Mac
You can run Microsoft Office, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook, on a Mac (and on your iPad or iPhone). But it’s not a simple case of installing the application you need and starting to type.
There are multiple ways in which you can get the Office apps on your Mac. You need to choose whether to sign up to a subscription or buy the full version outright. You need to decide whether you need just one application or all of them. And, if you are choosing a subscription package, you need to determine what kind of subscription applies to you.
We’ll help you figure out which version of Office for Mac is the right one for you in this complete guide to buying Microsoft Office for Mac. Read on to find out what the difference between Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Office 2024 is and learn about the different ways you can get Word, Excel and PowerPoint on your Mac.
How much is Microsoft Office for Mac?
There are multiple ways to buy Microsoft Office for Mac. You can either subscribe to Microsoft 360, or you can buy Office for Mac 2024, or just purchase the app you require. There are also free versions that you may find are sufficient for your needs.
Check the boxes below as we have seen Amazon discounting the Microsoft 365 prices. For example, in January 2025 the Microsoft Family Plan is £98.99 at Amazon.
Microsoft 365 for Mac: Price
Microsoft 365 (previously called Office 365) is Microsoft’s subscription plan that bundles Word, Excel, PowerPoint and other apps like Outlook and OneDrive. There are some additional apps included for Windows users that aren’t available on the Mac.
Prices start at $99.99/£84.99 a year (or $9.99/£8.49 a month) for Microsoft 365 Personal. This includes one license for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and more, that can be used on up to five devices including Macs, iPhones and iPads as well as PCs and other phones and tablets. You get 1TB of cloud storage. There is a free one month trial.
If you choose the annual deal it’s better value, essentially offering the equivalent of two free months, but if you sign up for the year you won’t be able to end your contract early.
There is also a $129.99/£104.99 a year (or $12.99/£10.49 per month) Microsoft 365 Family plan, which includes up to six licenses for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, etc. You can sign in on up to five devices (Macs, iPhones and iPads, PCs, phones and tablets). There’s 1TB of cloud storage per person.
As with the Personal plan above, you choose the annual deal it’s better value, essentially offering the equivalent of two free months, but if you sign up for the year you won’t be able to end your contract early.
There are also business bundles on offer. If you are looking for a Microsoft 365 plan for a business the details are here.
Office for Mac 2024: Price
What if you don’t want to pay a monthly or annual fee for the Office apps? Subscription plans aren’t for everyone and are often unpopular because people feel trapped by them. Luckily there are other options and you can buy the Microsoft Office apps up front.
One option is to buy Office Home 2024, which include the 2024 versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote and is designed for non-commercial use (so families and students). You don’t get Outlook with this option, but that likely won’t matter because in March 2023 Microsoft made Outlook for Mac free, and you can download that on the Mac App Store and iOS App Store. Nor do you get upgrades, so when the next update comes out in a few years time you would have to buy the new software. But it’s a one-time purchase, so you won’t be caught in a loop paying for it every month. You own it for life. You can only install it on one Mac (or PC). It costs $149.99 in the U.S. or £119.99 in the U.K.
There is also an option to buy Office Home and Business 2024. This costs $249.99/£249.99 and the main differences is it includes Outlook and, obviously, allows commercial use.
Word, Excel and PowerPoint 2024: Prices
There are also options to buy the individual apps separately. However, at $179.99/£159.99 per app, it actually costs more to buy it this way than if you purchased Office Home 2024 (above).
Microsoft sells a lifetime license of Word for $179.99/£159.99 (one device).
Microsoft also sells a lifetime license of Excel for $179.99/£159.99 (one device).
Microsoft also sells a lifetime license of PowerPoint for $179.99/£159.99 (one device).
Want to use Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint for free? We have more information about how to do that below.
What’s the difference between Microsoft Office and Microsoft 365?
One key difference, as you can see from the prices above, is how much it will cost you.
With Microsoft 365, customers pay monthly or yearly to always have the most up-to-date version of the software. There are various packages depending on whether you will be the only person using the software, if you will be sharing the subscription with friends and family, or if you are a small business or a larger enterprise.
The subscription system suits some users, but others prefer to pay for software outright and know that they will own it for eternity. Hence, Microsoft also allows you to buy the full Office 2024 suite for a one-off payment. That license will never run out, although Microsoft might eventually stop support for that version.
Over the next five years Microsoft 365 would cost one person $599.40/£509.40 if they opted to pay $9.99/£8.49 a month. If that person chose to buy Microsoft Office Home 2024 instead they would only pay $149.99/£119.99 (assuming they didn’t need it for commercial use, in which case they would have to pay $249.99/£249.99). However, paying upfront means they would miss out on various extras that come with the subscription, including subsequent updates, such as Microsoft Office 2028 when/if that comes out.
What exactly are you getting for your money if you choose to subscribe?
Microsoft 365 vs Office 2024
The key difference relates to collaboration, with only the 365 contracts offering cloud-connected collaboration. If you need multiple people to be able to access the same documents to work in tandem then this is the best option. Alternatively, share versions of documents via email and edit and update as required.
The other key difference is the addition of Copilot in subscriber versions. With the arrival of Apple Intelligence very similar (arguably better) AI tools are included system-wide anyway, so this may not matter to you.
The one thing that may impact on whether or not you choose 365 over Office 2024 is the fact that only 365 users will get feature updates. This early in the cycle this probably won’t matter so much as in a few years from now when 365 subscribers have a set of must have features and Office 2024 users are jealous.
Here’s how Microsoft 365 and Office 2024 compare:
| Microsoft 365 Personal and Microsoft 365 Family | Office Home 2024 and Office Home & Business 2024 | |
|---|---|---|
| Payment plan | Subscribe monthly or annually, stop paying and you lose the license | One-time purchase |
| Included | Word, PowerPoint, Excel, OneNote, Outlook and other apps | Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote (and Outlook in Home & Business versions) |
| Cloud storage | 1TB Cloud storage per person with OneDrive | No cloud storage |
| Collaboration | Cloud-connected features for collaboration in real-time | No collaboration tools |
| AI | AI features with Copilot (only for subscriber, Apple Intelligence features, including Writing Tools, will work) | No Copilot AI features (however, Apple Intelligence features, including Writing Tools, will work) |
| Updates | Feature updates | No updates |
| Security Updates | Security updates and bug fixes | Security updates and bug fixes (for five years) |
| Devices | Multiple devices and platforms | One PC or Mac. Basic versions of the mobile apps can be used on iPhones and iPads. |
| Support | Tech support | Installation help. Support for first 60 days at no extra cost. |
Can I get Office for free?
As you can see from the above, there are various ways to get Office, or single programs from the Office suite, on your Mac. But what if you don’t want to spend a lot of money?
There is a free trial that allows you to use Microsoft 365 for one month. After the trial you will be charged so make sure you cancel before the trial is up.
One option is to subscribe for the time you need access to the software and then cancel your subscription. That way you could get the basic version of Office for Mac for $9.99/£8.49 and cancel after 30 days. Beware that you may lose access to your data though.
Or you can save even more money and use the free View Only mode. This mode will let you view, but not edit, Word documents, PowerPoint slides and Excel sheets. That may be all you need to do, but if you do need to edit the document you could copy and paste it into an app you can edit in, save it and share it from there (in a compatible format).
Another option is to open documents in the corresponding Apple iWork app. Apple has a word processor called Pages that can open Word documents, Keynote for PowerPoint presentations, and Numbers for Excel. These options will enable you to open and edit the Office documents, edit them, and save them in the Office format, without ever having to open Office. Sometimes the formatting can be out slightly, but it’s a great solution. And crucially it won’t cost you anything because these apps are free for Mac users.
We also have this article about how to get Microsoft Word for free.
We have this article about getting Office apps for free on iPad.
