Office 365 Personal VS Home – Which One is Best

If you guys have been thinking about subscribing to Office 365 to get access to the Microsoft Office suite of applications for an affordable yearly or monthly price. Then there are two options you can to choose from. Currently, for general consumers, Microsoft basically offers both Office 365 Home and Office 365 Personal. In this article, we are going to talk about Office 365 Personal VS Home – Which One is Best. Let’s begin!

However, both of these subscription tiers give you similar access to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Publisher, and Access as well. There are some subtle differences for what you can get for your money actually. In this guide, we dive a bit deeper and will help you to choose the subscription plan that is perfect for your home.

Office 365 Personal vs Home: The basics

Keep that thing in mind when you had to buy the latest version of Microsoft Word on a disk? Nowadays, you can buy and also download the digital file in just a few clicks. Or, you can buy the full suite of Office apps as a monthly as well as yearly subscription service: Office 365.

Think of Home and Personal as the entry-level versions of Office 365 actually. Both of these plans make sense to individuals, small businesses, and also families. That want access to familiar Office apps such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. However, don’t need (or want to pay for) enterprise services and support as well. Just simply put:

• Office 365 Personal is basically for a single user
• Office 365 Home is actually for a family or small group of users

Along with the amount of cloud storage, this is actually the key difference between the two plans. Otherwise, they come with an identical suite of apps and services intended for non-commercial use by folks with general office needs.

You get premium desktop versions of the core office apps that I mentioned, plus OneNote.

All the apps can be fully installed on your computer, and downloaded to an unlimited number of Android, iOS, and Windows devices (as long as you’re not active on more than five devices at one time).

Importantly, this means your offline access is not limited as it is with the browser-based Office apps, which come free with Office for the Web.

Terms of Services

In terms of services, both subscriptions set you up with OneDrive and Skype.as well

Our Office 365 OneDrive cloud-storage is actually integrated with your Office apps. So it is really easy to store, share, and also access your files from anywhere. Features such as OneDrive Personal Vault provide individuals with an extra layer of personalized security for sensitive documents. Each OneDrive is personal, so Home subscribers can’t really see each other’s files by default.

For Skype, each and every user gets more than 60 minutes per month to call mobile phones and landlines around the globe. Saving you money on long-distance calls as well. Let’s see a list of eligible countries.

Finally, with either a Home or Personal subscription, PC users also get Publisher and  Access as well.

Publisher’s advanced layout tools are really great for things such as reports and visuals if you are a PC user. For most Mac of the users, it is not mission-critical. You have already got Apple’s in-house design tools actually. And though Access is powerful, it’s only useful for a small fraction of home office users as well.

In order to sum up, each of these plans are designed to be affordable, however, there is nothing skimpy about what you get. Microsoft basically wants you to keep subscribing, so the updates are frequent and the premium features performant as well. That means you will always be running the most up-to-date products, services, and security as well. That Microsoft has to offer, as soon as they become available actually. It’s really easy to work remotely and your files are always backed up.

what’s included in both subscriptions?

Before diving into the differences, it is first, best to look at the software and services that you get with both subscriptions. Covered under Office 365 Home and Personal is access to full versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and also Skype. These all receive monthly updates from Microsoft, and you can then install on PCs, Macs, tablets, and phones as well. If installing on just a PC, you will get bonus access to Microsoft Access and Publisher also.

As a bonus, both subscriptions also include 1TB of cloud storage on Microsoft OneDrive per user as well. (Along with paid options for more storage, if needed) and 60 minutes of calling on Skype per month. There are some exclusions and exceptions along with who you can call on Skype, however. If you are using OneNote, then you will also gain access to some special features. These include Ink replay, Researcher, Math Assistant, Stickers, and much more.

Office 365 Personal — For one person only

It is now time to look at the differences. We will start first with Office 365 personal actually. For the price of $6.99 a month, or $69.99 a year as well. Office 365 Personal is the cheapest way in order to get Office on your devices. We’d recommend it if you are  just buying a subscription for one person, along with no plans to add users to your plan.

However, the subscription does grant you access to PowerPoint, Word, Excel, Outlook, Access, Publisher, and Skype as well. There is actually an important limit. If opting for this base plan, you guys only will be able to use the Office applications along with one Microsoft account. (That means one user with one license) across multiple PCs, Macs, or tablets as well. You will also only get 1TB of OneDrive cloud storage along with that single account.

Keep in your mind, however, that while it may seem as though you may be able to install Office on. Because many computers as you want using this subscription, there are some of the technical limits. According to Microsoft, you can only stay signed in to Office 365 Personal along with five devices at the same time. That means, that if you sign in to a sixth device, then you’ll be forced to sign out of one of your all other devices through the Microsoft Account page.

You might be able to install Office without even signing in on that sixth device. However, as Office 365 is activated using a Microsoft Account, then you will also lose some subscription features and Office might only run in read-only mode.

Office 365 Home — For more than six people, best for families

Priced at $99.99 a year, or $9.99 a month, Office 365 Home is basically a subscription that we’d recommend for families. If we compare it to Office 365 Personal, for the extra $30, this version of Office 365 lets you pay one price to enjoy Office with multiple users, under one paid plan as well. There’s even a free 30-day trial available if you guys are not sure if the subscription is right for you.

So, along with this subscription, six different people can use PowerPoint, Word, Excel, Outlook, Access, Publisher, and Skype also across multiple devices. In technical terms, this means you can link more than six Microsoft accounts with a single Office 365 Home subscription. Each and every person will be able to install Office on all their devices, with their own personal accounts as well. However, only can stay signed in to five devices at the same time.

This means that each and every person will continue to get all the advantages. That includes full versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, plus the 1TB of OneDrive cloud storage and much more. There is plenty of value here for families, as adding things up across the six users, you can get more than 360 total minutes of Skype calls, and 6TB of storage on Microsoft OneDrive as well.

How can you choose between Office 365 Home and Personal

Because you guys need to renew your subscription, the pricebreak that comes with an individual subscription is something to consider. Opting for Office 365 Personal will actually save you $40 yearly compared to Office 365 Home. Of course, that’s only if you need a single user and TB of storage as well. You can use Personal together along with someone else, however, with one account, both of the users will have access to all its data.

If the savings make sense, and you only need one account, then keep this in mind:

• You can also collaborate online with your Office 365 Personal subscription using OneDrive. When you share links with other users in order to work on files together, they do not necessarily need their own Office 365 account.
• It is easy to upgrade to Office 365 Home, so you are not trapped with one user forever, you should needs change as well.

For multiple users, Office 365 Home is clearly the better choice actually. It’s great value for money, I can’t think of a situation when it would be cost-effective in order to buy multiple Personal subscriptions.

Mostly, Office 365 Home and Personal is the way to go

At the end of the day, both Office 365 Home and Personal are really excellent ways to save money and get Office for an affordable price. The alternative to these options would be to buy Office Home and Student 2019 as well. That comes at a one-time cost of $149. But, by going that route, you will only be able to install Office on 1 PC or Mac, and you won’t have the ability to update to the next major version of Office for free when it is available. You will own the software forever, and won’t have to worry about paying a yearly subscription fee as well. However, you will end up paying more if you want to enjoy Office on multiple PCs or Macs along with multiple users.

Conclusion

Alright, That was all Folks! I hope you guys like this article and also find it helpful to you. Give us your feedback on it. Also if you guys have further queries and issues related to this article. Then let us know in the comments section below. We will get back to you shortly.

Have a Great Day!

Also See: How To Enable Or Disable Tab Hover Cards In Microsoft Edge & Google Chrome