If you’re comfortable with cloud storage and need Office on more than your computer then Office 365 is worth the spend - it’s more the getting used to paying a subscription for something that used to be a one off purchase that is the barrier rather than the value of the software itself. You get the latest version of every app regularly updated, generous cloud storage, an email client, sign-in across all your devices for up to six people and technical support. Think of it as the Netflix of home computing. While it might take a while to get your head round an annual payment for software, the advantages are clear to see.

Otherwise, Microsoft is clearly pushing a superior version of Office with Office 365. It is quite restrictive, and we only recommend Office Home & Student’s one-off payment if you want the basic Word, Excel and PowerPoint set up on one computer and if you save files locally to the computer or a hard drive. It also doesn’t get you OneDrive cloud storage, and you can’t use the apps on your phone or tablet - you must download Office to one PC or Mac and forever use it there. Unfortunately, that’s it - buying Office outright does not get you popular apps like Outlook for email or OneNote. Office Home & Student costs AU$199 as a one-off payment and includes: It does however receive security updates. Buying Office Home & Student 2019 as a one-off purchase means you will forever have that edition of Office, and you won’t receive software updates to add new features or upgrade to the next year’s version. Office 365 does not have a year in its branding it as it is constantly updated. If you don’t like the idea of a monthly subscription and would prefer to pay once for Office and have it forever like the good old days then you can still do that with Microsoft Office Home & Student 2019 (current version at the time of writing). Read more Best Australian Black Friday Microsoft Store deals Can you buy Microsoft Office outright?

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