Office 2016 vs Office 365. Microsoft’s Office Suite is a staple of the workplace and home. Office 2016 is the “offline” Office version where you install the applications on your machine, and for many years, this type of service was the only Microsoft Office provided. There’s no workaround for this. Office 2016 for Mac needs to be v15.35 or later, which it probably is, if you’ve updated anytime in the last few months. Check the version in one of the Office apps or go to Help Check for updates. The current Office for Mac; Office 365 or Office 2019 are OK with Catalina.
Key Difference – Office 365 vs Office 2016
The key difference between Office 365 and Office 2016 is that Office 365 works with a subscription system whereas Office 2016 require a onetime payment. Office 365 will be upgraded with new features while Office 2016 only gets security updates. Word, PowerPoint, and Excel are essentials when it comes to getting most of the office based work done. These applications and many more features are made available through different bundles, different applications, and different services through office 365, office online, and office 2016.
CONTENTS
1. Overview and Key Difference
2. Office 365 – Features and Specifications
3. Office 2016 – Features and Specifications
4. Side by Side Comparison – Office 365 vs Office 2016
Office 365 – Features and Specifications
Office 365 is a subscription service that comes with the most up-to-date tools made available with Microsoft. Office 365 is available for home and personal use, small business, large enterprises, schools, and organizations.
Office 365 come with familiar applications like Word, PowerPoint, Excel and additional storage. Office 365 also provides tech support without any additional cost and many more features. The subscription can be made on a monthly or yearly basis. The office 365 home plan let you share your subscription with up to four members of the household.
Office 365 that offer plans for business, schools and nonprofits mostly come with fully installed applications. Basic plans also offer the online version of office, email, and file storage. You will be able to decide which version suits you best after analyzing the available options with each package.
Office 365 started up as an online service for business to provide email, communications, and file sharing over Cloud. This included the license to run desktop office software. Now it includes Microsoft office subscription services for businesses and consumers.
You can subscribe on a monthly or yearly basis and will automatically receive new features as they are made available for newer versions of office. The mobile version of office can be used to edit and view documents. The device has to have a screen size bigger than 10.0 inches. It can be a window 10 desktops or an iPad Pro.
You will also get online storage in addition to the application and features. However, if you stop paying the subscription, you will not be able to use office.
Office 365 is an ideal option for multiple machine usage. You can even switch between a Mac and PC as consumer subscriptions support this feature.
Office 2016 For Mac Needs To Be V15 35 Gb
The Office 365 personal and Office 365 Home include the same software. The personal subscription will only let you install the software on one PC or Mac and one phone and one tablet. But Office 365 Home can be used on 5 Macs or PCs and five phones and tablets. You can install yourself or share it with up to five family members or friend. They will also get 1TB of cloud storage and skype credits.
Office 365 Business and Office 365 Business Premium include Office 2016. They can both be run on Mac and PC operating systems. A user can install office on five PCs or Macs and five tablets or phones. It will also include 1TB of OneDrive storage. Larger businesses can opt for Office 365 enterprise option that comes with additional security and information management tools. The subscription has to be paid on a yearly basis.
An Office 365 version that only comes with Exchange, Skype, SharePoint and Business online service is also available, but this does not include Office 2016 applications. This has been specially designed for organizations that have an office license.
Office 2016 – Features and Specifications
Office 2016 comes as a one-time purchase. You will only have to pay one time to get applications into one computer. One time purchases are available for personal computers as well as Macs. But, one-time purchase of this version will not have an upgrade although you’ll receive security updates. When the next new version is made available, you will have to pay again. The Business Premium subscription will include SharePoint, exchange, and Business Online.
If you install Office 2016 on a Mac, it will include Word, Excel, PowerPoint and One Note. If you need Outlook on the Mac, you will need to subscribe to Office 365. The subscription will also give access to office versions of Access and Publisher 2016.
On Windows, you can choose between Office Home and Office Student 2016. This will include Word, Excel, PowerPoint and One Note. If you require extra features, you will need to install Office Professional 2016. This will include Outlook, Access, and Publisher in addition to standard office applications.
Figure 02: Office 2016 – Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint.
What is the difference between Office 365 and Office 2016?
Office 365 vs Office 2016 | |
Office 365 require a small monthly fee or payment for a full year with discount. | Office 2016 only require one time payment. |
Office Applications | |
Office 365 will comprise of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Publisher and Access is also available. | Office 2016 will come with applications like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. |
Updates | |
Latest updates and feature will be installed. Major upgrades will be included with future versions. | Security updates will be made available but you will not get new features. Upgrades to major releases are not included. |
Availability | |
Office 365 Home can be installed on 5 computers. This can be a combination of Macs and PCs. You can also share installs with your family members. | One time purchases can only be run on a single operating system. So, your purchased copy will only work on one PC or Mac. |
Features | |
Extra features will be made available with a sign into office apps. | Basic editing features can be made available on the tablet or phone. |
Online Storage | |
You will be able to securely store all your work to up to 1 TB of One drive cloud storage, for up to 5 users on Office 365 Home. | Online storage is not available. |
Technical Support | |
No extra cost for technical support throughout subscription. | Technical support is only available during the installation phase |
Image Courtesy:
1. “Microsoft Office 365 Logo” By Microsoft Sweden (CC BY 2.0) via Commons Wikimedia
2. “Microsoft Office 2016 Screenshots” By Microsoft Corporation – Screenshots, created and uploaded by Philip Terry Graham. via Commons Wikimedia