It used to be easy. You needed a copy of Office, so you went out and you bought
the latest version. Now there are two latest versions. There's Office 2019
which includes Word, Exce,l PowerPoint, Outlook; and there's Office 365 which
includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook... yeah.
Welcome back to the Pro Tech Show where we talk tech, tips, and advice for IT pros
and decision-makers. The name Office 365 itself can be ambiguous, so
just to be clear, I'm talking about the client applications. You know, Office 365
Home and Business or Office 365 ProPlus. Not the cloud services, so not Office 365
Business Essentials or E1, for example. On paper, Office 365 and Office
2019 both look very similar; and that's because they are. In fact, for most of you
the choice of which one to buy is probably going to come down to which
pricing model you prefer. That brings us to the first, and for most people the
most significant difference between the two. Office 2019 is a one-time purchase.
You buy it, you own it, and you can use it forever. Now, that doesn't mean you can
upgrade to the next version, of course. When Office 2022 or Office 2025 comes
out, if you want that you'll have to pay again. Assuming you don't have Software
Assurance. Office 365 on the other hand is more like a rental agreement. You pay a
monthly or yearly fee, and you're always licensed for the very latest version; but
if any point you stop paying then you lose access to the software. You can
think of it like Office 2019 is like buying a car outright, and Office 365 is
like leasing a very similar car.
The next significant difference is the updates. Office 365 is continually being
developed, and it receives new features as they're completed. Office 2019 on the
other hand had its feature set fixed when it was released. So it does what it
does, but you shouldn't expect to see any new features until Office 2022 comes
along. Office 365 is very much Microsoft's flagship version, and it's
always going to be more feature-rich than Office 2019. In fact by the time 2019
was available to buy, Office 365 already had extra features. Now they both
do get updates, but Office 2019's updates focus more on stability and security.
That being said; it's Microsoft Office. It's not like it's fundamentally changed
in some kind of meaningful way in a very long time. So don't expect Office
365's additional features to be earth-shattering. In fact if you put
Office 2013, 2016, 2019, and 365 in front of your average user, most of them
probably couldn't tell the difference. The new features in the Office 365
client applications are primarily going to be client-side integrations for new
features in the Office 365 cloud services. It's not going to be some kind
of reimagining of word processing. If you're the sort of early adopter that likes
to get access to those new cloud features as soon as you can, you're
probably going to prefer Office 365 as opposed to Office 2019. For most people
though, Office is Office. If you've used both, and find a particular Office 365
only feature to be useful, then why don't you drop a message in the YouTube
comments for other people watching the video. By the way, if you're interested in
this sort of content then don't forget to subscribe for future videos. Now back
into it. If you've seen my Exchange versus Office 365 video, you'll know that
pushing lots of feature updates can be something of a double-edged sword. If
you've not seen the video, I'll put a link at the end, but the short version is
that the more you change, the more you break. Pushing lots of updates has a
negative impact on reliability. Now, in this case the same principle does apply,
but fortunately it's a lot less extreme than with the cloud services. Microsoft
seem to take something of a Gung-ho approached to updates in their cloud
services. The attitude appears to be that if they break it, who cares? It's their
service. As soon as they figure out what update broke it, they can just roll it
back. That same approach doesn't really
translate to the Office 365 client apps. Yes, Microsoft can fix the code; but it's
installed on your computer. So they still have to get that fix out to you. and
that's a lot more difficult. Most likely because of this lack of control,
Microsoft are a lot more restrained with updates to the Office 365 client
applications. If you take Exchange Online for example, it gets a new build released
every single week. The Office 365 client applications on the other hand get at
most a feature update once a month. For most people it's once every six months. I
use both Office 2019 and Office 365 on a daily basis and on the whole
I'd say I've noticed slightly fewer problems with Office 2019, so maybe it's
a little bit more stable; but I could count those issues in one hand. I am nitpicking
here. On the whole I'd say Microsoft have done a good job striking a balance
between features and reliability for Office 365. Now that's not something I'd
feel comfortable saying about the cloud applications, but the client applications...
yeah, I think it's deserved.
So... which one should you buy? Well, there's no one-size-fits-all answer. Otherwise,
there'd just be one option. Let me help you with a few scenarios. As a general
rule, though; outside of a few specific circumstances, you can't go far wrong
with either. If you're looking at this for personal use rather than rolling it out
across a business, then it probably doesn't matter all too much. Just pick
whichever version has the least painful pricing option for you. Do you want to
pay everything upfront and own it forever? Office 2019. Do you prefer to pay
monthly, every single month, but always have access to latest version? Office 365. To
be honest, that same advice will apply to a lot of businesses, too.
If you use the Office 365 cloud services, then again either option is fine; but in
this case I'd recommend Office 365 over Office 2019.
There is a natural pairing there, and quite often you buy them together in the
same subscription anyway. If you've chosen the Office 365 cloud services
then you've already chosen the path of frequent updates, and you're okay with
the pros and cons that come along with that. In that case I suggest doubling
down on the updates. Use the Office 365 client, get access to new features more
quickly, and start taking advantage of them. If you're responsible for a heavily
controlled environment - the type that tends to move slowly and tests every
single change in minute detail; then Office 2019 that might be a better choice for
you. That way you get to fully test every single change before anyone gets it. Now
that's not to say you don't get the opportunity to test with Office 365.
There are different update channels so you can choose some people to get the
updates ahead of everyone else, but the updates are still coming whether you
want them to or not.
A scenario where you would probably have to choose Office 2019 over Office 365 is if
you didn't have access to the Internet. Now I'm sure that doesn't apply to most
of us; I mean you're watching this on YouTube, right? But there are going to be
niche cases, like maybe you work on a submarine. In this case 2019 is a better
choice. Office 365 is subscription-based, and because of that it needs to check in
every 30 days to make sure you've been paying your bills. If it doesn't find a
licence or it can't check online then it will deactivate itself. Office 2019 on
the other hand, is a more traditional one-time activation process. So if you're
in a position where you can't check online, that's going to be the better choice.
Other than that, assuming Internet connectivity isn't a problem and you're
not overly averse to updates coming down the pipe, pick based on price. Whether you
prefer features or reliability is a consideration, but there's not a huge
amount of difference either way. Overall, don't stress about it. They're
both solid products, so you probably can't go too far wrong. I've put a link
to the Exchange vs. Office 365 video over here, along with another video
you might find useful. Most of what I said about Exchange
applies to the Office 365 cloud services in general. I'll put a new video up in a
couple of weeks time, so don't forget to subscribe; and if you want to be notified,
use the bell icon. Thanks for watching, guys. See you next time!