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One-Time Purchase of Office 2021 Coming

February 22, 2021

According to a BGR post, Microsoft will release a non-subscription version of Office 2021 for Windows and Mac users later this year. The version is called Office LTSC (Long Term Servicing Channel) and will come in 32 and 64-bit versions. Support will be limited to only five years. It will be limited in features and cost 10% more than before. Microsoft stated in a blog post.

“Without access to the cloud, Office LTSC will include only a subset of the value found in Microsoft 365 Apps, building on the features included in past releases. New Office LTSC features will include accessibility improvements, capabilities like Dynamic Arrays and XLOOKUP in Excel, dark mode support across multiple apps, and performance improvements across Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint. The next version of Office will not ship with the Skype for Business client app, which will be available as a download in the Microsoft Download Center. It will ship with the Microsoft Teams app, allowing customers to enable and trial this experience if they so choose.”

Office LTSC is a device specific perpetual license, which means you can’t move it around to different machines. With Microsoft 365 you get constantly enhanced features and the ability to install on multiple devices. I’m guessing that the better decision is to stick with a subscription to Microsoft 365 instead of purchasing Office 2021.

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