Can i download Microsoft Office for Free - Microsoft Community
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The primary reason that Microsoft sets its current price points on Office is to make money. They invest heavy resources into the development of Office software, and the company wants to turn a profit.
The price of Microsoft Office depends on many factors. There are different pricing tiers, marketed audiences, and purposes. That all goes without even mentioning that Office comes in larger and smaller packages, including or excluding particular software options depending on the pricing tier. For the most part, Microsoft encourages subscription-based pricing.
They have two common groups of subscriptions. One is aimed at home and family use; the other caters to business licensing. These higher tiers come with more software in the suite, more options with the software, more support, and other features. This is a one-user license that is not intended for business applications.
Each of these subscriptions is available at a monthly price, but the annual cost is elevated slightly if you choose a monthly subscription.
To be clear, Microsoft license agreements forbid the use of home and family software for business purposes. There is also a free online version. All of the free versions are watered down and offer fewer total features. Microsoft will frequently try to convince you to pay for upgrades, but it is never required at least at the time of this writing. All of this is to say that Office is not always expensive. It really depends on the circumstances. Especially for large businesses, it can be a source of frustration to keep up with the costs.
Why does Microsoft charge so much, especially when there are so many free alternatives? Some of it handles productivity, but other parts of the suite are geared towards networking, collaboration and professional presentations, among other things.
More to the point, Office has been the flagship for word processing and spreadsheets for decades. People recognize names like Word and Excel, and having proficiency with these particular programs can even improve your employability.
If they were to try to offer a free Office package beyond what is already available, the company would have to completely re-envision the entire business model. On top of that, in order to make things compatible with government forms or protocols, many businesses and individuals had to play ball and use Microsoft software. This is one of the reasons why Windows became the most popular operating system for personal computers, and it extends perfectly to the Office suite. For a long time, if you wanted others to be able to read or work with your documents, they had to be made with Office software.
For a while, virtually every school in the United States was using Microsoft software, especially Word, Excel, and Powerpoint. This exclusivity made Office so popular and standard that everyone felt compelled to follow along. Since people more or less had to use Office, Microsoft could get away with charging more for the software than competitors might.
These days, free alternatives have cut into the market share, but the Microsoft legacy lives on. It takes a long time for such a near-total monopoly to relinquish popularity to new options. Many individuals and businesses stick with Office because it is what they know.
In short, Microsoft charges as much as they do for Office solely because of its long-term popularity. When you watch free videos on YouTube or any other player, it is ultimately ad revenue that pays for the infrastructure. The same is true for some Microsoft Office competitors. For instance, Google reserves the right to sell user data.
That is ultimately how they pay for free G productivity software. Apple brings a different approach to the table. Their productivity software is only available on Apple hardware unless you violate the terms and conditions. If you absolutely have to use Office for any reason, you might be looking for potential discounts. Pricing has changed many times over the years, but there has always been at least some sort of discount available for individuals who can demonstrate that they are current students.
These days that is extended to teachers. At the time of this writing, Office is completely free for students and teachers. It might remain that way, but the level of discount available for student licenses has ebbed and flowed over the years.
There is no predicting if and when student pricing will change again. The easiest way to save money on Office is to avoid paying for it at all. There are plenty of free alternatives. For starters, you can stick with the free versions of Office. They are available online or through mobile app stores. If you want to get away from Microsoft software, you can look into other free options. Apple has free productivity software called iWork on all of its devices.
The Google Workspace is available as long as you have a Google account. Before you go this route, a disclaimer is necessary. There are legitimate third parties that sell real keys. Even with legitimate companies, there is a risk of a key failing to work, and your recourse in that situation may be limited. Companies that build computers or supply Mircosoft Office to employees might purchase access in bulk.
If they end up with extra keys, they often try to sell those keys to recover some of the investment. You might buy a key from such a company directly. There are businesses that specifically try to buy these leftover bulk keys and then resell them. Ultimately, these keys are sold cheaper than a purchase directly from Office, but the level of savings will vary.
The price of a laptop docking station will largely depend on the features available and its overall quality. Docking stations provide more support for the laptop than USB hubs, but they are more expensive to make. Learn all about why docking stations are so expensive here. Tech Guides Tech Education Programming. Keep reading! While these are the standard subscriptions, there are many other options available.
You also cannot access all Office software with these free versions. Still, for the low cost of a free Microsoft account, you can use the software. The next natural question is why? Mostly, Microsoft sets the prices because people keep buying the software.
But, there are some direct rationalizations for the current pricing scheme. So, Microsoft is charging to cover the expense that they put into developing the software. Microsoft long ago cornered the market on government software contracts. That made the software extremely popular in a large number of workplaces. This is compounded when you consider that government contracts can include schools.
A lot of free stuff on the internet is paid for by advertising. Apple covers the cost of giving away free software with its hardware pricing.
It always helps to find ways to save money. Alternatively, you can look for software to supplant Office. There are also scams. You are on your own to tell the difference. With the disclaimer out of the way, there are legal resellers who sell Office at a discount. Usually, this is a consequence of bulk ordering. Have you ever wondered about the price tags of docking stations? Still, docking stations can cost anywhere from tens to thousands of dollars.
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