Mac Studio
Macs do not come with Microsoft Office applications installed however they can run all your favourite Microsoft Office apps; Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Outlook. You can download and install Microsoft 365 or the individual apps from the App Store or direct from Microsoft's website.
Microsoft offers three versions of Office for home; two subscription versions and a one-off purchase.
Microsoft 365 subscriptions offer more functionality and features than the one-off purchase of Office Home & Student. In addition to Word, Excel and PowerPoint you also get OneNote, Outlook, cloud storage and 60 monthly minutes on Skype. You can also use Office on five additional devices including Windows, iOS and Android.
We've shortlisted the three different options below for you.
Office Home & Student 2019
One-Off Purchase
£119.99
- Includes Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
- For 1 Mac.
Microsoft 365 Personal
Subscription
£59.99 per year or £5.99 per month
- Includes Word, Excel and PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook and cloud storage.
- Use on up to five devices including Windows, iOS and Android.
- For 1 person, 1TB storage
- 60 monthly Skype minutes
Microsoft 365 Family
Subscription
£79.99 per year or £7.99 per month
- Includes Word, Excel and PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook and cloud storage.
- Use on up to five devices including Windows, iOS and Android.
- For 6 people, 6TB storage
- 60 monthly Skype minutes
Microsoft are also currently offering 1 months free trial for this package.
Microsoft Office 2019 is available for businesses that would prefer a one-off purchase rather than a subscription. Microsoft package their full suite of features into their Microsoft 365 subscriptions which includes all of their standard apps, available cross platform, on desktop or web across on multiple devices. These also include online file storage, and a number of productivity features. You can see all of Microsoft's plans here, we've summarised the main ones below for you.
One-Off Purchase
£249.99
- Includes Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
- Licensed for commercial use.
Microsoft 365 Apps for business
Subscription
£7.90 per user/month
- Annual commitment
- Desktop versions of Office applications for 5 PCs or Macs, 5 tablets and 5 mobile devices.
- Automatic new feature updates
- Web and mobile apps,
- 1TB file storage and sharing features
Microsoft 365 Business Standard
Subscription
£9.40 per user/month
- Annual commitment
- Desktop versions of Office applications for 5 PCs or Macs, 5 tablets and 5 mobile devices.
- Automatic new feature updates
- Web and mobile apps,
- 1TB file storage and sharing features
- Email and calendering
- Teamwork and communication features
If your school or university is enrolled with Microsoft’s Office 365 Education program you may be eligible to use Office free of charge, you can check here.
There are a number of great and free alternatives to Microsoft Office 365 that are worth considering. Apple's iWork applications for example are available as a free download from the App store on any Mac.
iWork (free)
Pages, Numbers and Keynote are Apple’s equivalent of Word, Excel and Powerpoint respectively.
These are each available as a free download from the App Store. Intuitive and easy to make great looking documents, also has great integration with iOS but lacks in the professional features of Microsoft Office such as pivot tables. There can also be cross compatibility issues with opening Office documents.
LibreOffice (free)
Writer, Calc and Impress are LibreOffice’s equivalent of Word, Excel and Powerpoint respectively.
Free download. Cross compatibility with files produced in Microsoft Office and has a comprehensive set of features comparable to Microsoft Office. The user interface isn’t quite as pretty as iWork or Office and can struggle with stability when working with larger files.
Docs, Sheets and Slides are Google’s equivalent of Word, Excel and Powerpoint respectively.
Starts at £4.14 per month for the entry level subscription. Operates from within a browser window and requires an internet connection. Excellent collaboration features but lacks in some spreadsheet features such as highly customisable charts when compared to Microsoft Office.
