(For more details, see “ What are the differences between Microsoft Office 2019 and Office 365?”) When you purchase a perpetual version of the suite - say, Office 2016 or Office 2019 - its applications will never get new features, whereas apps in an Office 365/Microsoft 365 subscription are continually updated with new features. Microsoft sells its Office suite of productivity apps under two models: Individuals and businesses can pay for the software license up front and own it forever (what the company calls the “perpetual” version of the suite), or they can purchase an Office 365 or Microsoft 365 subscription, which means they have access to the software for only as long as they keep paying the subscription fee. And for countless users, email means Microsoft Outlook.

The pundits would have you believe that email is being supplanted by texting, social media, chat apps like Slack, and direct communications software such as Skype and Google Hangouts Meet.Įmail is still big, the mainstay of workplace communications.