Microsoft Office is the most used office suite, with over 850,000 companies in the USA using this Microsoft product and over 1 billion Microsoft accounts worldwide. The main reason for this is that the Office suite works with the most famous operating system worldwide, Windows, and most people are used to it since the first time sitting in front of a computer.  

Due to the heterogeneous public, Microsoft offers the same product with significant differences that fit diverse markets, budgets, and goals. The most recognizable are Microsoft Home, Business and Microsoft Office Professional. But Do you know the difference between Office Home and Business and Professional?

We’ll answer this question in the subsequent paragraphs, mentioning the general and specific aspects of both editions. Without further delay, let’s go to the point!

Office Home vs Business: Features Comparison

What Does Microsoft Office Offer?

Microsoft Office features many old and new features, some for personal use, others for commercial purposes. The latest versions of Office include all the following features:

• Word. The text processor by autonomy. It’s one of the most famous Office products, mainly used for writing and editing word documents.    
• Excel. Excel is the classic spreadsheet application of Microsoft for data analysis and management. This is also used for mathematical calculations, reporting, displaying visualizations, and maximum productivity.    
• PowerPoint. This is the Office application for presentations. 
• Outlook. This is the main application for emailing and calendaring. 
• Access. Microsoft Access is the main database management of Office. 
• Publisher. This software is designed to create several documents, such as flyers, newsletters, and others. 
• Skype. It is the best-known software for VoIP-based videotelephony, videoconferencing, and voice calls. 
• OneNote. This is a note-taking application. 

What Is a Version vs What Is an Edition

People often think of the same concept when they hear the terms “version” and “edition,” but these terms are not interchangeable. They think of a concept like the “Home version,” but this is wrong. 

When we talk about “the version of Office,” we mean the number of the product, for example, Office 2016. Every new version comes with the number of the year of release, the number in chronological order, or a special sign. 

To date, there have been a total of thirteen Microsoft Office versions in the market, starting with Office 3. x. The most current is the Office Suite 2021. We assume the next version will be Microsoft Office 2023 or 2024.

Besides, each version of each app is reviewed and tends to bring new functions. For instance, Microsoft Word 2019 brings a new focus mode to change background colors. Other versions include new templates, mainstream support, security features, etcetera.  

Regarding editions, this concept refers to various types of the same product. In the case of Microsoft Office, the edition is indicated with a word or phrase that refers to the objective public, for example, “Home and Student” or “Professional.”

Editions are named differently because they bring different programs and services. Of course, all editions come with the core apps, such as Word and Excel, but each edition adds applications since they’re thought for different purposes.  

Currently, there are four major Microsoft Office editions on the market. 

• Home & Student for PC/MAC: It includes core applications only. It also comes with OneNote, the note-taking app. This is one of these Microsoft licenses perfect for students, teachers, or creative writers.  
• Home & Business for PC/MAC: Includes core applications plus Outlook. This version assumes that email management is more indispensable for commercial use than OneNote expense notes. If you have a small company, this is your choice. 
• Professional: The main difference between this edition and the aforementioned is that the Professional edition includes Publisher and Access. The latter is a powerful database, which is great for customers needing a big database app containing hundreds or thousands of clients. Uses Windows Installer method for offline installation.
• Professional Plus: This edition is only available through volume licensing channels. It includes all the core applications plus Outlook, Publisher, Access, and Skype for Business. Uses the Click-to-Run method for online installation.

What Version and Edition Should I Get?

In terms of the latest updates, upgrades, and most advanced features, the best choice is the last version of the software: Microsoft Office 2021. 

Still, if you want to save money and acquire a very similar product, the 2019 version is a good alternative. It contains most of the features and is also available for Windows and Mac OS. Another alternative is getting the 2016 version. It may seem a bit old, but still, its applications integrate most of the advanced features of recent years in the software.

Currently, you can purchase Microsoft Office Home and Business 2021 from the official site of Microsoft at USD$249.99 (one-time purchase). In addition to all the basic features, this latest version offers you support for 60 days and access to Microsoft Teams. 

Regarding Edition, you can purchase Microsoft Office Professional 2021 from Microsoft Store at USD$439.99. 

Still, if you’re looking for a cheaper option, at RoyalCDKeys, you can buy Microsoft Office 2021 Home and Business Key Mac Retail Bind Global at €16,00. This is probably one of the best offers regarding this edition you can find online. Another alternative is to buy Microsoft Office 2019 Professional Plus Key Retail Global at €9,92.

You can also buy a subscription to Microsoft 365, which includes all the features previously mentioned, but you’ll have to pay monthly or yearly a specific amount depending on the benefits. To subscribe to this service, you need to create a Microsoft Account. 

What Is Microsoft Office Home and Business?

As its name suggests, this edition is thought for personal usage, i.e., people running their computers at home. Most of its features are for students and non-professional creators. Home versions include all the core applications that regular people use all the time, i.e., Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and OneNote. The business suite, however, also includes a full version of the calendar, contact manager, and time management.

But note that it lacks cloud services like Skype and OneDrive (however, you can get free basic versions of these programs).  

Microsoft has a strict policy regarding using Office applications, especially Home and Student editions. You agree to use this edition only on one computer when you acquire it. Still, you can install it on three computers, but these have to be located in a single household, which means in the same IP address.

The business version is a great midpoint between the Home and Student edition and the Professional edition. For this reason, if you’re a small business owner and want to improve contact management, you can install Office Home and Business and enjoy all the features that fit your business goals. The Home and Business use is also great for companies with a business email address and the convenience of performing in-home procedures. 

Home and Business is available for volume licensing, making it perfect for large businesses. 

Microsoft Office Home and Student and Microsoft Office Home and Business are available for you to use on your Mac computer. These Microsoft products contain the same features as the Windows versions.

What is Microsoft Office Professional?

As you can imagine, this Office package is designed for professional users. It includes all the basic applications plus extra business-based software. Besides, all these apps are tuned for professional goals. In short, this Office software edition is meant to offer the most tools to work with other organizations.

Regarding the policy, you can install all the software on your primary computer and mobile device. On the other hand, if you connect the licenses of multiple devices with a computer, all of the files will be available on all the devices. However, you would need to use OneDrive to save the files and gain this ability.    

Microsoft Office Professional works through different operating systems, such as Windows in different versions and Mac OS. 

Microsoft Office Home & Business and Pro Similarities

Below you’ll find the similarities between the basic three editions of the Microsoft Office suite, i.e., Home and Student, Home and Business, and Professional. 

• They are purchased on a per-device basis.
• They can be used just for a single user on a single PC or Mac.
• Security updates through the Microsoft Modern Lifecycle. 
• Users of Microsoft Office 2021, whatever your edition, can sign up for a OneDrive account for free with a 5GB storage capacity.
• Both editions are perpetual license products. When users buy any of these editions, they won’t get future updates, but they can use them to create Office files perpetually.
• Both have the basic features, i.e., Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Outlook.

Minimal System Requirements for Both Editions

PC: Microsoft account • Internet access • Windows 10/11 • 1.6 GHz, 2-core processor  • 4 GB, 2 GB (32bit) RAM • 4 GB available disk space • 1280× 768 screen resolution.

Mac: Microsoft account • Internet access • Intel processor • 4 GB RAM •  10 GB available disk space • Mac OS Extended or APFS • 1280 × 800 screen resolution.

What Does Microsoft Office Home and Business Add?

The main difference between the Home & Business edition and the Home & Student edition is that the first adds Outlook to the equation. In a few words, Home and Business brings all the Office apps plus Outlook service, which can offer a professional sight to your business's email. 

Outlook

Microsoft Outlook is a mail client (a software program installed on your PC) and calendar server through which you can receive and send emails to and from client computers and a portable device.  You can also use Outlook for managing contacts and several tasks. Home users tend to use Outlook as an email provider and email storage. If you have a small organization, this is a great tool to control business emailing and connecting with providers and clients.  

What Does Microsoft Office Professional Add?

This bundle includes all the aforementioned applications plus Access and Publisher. These are two major apps for empowering corporations and developing large businesses. 

Microsoft Access

Microsoft Access is a relational database management system. This combines the relational Access Database Engine with a graphical interface. Access is mainly used for developing application software. 

Access allows you to store your data in a relational database, and to create multiple tables, either linked or not, to form a relationship and preserve data integrity.

For example, if you work with a huge database and change data in one table, all the related records are automatically updated at a time. Thanks to this, you can manage a large amount of data and keep them fresh all the time. 

Publisher

Microsoft Publisher is very similar to Microsoft Word. It’s a desktop publishing application focusing on design and page layout rather than writing and proofreading. Thanks to Publisher, you can create several types of publications, such as newsletters, brochures, greeting cards, postcards, flyers, and Word-like documents.

BitLocker

This is an encryption feature that helps you to secure your data on both your hard and external drives. This function is strongly relevant for people who have sensitive data stored on their PC since they only can access the files with a password. However, you need a computer with a TPM chip. This chip encrypts data on hardware.

Remote Desktop

With Remote Desktop you can remotely connect to your computer from afar. Why is this useful? You can work from everywhere without the necessity of using a flash drive with your files. Thanks to this features, you have all the files you need while working at the office and working at home.

Update through the Cloud

Thanks to Windows Pro you can perform your updates via the cloud. This way, you can update multiple computers in one go from a central PC. This is perfect to save you time and resources. This is the main reason why many businesses choose Windows Pro instead of Windows Home & Business.

Assigned Access

The Assigned Access function only comes with the Pro edition. This function allows you to determine which app other users are allowed to use. That means you can determine how other users use your computer. In other words, via this interesting feature, you can control what others can do in your system.

Hyper-V

This is a native hypervisor that allows you to create virtual machines on 86x-64 systems running Windows. A server computer can be configured to create individual virtual machines on one or more desktops thanks to it. Hyper-V supports remote access via Remote Desktop, but the administration and configuration of the virtual machine are done in Microsoft Management Consoles or System Center Virtual Machine Manager. 

Differences Between Microsoft 2021 vs Microsoft 365

Microsoft 365, formerly known as Office 365, is the new subscription model for the Microsoft Office suite. This model comes with additional features, such as Outlook advanced security & protection, OneDrive advanced security and backup, and Microsoft Editor. It also contains OneDrive 1TB storage to back up files and photos. 

Microsoft works on Windows, Mac iOS, and Android, and provides ongoing technical support. In one sentence, Microsoft 365 is a Premium subscription that provides you access to most features on different levels. 

Microsoft 365 comes in several editions. The most basic is Microsoft 365 personal, which is for a primary PC. With this subscription, you can access features plus hundreds of templates and use them on up to 5 devices at the same time. 

There is also an option for several users called Microsoft 365 Family. This is an up to 6 users option, thus is the best choice for small organizations or familiar groups.

Microsoft 365 also features some business plans which provide different features, such as teamwork and communication, web and mobile versions, email and calendaring, file storage and sharing, support and deployment, advanced threat protection, and PC and mobile device management. 

Finally to say that Microsoft 365 is the most expensive of the bunch. Nonetheless, it’s also the most full-featured Office package you can find on the market. Microsoft 365 is an excellent choice for professionals who want to be updated all the time as well as for business owners, and other serious users.

Bottom Line

Microsoft Office boasts different versions and editions. Nowadays, the 2019 and 2021 versions are the most used and those that unfold the latest advanced features. 

Regarding editions, Home & Business is the favorite of small business owners. The Home and Student versions are still primarily used in homes and for personal use. On the other hand, the Professional edition is for organizations and professionals who need empowered interaction, communication, and collaboration with team members or external users.

All alternatives we have mentioned in this article are great for different purposes. If you need the Microsoft Suite for personal usage, then acquire a single license of the software, the Home edition. On the other hand, if you need the suite for an organization or professional goals, then the Professional edition is yours.

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