If you’re already using Office apps through a Microsoft 365 subscription, you won’t find any surprises in Office 2021. Here we cover Office Professional 2021 for Windows, but much of it applies equally to Office for Mac, which also now comes in a perpetual license version. If you’re a corporate IT manager or just don’t like subscriptions, you’ll prefer the perpetual-license version. You also miss out on generous OneDrive online storage and other extras.

When you buy the perpetual license version, you get security updates every few months, but you don’t get the monthly jolt of new features that Microsoft provides to subscribers. Microsoft also offers Office as a subscription called Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365), which requires you to pay for it by the month or year. Read our editorial mission (Opens in a new window) & see how we test (Opens in a new window). Since 1982, PCMag has tested and rated thousands of products to help you make better buying decisions.

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