Buying MS Office outright

[Simon_GH]

I’ve just taken PH laptop advice and bought a second hand X1 Carbon. I’m really pleased so far. It’s either unused surplus stock or been re-shelled. Either way it’s mint.

I now need MS Word, Excel and PowerPoint,

I’ve seen on eBay that you can buy retail boxes of Office 2021pro for around £55 which seems a bargain.

Is this the best way to obtain Office for a basic user? Laptop is running Windows 11 if that’s relevant.

Many thanks

[bigpriest]

Depends if you want to make a one-off payment and have to keep the same version (no updates). An MS subscription is an annual fee but gives you continually updated versions of the software plus you have the web versions and around 1TB cloud storage if that's a consideration.

[Ham_and_Jam]

I have the X1 Carbon, great laptop.

After advice from here on PH, I went with EcoKeys. Perfect and no issues in nearly 3 years.

Currently £24.99

https://ecokeys.co.uk/office-2021-professional-plu...

[Am2050]

I was recently given a used laptop that was only a year old and bought MS Office 21 Pro for it from Gamers Online. Think it’s a US site and came up when I searched on Google for Office 21.
It was £11 for the CD Key which was emailed with the receipt. Went onto the MS site and downloaded the full suite after entering the key. All good… to this point.
When you use the programmes it asks you to register them but then brings up a message that the key has been used too many times. The software does work fine but keeps asking to be registered each time which I now just click cancel.
I didn’t realise, though should’ve known from the price, that knock off software was still a thing. Guess the point of my reply is to make sure it’s a bona fide copy you’re buying if that’s something that is important to you.
My concern is whether I’m compromised on the full functionality and also any security issues.

[Ham_and_Jam]

Am2050 said:

I was recently given a used laptop that was only a year old and bought MS Office 21 Pro for it from Gamers Online. Think it’s a US site and came up when I searched on Google for Office 21.
It was £11 for the CD Key which was emailed with the receipt. Went onto the MS site and downloaded the full suite after entering the key. All good… to this point.
When you use the programmes it asks you to register them but then brings up a message that the key has been used too many times. The software does work fine but keeps asking to be registered each time which I now just click cancel.
I didn’t realise, though should’ve known from the price, that knock off software was still a thing. Guess the point of my reply is to make sure it’s a bona fide copy you’re buying if that’s something that is important to you.
My concern is whether I’m compromised on the full functionality and also any security issues.

Sounds a dodgy key. Sites like Ecokeys sell keys that actually work properly in the UK.

[wyson]

Office 365 is actually not expensive if you use Onedrive as a backup solution across multiple machines (PCs, phones, tablets) and users.
A corporate 'home use' discount knocks the 'Family' subscription back to £55 a year too.

[camel_landy]

I gave up with Microsoft and their continued push to get everyone onto subscriptions, cloud, yada, yada...

Instead I now use LibreOffice and Thunderbird for email.

They're not identical but good enough and the file formats are compatible. They both have the same basic functionality but some of the options are in different locations (changing portrait to landscape catches me out every time). They're the same but different.

M

[Arlen]

You can still buy the proper install non subscription Office 2024 home edition version from MS for £120.

Also on CJS CD keys is the previous version but Professional Plus which includes Outlook etc. (2021) for £20.

Never used the site but gets decent reviews etc. They must be using volume license keys or something.

[Derek Smith]

camel_landy said:

I gave up with Microsoft and their continued push to get everyone onto subscriptions, cloud, yada, yada...

Instead I now use LibreOffice and Thunderbird for email.

They're not identical but good enough and the file formats are compatible. They both have the same basic functionality but some of the options are in different locations (changing portrait to landscape catches me out every time). They're the same but different.

M

I have an older version of MS Office but use Libre as well as Google Docs as well. Google is great for sharing. Some companies prefer it. I have set up Libre just as I like it - a bit old-style - and prefer it in some ways to MS. When MS Office becomes a bit old, I'll transfer to Libre and Google entirely. I know someone who runs a company for content management and SEO copy. She has around 20 'casual' staff, and they use Google Docs. She has contracts with international companies. It works for her.

[x5tuu]

Ham_and_Jam said:

Am2050 said:

I was recently given a used laptop that was only a year old and bought MS Office 21 Pro for it from Gamers Online. Think it’s a US site and came up when I searched on Google for Office 21.
It was £11 for the CD Key which was emailed with the receipt. Went onto the MS site and downloaded the full suite after entering the key. All good… to this point.
When you use the programmes it asks you to register them but then brings up a message that the key has been used too many times. The software does work fine but keeps asking to be registered each time which I now just click cancel.
I didn’t realise, though should’ve known from the price, that knock off software was still a thing. Guess the point of my reply is to make sure it’s a bona fide copy you’re buying if that’s something that is important to you.
My concern is whether I’m compromised on the full functionality and also any security issues.

Sounds a dodgy key. Sites like Ecokeys sell keys that actually work properly in the UK.

I have used GamersOnline many times for numerous keys and never had any issues at all - certainly nothing like the above - I would be raising that with them as a query tbh.

[MustangGT]

Some of the online key sellers are somewhat less than 'honest'. Some sell used keys as new, totally impossible to activate the software. This was for older versions of MS Office but is the same principle.

[Simon_GH]

Thank you all. I’m a low-volume low£skill user so the one-off payment options are more appealing. I’ll look into 2024, if not 2021 should do for now. I’m a bit wary of the key-only options but pleased it works for some,

[Ham_and_Jam]

Simon_GH said:

Thank you all. I’m a low-volume low£skill user so the one-off payment options are more appealing. I’ll look into 2024, if not 2021 should do for now. I’m a bit wary of the key-only options but pleased it works for some,

Whilst I can’t give any guarantees, as I said earlier Ecokeys were highly recommended on here by lots of happy PH customers.

I used the key only as approach with them and it has been faultless over the last couple of years.

[Simon_GH]

Ham_and_Jam said:

Whilst I can’t give any guarantees, as I said earlier Ecokeys were highly recommended on here by lots of happy PH customers.

I used the key only as approach with them and it has been faultless over the last couple of years.

Worth a reconsider then - thank you

[Simon_GH]

£39 for Office 2024 lifetime sounds pretty good

[mph999]

Ecokeys are safe - they resell license keys that are unused - eg a company may buy 500 laptop that come with an office license, but these are not required as they have an enterprise license arrangement in place.

[Aletank]

Office 2019 for £2.87, GF installed last night on a new refurb laptop, all good
https://www.gamers-outlet.net/en/microsoft-office-...

[Griffith4ever]

Aletank said:

Office 2019 for £2.87, GF installed last night on a new refurb laptop, all good
https://www.gamers-outlet.net/en/microsoft-office-...

I have various versions like this on 4 machines. All good for years and tbh the version differences make zero odds for a "regular" user.

Sod paying a subscription. Or £120

[vikingaero]

I've bought Office keys from various vendors - probably from the less scrupulous years ago, to the slightly more scrupulous now.

Microsoft used to offer the Home User Programme where you could get a copy for c.£12 and I rinsed that. One or two of the keys required telephone activation but were fine. I can't see the point in paying a 365 subscription. My current £12 HUP key has been on my desktop since 2013.

[CorradoTDI]

Worth checking with who you work for too as you may be eligible for a free license or to buy at a reduced rate from MS