[NewsPoster]

A standalone version of Microsoft Office 2016 for Mac has been released, on the same day Microsoft launches Office 2016 for Windows. Already available to download for Mac users since July as part of Office 365 suite, today's release is the first time the most recent version of Office is being offered for purchase on Mac without requiring the subscription, with both Office Home & Student 2016 and Office Home & Business 2016 versions being offered.

Office Home & Student 2016 for Mac includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote as part of a single installation on one Mac system, as well as offline storage support and 15GB of OneDrive cloud storage. The more expensive Office Home & Business 2016 for Mac option is slightly more useful, adding Outlook to the package.

The latest edition of the suite is modeled on the iPad version of the software, introducing a ribbon interface and task panes to the desktop software, as well as a consistent interface across all platforms the suite is available on. Support for iCloud syncing, new document-sharing tools, a new Design tab for Word, and an improved Presenter View for PowerPoint are among the new features included in this edition.

While there is offline storage support and 15GB of OneDrive cloud storage as part of the suite, the package does lose out on some elements only available through the subscription version. Office 365 subscribers also have access to Outlook, Publisher, Access, tablet support, a 1TB OneDrive allocation, and 60 minutes of Skype calls to phones per month.

Microsoft is selling Office Home & Student 2016 for Mac for $150, while Office Home & Business 2016 for Mac costs $230. The Office 365 subscriptions may be seen as a better deal by some, with the Home version costing $100 per year or $10 per month, or the Personal edition priced at $70 per year or $7 per month. The Windows versions of the packages cost the same, but an extra Office Professional 2016 bundle adds Publisher and Access on top of the Home & Business bundle, and is priced at $400.

[Vulpine]

Strongly prefer the standalone over the '360' but think the Office Pro version should be available for Mac, too.

[Flying Meat]

Eh, years are only 10 months long now?

[Stuke]

$99 per year for Home (with Outlook) plus the 1TB for up to 5 users OneDrive storage versus $230 standalone version with (don't know what online access). So, that is 27 months for the online before reaching the same investment for standalone. Now, in today's world, if you don't already have an online/cloud storage options, the subscription might be worth it just for the added online stuff; however, at an innovation release rate of 2016 - 2011 = 5 years or 60 months, your better to get the standalone version.

This assumes you don't need 1TB per each of 5 users on 5 devices. I'm guessing, without reading the fine print (and DO READ THE FINE PRINT BEFORE CHOOSING EITHER) that the standalone would allow 2 installs (one desktop, one laptop).

Do your research and do the calculations to see how bad you need the next Word, Excel, and PowerPoint with Outlook (H&B package), plus now free Notes (assuming it has connectivity without, and a big if, Microsoft account creation).

Remember, iCloud is not pretty cheap (but not as cheap as Apple can afford it to be to attract diehards Apple fans like me!).

By the way, my Office for Mac 2011 works quite well today

[jpellino]

There's an hour of my life I won't get back. Crash, crash, crash. Back to 2011.

[DiabloConQueso]

The standalone, pay-only-one-time version of Office 2016 allows for installation on a single computer.

I've had no issues with Office 2016 on three Macs so far, and much prefer it over the 2011 version -- though, as we can tell from the comments here, YMMV.