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Microsoft increases Office 365 and Microsoft 365 license prices

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Re: Microsoft increases Office 365 and Microsoft 365 license prices

#81

Post by mosura »

TheJoeMan wrote: post #64

They also are actively decreasing the value by sunsetting Publisher in October 2026 [0]. Hilariously, the suggested replacement is PowerPoint, despite it being unable to natively open .pub files. The solution for that? Run a powershell script to convert all your publisher files to (uneditable) PDF. There are many memes about inserting photos into Word, and the content flying around and breaking. My pet theory is that…

The reality is DTP outside of pro sectors (i.e. these days InDesign) was rendered worthless by how ubiquitous the tooling was.

In any sector where the barriers to entry are destroyed you either have to go really big or go home.

Re: Microsoft increases Office 365 and Microsoft 365 license prices

#82

Post by commandlinefan »

I bought Microsoft Word, years ago, before it was "licensed". However, it auto-updated itself with my permission from time to time. A few weeks ago, I went to edit a document and was presented with a pop-up that said I needed to update my license fee in order to be allowed to make modifications to it.

This is doubly frustrating when Word is the standard for resumes.

Re: Microsoft increases Office 365 and Microsoft 365 license prices

#83

Post by sylens »

The height of me using Microsoft Office in a personal capacity was when I was in school and university. I've been fine living out of Google Docs since then. At work, my company is a Google Workspace customer and I have to say I've come to enjoy the comment/live editing functionality of Google Docs more than Word.

Re: Microsoft increases Office 365 and Microsoft 365 license prices

#84

Post by rawbot »

Aurornis wrote: post #59
puttycat wrote: post #6

Is there any reason to use Office nowadays except for being able to open documents sent by institutions where secretaries still use Word/Excel/PPT? (universities, etc.)

Excel is the best spreadsheet software in my experience when you have to move beyond the basics. I’ve even tried hard to use the open/Libre alternatives. Hacker News is a different world than the target customer base for these products. If your use case for spreadsheet software is putting things into tables with some formatting and some light formulas then all of the products will do the same job. For professionals w…

> Excel is the best spreadsheet software in my experience when you have to move beyond the basics. I’ve even tried hard to use the open/Libre alternatives.

I agree 100% with this, since I've been trying the same. Although I do think some power-users take it way too far and should be using more robust data analysis tools (Python, DBs) instead of having these monstrous Excel spreadsheets with millions of rows and columns.

Re: Microsoft increases Office 365 and Microsoft 365 license prices

#85

Post by breckognize »

sneak wrote: post #22
Bombthecat wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Open source... But yeah.. ms won this game

There is no foss competitor to Excel.

Shameless plug: Row Zero has real enterprise traction. AWS uses us.

2B row limit, connected, eliminates the Excel security risk because it's hosted.

Re: Microsoft increases Office 365 and Microsoft 365 license prices

#86

Post by notepad0x90 »

_lvbh wrote: post #7

This feels like a dangerous game they're playing. Yes, there is some lock in, but competitors exist and are better than ever. The new "features" they're justifying this with (Copilot) isn't even something that most people want

I wish I could agree with this, but the ecosystem lock-in is too great. They might lose business for sure but it may not put a dent in their revenue at all.

If you replace office, you'll have to replace sharepoint, onedrive, etc.. and it isn't just the tools but the policies and critical features that go along with those. For most orgs, this is literally their lifeblood, not just some tool they can yank out. For smaller orgs it might be easier, but those don't pay Microsoft as much anyways.

From a user point of view, there are tools that have similar features, some even better features. G-suite is the only platform i know of that unifies all the office productivity products like 365 does. But neither G-suite nor any other platform can be managed/policed as well as 365. At the end of the day, will Google behave any better than Microsoft anyways (cost or otherwise)? And it isn't just policing and management but securing all that precious data in there, Microsoft might not be great but lots of tech-debt has gone into securing it within that platform. A migration would be costly, justifying it with cost savings alone might be difficult.

Re: Microsoft increases Office 365 and Microsoft 365 license prices

#87

Post by jfindper »

jjgreen wrote: post #67
Aurornis wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Business basic goes from $6 to $7. Business premium is unchanged from $22 to $22. Price increases are normal. (I’ve been on HN long enough to remember when “raise your prices” was treated as the best startup advice around in HN comments) These price increases aren’t excessive relative to inflation for other services in a business context. I don’t see this as a dangerous game. > The new "features" they're justifying t…

Business basic goes from $6 to $7 So a 16% hike when current US inflation is 3-4%?

Percentages are fun because they can make something with a small absolute change look like a giant change.

No business is really going to care about $1.00/user, especially when it costs hundreds of dollars per user (or thousands) to migrate entirely away from the Microsoft ecosystem.

Re: Microsoft increases Office 365 and Microsoft 365 license prices

#88

Post by ok123456 »

throw03172019 wrote: post #11
puttycat wrote: post #6

Is there any reason to use Office nowadays except for being able to open documents sent by institutions where secretaries still use Word/Excel/PPT? (universities, etc.)

I just open them in Google Docs/Slides and then export later to the original format after edits. I’m sure it’s not feature complete but it’s good enough!

This will ruin the formatting randomly. I would not do this if you're working on a deadline.

Re: Microsoft increases Office 365 and Microsoft 365 license prices

#89

Post by Aurornis »

jjgreen wrote: post #67
Aurornis wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Business basic goes from $6 to $7. Business premium is unchanged from $22 to $22. Price increases are normal. (I’ve been on HN long enough to remember when “raise your prices” was treated as the best startup advice around in HN comments) These price increases aren’t excessive relative to inflation for other services in a business context. I don’t see this as a dangerous game. > The new "features" they're justifying t…

Business basic goes from $6 to $7 So a 16% hike when current US inflation is 3-4%?

Did you notice every price was a whole number?

Or that this was for business accounts that were already cheap? $1/seat isn’t going to cause a mass migration off the platform.

Or that some of the price hikes were 0%?

Fixating on this lowest price increase is deliberately misleading.

You would also have to go back and calculate price increases over time to compare against inflation over time?

Re: Microsoft increases Office 365 and Microsoft 365 license prices

#90

Post by hypeatei »

gary_0 wrote: post #78
hypeatei wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They can set whatever price they want Then why don't they? I think it's precisely because they don't want anyone "investing significant resources into competing products" There's a line for everyone and current prices obviously aren't too much for a majority of people, including me. I just don't stay subscribed when I'm not using it.

I mean, they kind of are? Obviously they can't set it to a million dollars a month, but where's the ceiling? Five hundred? A thousand? Who knows? And maybe they make it play a 30 second video ad once a day? They keep getting away with it, and nobody has any idea when the buck will finally stop.

Yes, that's how markets work. It seems like Microsoft understands it well or we'd be seeing mass exodus from Office products. No price increases for three years doesn't seem too bad, IMO.

> And maybe they make it play a 30 second video ad once a day?

Maybe. While we're at it, I'll also add a hypothetical: what if it encrypted all my files and made me pay a ransom?

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