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Microsoft increases Office 365 and Microsoft 365 license prices

office365itpros.com

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Re: Microsoft increases Office 365 and Microsoft 365 license prices

#91

Post by lewisjoe »

At this point Microsoft office suite is practically a monopoly. Governments around the world rely on it. Every big enterprise and every business needs it.

The spec for office documents was authored by Microsoft( and approved by Microsoft!). The spec is basically the docx datastructure published publicly as a standard - which makes building competing office suites even harder.

Given the situation there isn't much customers can do if Microsoft decides to hike the prices anyhow they like.

Note: Indian Government recently adopted Zoho office suite to insulate themselves from Microsoft.

But I don't think many other governments or businesses have the guts to make such move.

Re: Microsoft increases Office 365 and Microsoft 365 license prices

#92

Post by gruez »

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%?

>So a 16% hike when current US inflation is 3-4%?

When was the last price hike? Looking at historical inflation and working backwards, you only need to start at around late 2021 to get 16% cumulative inflation. In other words if they didn't raise their prices for 4 years, they'd be at par with inflation.

edit: another commenter mentioned the last price hike was around 4 years ago, so it's indeed in line with inflation: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46192356

Re: Microsoft increases Office 365 and Microsoft 365 license prices

#94

Post by embedding-shape »

boh wrote: post #54
embedding-shape wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want to love these, mostly because they're FOSS and Office/Google Spreadsheets seems to get more and more bloated, and subsequently slower. But the UX is just a lot worse, and it isn't easy to go from one application to another because they're slightly different enough that your productivity takes a hit from all the small papercuts. I'm waiting for some FOSS spreadsheet solution that doesn't just try to copy Office…

Check out Only Office. It's an almost total copy of the 365 aesthetic.

Yeah, that's the opposite of what I want, then I'll just continue using Excel... What I want is for someone to figure out a better UI and better UX, not just copy what's out there.

Re: Microsoft increases Office 365 and Microsoft 365 license prices

#95

Post by jjgreen »

Aurornis wrote: post #89
jjgreen wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

If they charged by the day then (rounding up for your convenience) gets $31/mo, you're missing a trick Redmond ...

Re: Microsoft increases Office 365 and Microsoft 365 license prices

#96

Post by embedding-shape »

hoistbypetard wrote: post #62
embedding-shape wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want to love these, mostly because they're FOSS and Office/Google Spreadsheets seems to get more and more bloated, and subsequently slower. But the UX is just a lot worse, and it isn't easy to go from one application to another because they're slightly different enough that your productivity takes a hit from all the small papercuts. I'm waiting for some FOSS spreadsheet solution that doesn't just try to copy Office…

Have you tried grist[0]? It's self-hostable (and the community version is FOSS I think), and really useful in a way I find better than just a spreadsheet. It's no good for importing complex excel things, but I've found it very useful for new work. [0]( https://www.getgrist.com )

That actually looks kind of neat, similar to Airbase unless I'm mistaken. Thanks for the recommendation, I'll definitely check it out.

Re: Microsoft increases Office 365 and Microsoft 365 license prices

#97

Post by tallanvor »

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%?

How much inflation has there been since the last price increase? From 2022 to 2025 it look likes like about 11%, so not all that different if you're trying to keep a round number.

Re: Microsoft increases Office 365 and Microsoft 365 license prices

#99

Post by croes »

emadb wrote: post #15
_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

Other than Google, what are other competitors that worth evaluating?

For which feature?

How people in companies really need the features of Word, Excel and PowerPoint?

I often see people using space to right align a date, the pros use tabs.

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