Office 365

Office 365

The Microsoft Office suite via annual subscription. Introduced in 2011, the applications are installed locally on the users' machines. Office 365 is sometimes confused with Office Online, the latter being a fully online version. Office 365 apps are downloaded from the Web and installed locally. Although subscriptions are verified online, the applications are not run in a Web browser.

Office 365 replaced Microsoft's Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS), Office Live Small Business and Live@edu. Following are the top offerings in the business and home categories. See Microsoft Office and Office Online.

Office 365 Midsize Business
For up to 300 users, it includes the entire Office suite and hosted email, hosted website, Web conferencing and Office Online.

Office 365 Home and Personal
Office 365 Home supports six users on PCs or Macs, while the Personal version is for one user. For Windows PCs, Access and Publisher are included. Tablet and smartphone use are also provided.