Office 2021 reached end of support on October 13, 2026, a year after Office 2016 and 2019 lost theirs in October 2025. Past that date a version gets no more security fixes, so any copy still on your computers forces a choice between buying Office again and moving to a subscription. That is the practical side of Microsoft 365 vs Office 2024, and the names don’t make it easier: Office 365 was renamed Microsoft 365 years ago, and “Office” is still sold as a one-time purchase.
Microsoft 365 vs Office 2024 at a glance
| Microsoft 365 | Office 2024 | |
|---|---|---|
| How you pay | Subscription, per user | One-time purchase |
| Installs | Up to five PCs or Macs, five tablets and five phones per user | One PC or Mac |
| Email and cloud storage | Business email through Exchange, plus OneDrive and SharePoint | None |
| Teams | Included in most plans | None |
| Copilot | Business Standard and Business Premium with Copilot offered since July 2026 | Not available |
| New features | Apps update continuously | None after release; Microsoft calls it “locked in time” |
| Support | Current as long as you subscribe | Until October 2029 |
| Security and device management | Business Premium adds Intune, Entra ID P1, Defender for Office 365 Plan 1 and Defender for Business | None |
For almost every organization with more than one or two people, Microsoft 365 is the better fit. Business Premium is the plan we would point most regulated offices to, because its security features are ones you would otherwise buy separately. As a Microsoft CSP partner, we can license it and set it up for you.
What Office 2024 is
Office 2024 gets security fixes but no new features, and there is no upgrade path to the next version other than buying it again. It comes in three editions.
- Office Home 2024 (formerly Home & Student) includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote.
- Office Home & Business 2024 adds Outlook and is the version Microsoft markets to small businesses. It is licensed for one PC or Mac and includes no email service or cloud storage.
- Office LTSC 2024 is the volume-licensed version for organizations that need fixed, unchanging software, such as some regulated or lab environments.
The Microsoft 365 business plans
Microsoft’s small business plans cover organizations of up to 300 users:
- Business Basic: web and mobile versions of the apps (no desktop apps), business email, 1 TB of OneDrive storage per user and Teams.
- Business Standard: everything in Basic plus the full desktop apps.
- Business Premium: everything in Standard plus Microsoft Intune for device management, Microsoft Entra ID P1 for Conditional Access, Defender for Office 365 Plan 1 for email threats and Defender for Business for endpoint protection.
- Apps for business: desktop apps and OneDrive only, with no business email or Teams.
Our guide to what Microsoft 365 is goes through each plan in more detail. If you are weighing AI tools for your team, our guide to shadow AI covers how to approve them safely.
Why the choice matters for security
For an organization, the apps are the least important part of the decision. Where your email lives and who manages your devices matter more.
- Microsoft 365 business accounts can require multifactor authentication and passkeys, block sign-ins from risky locations and cut off a departed employee’s access to email and files in one step.
- With Business Premium, you can enforce encryption, push updates and wipe company data from a lost laptop or phone.
- Defender for Office 365 checks links and attachments for phishing and malware before staff click.
- After October 2029, Office 2024 becomes another unsupported program on your network, the way Office 2016 and 2019 are today.
None of that comes with a one-time Office purchase. Office 2024 paired with a free personal email account, or an old hosted mailbox, leaves you managing security piece by piece. We saw the same pattern with Windows 10: when its support ended, we moved most of our clients to Windows 11 and replaced the machines that couldn’t run it. Our post on life after Windows 10 covers that side.
HIPAA and other compliance rules
If you handle patient information, HHS expects a business associate agreement with any cloud provider that stores it. Microsoft makes its HIPAA business associate agreement available by default to covered entities and business associates through its Online Services Data Protection Addendum, covering services like Exchange Online, SharePoint, OneDrive for Business and Teams.
That agreement applies to Microsoft’s business cloud services. Consumer subscriptions like Microsoft 365 Personal or Family, and free Outlook.com mailboxes, are outside it. The agreement also doesn’t make you compliant on its own: you still configure access controls, audit logging, encryption and retention. Accounting firms under the FTC Safeguards Rule and law firms with confidentiality duties face similar expectations. Our healthcare IT services cover how we set this up for medical practices.
When Office 2024 still makes sense
- A standalone computer, such as a shop-floor or front-desk PC, that only needs Word or Excel and never handles company email or shared files.
- A home user who wants to pay once and doesn’t need cloud storage.
- Specialized equipment that requires a fixed software version, where Office LTSC 2024 is the usual choice.
If you are still running Office 2021 or older, plan the move now. Our post on what to expect in a Microsoft 365 migration walks through the process, and our lifecycle management service tracks support dates so nothing quietly falls out of support.
A mix of Office versions across a dozen desks is common, and sorting out which to replace first doesn’t take long. Book a 20-minute call and bring your list, or see our Microsoft 365 page.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Can I use Office Home & Business 2024 for my business?
Yes. Microsoft markets it to families and small businesses, and it includes Outlook. It is licensed for one PC or Mac and includes no email service or cloud storage.
What happens to Office 2021 after support ends?
It keeps working, but Microsoft releases no more security fixes for it. Unpatched Office apps are a common target for malicious documents, so plan to replace it.
Sources: Microsoft Support: Office 2024 and Office LTSC 2024 FAQ; Microsoft Learn: Office 2024 lifecycle; Microsoft Support: End of support for Office 2021; Microsoft Learn: Office LTSC 2021 reaching end of support on October 13, 2026; Microsoft Support: End of support for Office 2016 and Office 2019; Microsoft: Office Home & Business 2024 product page; Microsoft: Compare all Microsoft 365 business plans; Microsoft: Introducing Microsoft 365 Business with Copilot, May 2026; Microsoft Learn: HIPAA and HITECH Act offering; Microsoft 365 Blog: New Microsoft 365 offerings for small and medium-sized businesses (rename effective April 21, 2020).
