Microsoft 365 Review: The Industry-Standard Office

Chances are that you already use and appreciate the power of Microsoft 365. The behemoth of personal office suites expertly facilitates collaborative work, packs tons of class-leading features, and benefits from regular (and substantial) updates. We especially appreciate the flexibility to work across desktop, mobile, and web versions of its apps. The complexity of the suite’s feature set can be overwhelming, and some Copilot AI features are more annoying than useful, but Microsoft 365 still easily earns our Editors’ Choice award because of its reliable performance and unbeatable functionality across apps. If you prefer not to pay for continuous updates, however, you should check out the standalone version of the suite, Office 2024, another Editors’ Choice winner.

What Is Microsoft 365?
Microsoft 365 is the latest name for the suite of apps that includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and more. Microsoft formerly called it Microsoft Office and then Office 365. The company also now maintains an app for desktop, mobile, and web platforms called Microsoft 365 Copilot (formerly Microsoft 365). On all platforms, it provides links to the appropriate versions of the suite apps and lets you ask the Copilot AI assistant questions.
Microsoft 365 maintains native apps for every major platform except Linux. Subscription-locked desktop apps are available for macOS and Windows, and you can download free mobile apps for Android, iOS, and iPadOS. You can use the free web-based versions of the apps almost anywhere, even on Linux. Pricing: A Superb Value
Simply signing up for a Microsoft account gets you 5GB of free storage and access to web and mobile versions of Excel, PowerPoint, and Word. A Microsoft 365 Basic subscription ($19.99 per year) gets you 100GB of OneDrive storage and an ad-free version of Outlook on the web. However, to unlock Microsoft 365’s best capabilities, you need to pay more.
One person can use desktop versions of Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Word, Outlook (you get an email address as part of the subscription), and PowerPoint on up to five supported devices with the Microsoft 365 Personal tier ($99.99 per year). This plan also includes 1TB of OneDrive storage, Copilot AI features across the apps, the Microsoft Defender antivirus app, more AI credits for the AI-based Designer app, and premium Clipchamp and Teams features.