Office 2021 vs. Office 2019: What Are the Differences?

Microsoft recently unveiled Office 2021. The new version of the popular office software replaces its predecessor, Office 2019, and promises a host of exciting new features. But what are the differences, and is it worth making the switch? In our blog post, we compare Office 2021 and Office 2019 and tell you all about the key new features!

Office 2021: Buy or Subscribe?

When comparing Office 2021 and Office 2019, it’s clear that Microsoft has taken the wishes of many users into account with Office 2021. The new version of the office software is available again this year as a one-time purchase or as part of a subscription to Microsoft 365. The only difference between the two models is that when purchasing Office 2021, users make a one-time payment but do not receive any further feature updates after installation. Microsoft 365 customers pay a subscription fee but receive regular updates and benefit from a cloud-based model.

In addition to the Home and Business and Home and Student editions for home users and small businesses, there are the Office LTSC on-premises editions for larger companies and government agencies.

The cost for a one-time purchase through the Microsoft CSP program is approximately €630 for Office 2021 Professional Plus LTSC and approximately €460 for Office 2021 Standard LTSC. Through the Microsoft 365 plans for businesses, the new Office version is available for €4.20 per month for the web versions in the “Microsoft 365 Business Basic” plan or for €10.50 per month in the “Microsoft 365 Business Standard” plan for the desktop versions (official Microsoft retail prices as of November 2021).

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Office 2021 vs. Office 2019: What’s New

Office 2021 promises several changes compared to its predecessor, Office 2019. Here are the most important new features at a glance:

New Design:

Rounded corners, a clean design, neutral colors, and a completely revamped home screen—with Office 2021, Microsoft has given its popular office software a clean and nostalgic look.

New Features

With Office 2021 and Office LTSC 2021, Microsoft has optimized its Office suite in many ways and, in particular by offering a one-time purchase option, has provided many users with a promising alternative to a paid subscription.

While Office 2021 is already available as a one-time purchase or subscription, it may still be a while before the long-awaited Windows 11 is available on all compatible devices.

Collaboration Mode. A welcome new feature is Collaboration Mode (or co-authoring), which is now also available in the purchased version of the new Office suite and enables collaborative editing of documents. To do this, you simply need to use OneDrive, the cloud storage service included in the package, to save the documents online and make them available to all team members.

Dark Mode. Another new feature in Office 2021 is Dark Mode, which allows you to use Office applications with a dark design. Previously, in Word, only the ribbon and toolbars could be colored to match the theme; now, the entire interface can be customized to match the selected Windows theme.

Greater accessibility. With the “Check for Accessibility” feature, which can be found in the bottom status bar in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, Microsoft aims to enable its users to make their documents more accessible in the future. This feature runs an accessibility check in the background, which continuously monitors the documents being created and provides suggestions for improvements.

You can find additional new features in the “Drawing” tab, support for the OpenDocument Format 1.3, and the ability to enter a hexadecimal color value in the Hex field.

What’s New in the Individual Office Applications

• In addition to the dark page layout, Word will also feature a line focus, which allows users to navigate through a document line by line.
• After a long wait, Excel is getting the VLOOKUP, dynamic array, VLOOKUP, and LET functions, along with a number of other new features.
• In Office 2021, PowerPoint can record slide presentations that include videos, handwritten notes, and laser pointers. You can also create direct links to individual slides and animate handwritten notes as desired.
• Outlook supports freehand drawings, translates emails into over 70 languages, and is getting a quick search feature to help users find messages more efficiently in the future.

You can find a detailed list of all the new features in Office 2021 here.

Office 2021: These programs are included

The new Office suite is available in two versions for Windows and macOS—Office 2021 Professional Plus LTSC and Office 2021 Standard LTSC. As before, both versions include the familiar Office applications—Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and others. Skype for Business has now been replaced by Microsoft Teams, which covers the essential functions of Skype and can be customized for individual users.

The following programs are included in Office 2021:

The current version of Office 2021 runs on Windows 11 but is also compatible with Windows 10. To be installed on Apple devices, Office 2021 requires at least macOS 10.15 Catalina.

Office 2021 vs. Office 2019: Is It Worth Upgrading?

In a direct comparison between Office 2021 and Office 2019, the new version does offer many exciting new features, but for most users, these are hardly noticeable at first glance. Unless you’re specifically looking for a particular feature—such as dark mode or certain new features in the individual applications—you’ll generally be just fine with Office 2019 or 2016. However, if you want to take advantage of all the new features and stay up to date with the latest technology, you should opt for Office 2021.

Buy Used Office Licenses at a Lower Price

When purchasing new business software, it’s also worth checking out the used software market. Older versions of the Office suite are often available there at significantly discounted prices and have proven themselves in real-world use. For example, Office 2019 Professional Plus is available at Software ReUse at a discount of up to 75%. Take advantage of this opportunity to save money—click here to see the offer!

If you’re planning to switch to Microsoft 365, you’re also welcome to sell us any licenses you no longer use.