Microsoft sells two one-time-purchase versions of Office 2024 for a single computer, and the names do a poor job of explaining the difference. Office 2024 Home and Office 2024 Home & Business contain the same Word, Excel and PowerPoint. The gap between them is narrower than the price suggests, and for most buyers it comes down to a single question.
That question is whether you need Outlook. This guide answers it properly, sets out what each edition is licensed for, gives the current prices, and covers what to do right now while Home & Business is out of stock. Prices were checked against our live catalog on 23 September 2026.
The Short Answer
Choose Office 2024 Home if you write documents, build spreadsheets and make presentations, and you already handle email through a browser, the built-in Windows Mail app, Apple Mail, or Gmail. You get Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote for one PC or one Mac.
Choose Office 2024 Home & Business if you want the full desktop Outlook client for email, calendar and contacts, or if you are buying the license for work rather than personal use. It is the same four apps plus Outlook, with commercial use rights.
Neither includes Copilot, Microsoft Teams, Access or Publisher. Both are one-time purchases with no subscription and no renewal date. Both install on exactly one device.
Office 2024 Home vs Home & Business: Side by Side
| Feature | Office 2024 Home | Office 2024 Home & Business |
|---|---|---|
| Word | Yes | Yes |
| Excel | Yes | Yes |
| PowerPoint | Yes | Yes |
| OneNote | Yes | Yes |
| Outlook | No | Yes |
| Commercial use rights | No, licensed for home use | Yes |
| Devices covered | 1 PC or 1 Mac | 1 PC or 1 Mac |
| License type | Perpetual, one-time purchase | Perpetual, one-time purchase |
| Cloud storage included | None | None |
| Copilot AI | No | No |
| Microsoft Teams | No | No |
| Access or Publisher | No | No |
| Feature updates | Security updates only, features locked at release | Security updates only, features locked at release |
| Our price | $178.99 | $239.99 |
So the practical difference is $61 for Outlook and the commercial use rights. Whether that is worth paying turns entirely on how you handle email, which is what the next two sections are about.
Do You Actually Need Outlook?
Outlook is the deciding factor, so it is worth being honest about what it gives you that free alternatives do not.
You probably need Outlook if
- You run a business email account and want mail, calendar, contacts and tasks in one desktop application rather than a browser tab.
- You work offline regularly, on a plane or a site with poor connectivity, and need a full local copy of your mailbox.
- You manage several mailboxes at once, for example a personal address and a shared info@ address.
- Your organization runs Exchange Server and expects the desktop client for calendar sharing and delegate access.
- You rely on rules, categories, quick steps or mail merge from Word into Outlook.
You can skip Outlook if
- Gmail, Outlook.com or iCloud in a browser already covers your email.
- You use Apple Mail on a Mac or the built-in Mail app on Windows 11.
- Your email volume is low and you have no calendar sharing requirements.
- You are buying Office mainly for documents, spreadsheets and slides.
If you land in the second group, Office 2024 Home saves you $61 for software you would not open. If you land in the first, keep reading, because there is more than one way to get Outlook and one of them currently costs less.
Office 2024 Pricing and the In-Stock Alternative
Home & Business is our most-visited product page, and it is currently out of stock with no confirmed restock date. That is worth saying plainly rather than letting you find out at the checkout. Here is what is available today and what each route costs.
| Option | What you get | Price | Availability |
|---|---|---|---|
| Office 2024 Home | Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote | $178.99 | In stock |
| Outlook 2024 standalone | Outlook only, 1 PC or Mac | $59.99 | In stock |
| Office 2024 Home plus Outlook 2024 | All five apps, two license keys | $238.98 | In stock |
| Office 2024 Home & Business | All five apps, one license key | $239.99 | Out of stock |
Buying Office 2024 Home and Outlook 2024 separately gives you the same five applications for $238.98, which is $1.01 less than Home & Business. Apply the 20% discount code shown on the Home & Business product page and the pair comes to roughly $191, a saving of about $49 against the bundled edition.
The trade-off is administrative rather than functional. You receive two activation keys instead of one and you activate each application separately. The software, the updates and the support are the same. If you are buying for a business and need the commercial use entitlement confirmed for your situation, send us a message before you order and we will sort out the right license for you.
Does Office 2024 Include Copilot?
No. Neither Office 2024 Home nor Office 2024 Home & Business includes Microsoft Copilot. This is the single most common misunderstanding about the 2024 release, so it is worth being direct about it.
Copilot is a Microsoft 365 feature. It requires an active subscription, and on the consumer side it arrived with the Microsoft 365 Personal and Family plans. A perpetual Office license is a locked-in-time version of the software: you get the applications as they shipped, plus security updates, and no new features afterwards. That is the deal you are making when you buy once instead of subscribing.
If AI features matter more to you than owning the license, compare the two routes properly in our guide to Office 2024 vs Microsoft 365 for AI. If they do not, the perpetual license is almost always the cheaper long-term choice, which is the next section.
Office 2024 vs a Microsoft 365 Subscription
Microsoft would rather sell you a subscription, so the perpetual editions get less shelf space. The arithmetic is straightforward, though.
Microsoft 365 Personal currently costs $99.99 a year. Office 2024 Home & Business costs $239.99 once. The subscription therefore overtakes the perpetual license somewhere in year three, and after that it keeps charging while the perpetual license keeps working. Over five years, the subscription runs to roughly $500 against a single $239.99 payment.
| Time period | Microsoft 365 Personal | Office 2024 Home & Business |
|---|---|---|
| Year 1 | $99.99 | $239.99 |
| Year 3 total | $299.97 | $239.99 |
| Year 5 total | $499.95 | $239.99 |
| Year 10 total | $999.90 | $239.99 |
The subscription does buy things the perpetual license does not: Copilot, 1 TB of OneDrive storage, installation across multiple devices, and continuous new features. Whether those are worth $99.99 every year is a genuine judgment call rather than a trick question. Our full comparison of Microsoft 365 vs Office 2024 takes it apart in detail, and five one-time-purchase alternatives to Microsoft 365 covers the wider field if you want to leave the subscription model altogether.
Mac and PC Compatibility
Both editions install on either a Windows PC or a Mac, but not both from one license. You choose the platform at install time and the key is then tied to that machine.
- Windows: Windows 10 or Windows 11, any current edition.
- Mac: macOS 13 Ventura or later. Older macOS versions are not supported by Office 2024.
- One device per license. To cover a laptop and a desktop, you need two licenses.
Running an older Mac that cannot reach Ventura? Office 2021 for Mac is still available and installs on earlier macOS releases. If you only need one application rather than the suite, our guide on buying Microsoft Word without the full Office suite covers the standalone options, which start considerably lower than either Office edition.
Which Edition Should You Buy? Three Common Cases
A student or a household
Office 2024 Home at $178.99. Email is almost certainly already handled by Gmail or a browser, and the four core applications cover coursework, household budgets and presentations. There is no reason to pay for Outlook here.
A sole trader or freelancer
Office 2024 Home & Business, or the Home plus Outlook 2024 pair while Home & Business is out of stock. You need the commercial use rights, and desktop Outlook earns its place the moment you are managing client email alongside a calendar.
A small team of five to ten people
Price both routes before deciding. Ten perpetual Home & Business licenses come to $2,399.90 once. Ten Microsoft 365 Business subscriptions cost that much roughly every two years and keep going. Perpetual licenses usually win on cost, but check first whether you need shared mailboxes, Teams or centrally managed OneDrive, because those are subscription features. Our overview of the best Microsoft software for small businesses in 2026 goes through the options.
After You Buy: Download, Install and Activate
Delivery is by email, normally within minutes of the order. You receive the genuine Microsoft activation key, the official download link from Microsoft’s own site, and written install instructions.
The process runs in four steps. First, sign in or create a Microsoft account. Second, redeem the product key against that account. Third, download the installer from the official Microsoft page. Fourth, run it and sign in to activate. Our step-by-step walkthrough on how to download, install and activate Office 2024 Home and Business has the screenshots.
If the install stalls or activation is refused, the Office 2024 installation error recovery guide covers the common causes. You can also just contact our US-based support team, which is included at no extra cost for the life of the license.
Buying Office 2024 from Indigo Software
Indigo Software has sold genuine Microsoft licenses since 2016. We are a veteran-owned, family-run business in The Woodlands, Texas. More than 100,000 customers have bought from us, and they rate us 4.9 out of 5 across over 500 Trustpilot reviews.
Every Office license we sell is perpetual and genuine. You buy once, you own it, and there is no renewal. Delivery is instant by email, activation is straightforward, and support afterwards is US-based and free. If you want to see the alternatives first, our guide on how to buy Microsoft Office without a subscription lays out every route, and you can browse the full Microsoft software catalog at any time.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between Office 2024 Home and Home & Business?
Office 2024 Home & Business includes Microsoft Outlook and carries commercial use rights. Office 2024 Home does not include Outlook and is licensed for home use. Everything else is identical: both give you Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote on one PC or one Mac, as a perpetual license with no subscription.
Does Office 2024 have Copilot?
No. Neither Office 2024 Home nor Office 2024 Home & Business includes Microsoft Copilot. Copilot requires an active Microsoft 365 subscription. Perpetual Office licenses receive security updates but no new features after release.
Can I add Outlook to Office 2024 Home later?
Yes. Outlook 2024 is sold as a standalone perpetual license for $59.99 and installs alongside Office 2024 Home on the same computer. You end up with two activation keys rather than one, but the applications work together exactly as they would in the bundled edition.
Is Office 2024 Home & Business a one-time purchase?
Yes. It is a perpetual license. You pay once, there is no renewal date, and the software keeps working indefinitely. Microsoft 365, by contrast, stops working when the subscription lapses.
How many computers can I install Office 2024 on?
One. Each license covers a single PC or a single Mac, and the key is tied to that machine after activation. Covering a laptop and a desktop requires two licenses.
Does Office 2024 work on a Mac?
Yes, on macOS 13 Ventura or later. Both Home and Home & Business install on either Windows 10 and 11 or a supported Mac, but one license covers one platform on one device, not both.
Is Office 2024 Home & Business currently in stock?
It is out of stock at the time of writing, with no confirmed restock date. The in-stock alternative is Office 2024 Home at $178.99 plus Outlook 2024 at $59.99, which gives the same five applications for $238.98, or roughly $191 with the discount code shown on the Home & Business product page.
Does Office 2024 include Teams, Access or Publisher?
No. Neither edition includes Microsoft Teams, Access or Publisher. Access is sold separately as a perpetual license. Teams is a Microsoft 365 component. Publisher was retired by Microsoft in October 2026.
Will Office 2024 get new features over time?
No. A perpetual license is a locked-in-time version. You receive security and stability updates for the supported lifetime of the product, but the feature set stays as it shipped. Continuous new features are a Microsoft 365 subscription benefit.
Still deciding between buying once and subscribing? Our comparison of Microsoft 365 and Office 2024 works through the full cost and feature picture, and Microsoft Office vs Google Workspace covers the option of leaving Microsoft’s ecosystem altogether.
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