Updated: July 16, 2020 (August 7, 2017)

Office Licensing Differences

As managing vice president, Rob Helm covers Microsoft collaboration and content management. His 25-plus years of experience analyzing Microsoft’s technology... more

Office 365 ProPlus offers simpler license compliance and lower upfront cost than Office 2016 Professional Plus, but less control over what is installed and potentially higher long-term licensing costs. With Office 2016 Professional Plus, some rights are delivered by Software Assurance (SA) added to the license.

	Office 365 ProPlus	Office 2016 Professional Plus
License model	Per user	Per device
License term	Subscription	Perpetual (except in subscription programs)
Activated installs on PC or Mac	Up to five activated at a time	One (and another on a portable in some cases if license was not purchased through an Enterprise Agreement)
Installs on mobile devices with editing activated	Up to five phones and five tablets at a time	None
Office Online and Office Online Server editing	From any device while user’s subscription license active	From licensed device and single primary user’s other devices while

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