In a post announcing the software release, Microsoft makes sure to point out that Office 2019 is a standalone package of its software geared primarily towards private users and businesses who do.

I bought Office 2019 off of Amazon (i bought 2 keys to put on my 2 computers, and created 2 separate microsoft accounts to redeem the keys on, neither work) Reply. With Office 2019 microsoft has declared that the new 2019 version will only support windows 10. So users using Windows 8.1 and earlier will not be able to install it. According to sources, Microsoft office 2019 will be released in around September this year but till now the exact date is not declared. Office 2019 is an upgrade to Office 2016; Office 365 is different; it's an Office subscription service; Office 2019 is the next 'on-premise' release of Microsoft's productivity suite.

Microsoft would really like you to sign up for one of its productivity subscriptions: Office 365, or better yet, the new Microsoft 365. But for those old fogies who prefer standalone software, Microsoft announced Office 2019 on Tuesday.

Office 2019 will ship in the second half of 2018, Microsoft said, with a preview version scheduled for mid-2018. The Office 2019 suite will include the standard complement of Office apps: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, plus server apps like Exchange, SharePoint, and Skype for Business. Presumably, Microsoft will offer different versions of Office 2019 (including a version for the Apple Mac), but executives didn’t say.

Microsoft calls Office 2019 a suite of “perpetual” apps, because customers will pay for them with a one-time fee, rather than a recurring subscription. (Microsoft did not announce a price for Office 2019, though Amazon sells a single copy of Microsoft Home & Business for $210.) Microsoft would prefer customers to sign up for Office 365 instead, however, which encourages customers to pay for Office on a monthly or annual basis, with new features and patches arriving regularly. With Office 365, you’ll pay more, but the payment will be spread out over a longer period of time: Microsoft’s Office 365 Home costs $100 per year, for example.

Owning a perpetual license to, say, Word, is enough for some. Basic functions like spell-checking don’t change much from year to year. But Microsoft periodically adds new features to the versions of the Office apps that ship with Office 365. Office 2019 will add these new features—including improved inking, data analysis for Excel, Morph and Zoom transitions for PowerPoint, and more—but they’ll be more like a snapshot in time. After some future cut-off date, Microsoft will stop adding features.

Microsoft provides another advantage to Office 365 subscribers: Even if a customer buys a $70 Personal subscription, that license is technically available to more than one device: one PC, one tablet, and one phone. Office 2019 can be installed only on a single PC. That’s important, as users who don’t have a valid Office license installed on a device can only view, not edit, documents.

Microsoft said, however, that the company realizes that not every customer wants to move to the cloud. “Office 2019 will be a valuable upgrade for customers who feel that they need to keep some or all of their apps and servers on-premises, and we look forward to sharing more details about the release in the coming months,” Jared Spataro, the general manager of Office, wrote in a blog post that was released during Microsoft Ignite, the company's conference for business professionals in Orlando, Florida.

What this means for you: It’s no secret that Microsoft would like you to view Microsoft Office as a utility bill--a necessity that you need to budget and pay for, year after year. Many, many features within Office, however, are designed for a particular set of users, and go unused otherwise. There’s really no right answer: If you’d like all the latest Office features, you’ll probably want to subscribe to Office 365. But if you’re pretty sure that the basic Office apps will cut it, maybe Office 2019 is for you.

Microsoft has officially released Office 2019 for Windows and Mac with availability for all promised within the next few weeks.

The new on-premises productivity suite includes new versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Project and more. However, Microsoft doesn’t seem excited by the new release at all..

In its announcement on Monday, Microsoft seemed somewhat reluctant to be rolling out the update by clearly stating Office 365 is the best and most affordable option. It also says Office 2019 is explicitly for those “who aren’t ready for the cloud.”

Indeed, as it’s exceptionally keen to point out, all of the enhancements in Office 2019 have been offered to Office 365 ProPlus subscribers over the last three years. It says Office 2019 is a one-time release that won’t receive further updates.

Microsoft doesn’t dwell too much in terms of the new features Office 2019 delivers, but says it will ‘help users create amazing content in less time.’

Related: Windows 10 October 2018 update: What to expect

There’s new cinematic presentation features in PowerPoint, improved inking features across the Windows apps and new data analysis features in Excel. Word 2019 and Outlook 2019 offer new learning tools and a new Focus Mode that blocks out distractions.

Despite plugging Office 365 throughout its announcement post, Microsoft has confirmed this won’t be the last on-premises version of Office.

The firm says: “Office 2019 is a valuable update for customers who aren’t yet ready for the cloud. And each time we release a new on-premises version of Office, customers ask us if this will be our last. We’re pleased to confirm that we’re committed to another on-premises release in the future.

“While the cloud offers real benefits in productivity, security, and total cost of ownership, we recognise that each customer is at a different point in their adoption of cloud services. We see the on-premises version of Office as an important part of our commitment to give customers the flexibility they need to move to the cloud at their own pace.”

Will you be grabbing Office 2019 for Mac or Windows? Or are you taking Microsoft’s advice and heading to the cloud? Drop us a line @TrustedReviews on Twitter

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