Black Friday is about more than laptops, game consoles, and expensive gadgets. It’s also a great time of year to purchase software and games. One of the best deals of the weekend is a $50 discount on Office 2024 that’s available through Best Buy. Office 2024 gets you access to the core Office apps of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. A purchase allows you to install those apps on a single desktop computer running either Windows 11, Windows 10, or macOS.
🔥The hottest Black Friday deals🔥
Office 2024 vs. Microsoft 365
Microsoft provides several ways to access its Office apps and services. It can get a bit confusing since Microsoft 365 used to be called Office 365 and both Microsoft 365 and Office 2024 come with several of the same apps.
To break things down, Microsoft 365 comes with more apps, gets regular updates, extends across devices, and gets you benefits such as OneDrive cloud storage. It requires a subscription, but the entry cost is relatively low since Microsoft knows you’ll keep paying for the service each month (or pay annually). Office 2024 comes with just the core Office apps: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. Those apps are locked-in-time, meaning you won’t get new versions of them when app updates come out. The main benefit is that Office 2024 only requires a one-time payment.
The best experience, at least if you listen to Microsoft, comes when you subscribe to Microsoft 365. Doing so will get you the latest versions of all Microsoft 365 apps and services. You’ll also have access to a larger library of apps, get cloud storage through OneDrive, and be able to use Microsoft Editor and Microsoft Defender. The downside is that Microsoft 365 requires a subscription. The normal price of a Microsoft 365 Personal subscription is $69.99 per year, though the best Microsoft 365 deal gets you 15 months of the subscription for the same price.
I agree with Microsoft’s claim that the best experience comes with Microsoft 365, but that doesn’t mean it’s the best choice for everyone. If you only need the core Office apps, it doesn’t make sense to pay for an ongoing subscription that includes apps and services you never use. Office 2024 is a solid choice for people who only need to use Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or OneNote and who do not need the added apps and features that would come with a Microsoft 365 subscription.
🍁More great Black Friday deals🦃
- Best Buy: Big savings on video games, accessories, and more
- Walmart: Early savings on practically everything
- Target: Live deals on a huge range of products
- Dell: Top deals on laptops, gaming PCs, accessories, and more
- HP: Save big on laptops, desktops, accessories, and more
- Lenovo: Doorbuster deals on all Lenovo PCs, monitors, accessories, and more
- Newegg: Save on PC gaming accessories, components, and more
- Razer: Take advantage of free shipping for a limited time
- Samsung: Holiday deals on laptops, TVs, phones, and more are live
- Amazon: Constantly rotating sales on everything you can imagine
When is Black Friday?
Black Friday is on November 29, 2024. That means it’s in less than 24 hours if you’re seeing this deal right after our post about it went up. But the actual date of Black Friday isn’t as important as it used to be. Retailers started Black Friday deals early this year and many declared “Black Friday is here” last week. Regardless of what the calendar says, it’s nice to see favorite items at a discount.
When is Cyber Monday?
As soon as Black Friday wraps up, retailers will shift their marketing to center around Cyber Monday. That shopping event falls on December 2, 2024, which is a bit later in the year than usual because Thanksgiving is so late in November in the United States in 2024. Many Black Friday deals stick around until Cyber Monday, just with new names. There are also some exclusive Cyber Monday deals that we’ll keep an eye out for and share when they go live.
