3-Year Comparison: single user
| Option | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Total over 3 years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Office 2024 Home & Business (perpetual licence) | approx. CHF 149 | CHF 0 | CHF 0 | approx. CHF 149 |
| Office 2024 Standard (perpetual licence) | approx. CHF 89 | CHF 0 | CHF 0 | approx. CHF 89 |
| Microsoft 365 Personal | approx. CHF 79 | approx. CHF 79 | approx. CHF 79 | approx. CHF 237 |
| Microsoft 365 Family (for 1 user) | approx. CHF 109 | approx. CHF 109 | approx. CHF 109 | approx. CHF 327 |
When each option is the right fit: the honest recommendation
- A perpetual licence pays off if you are a single user, use Office mainly offline, don't need 1 TB of OneDrive storage, and want to use it for 3+ years. In that case it is almost always more economical.
- 365 Personal pays off if you genuinely actively need 1 TB of OneDrive cloud storage (e.g. for a large photo collection) and/or constantly want the very latest Office features.
- 365 Family pays off if you actually equip 4–5 people in your household with Office. Per person it then becomes cheaper than 5 individual perpetual licences. For 1–2 users it is rarely economical.
