Should I buy Microsoft Office?

Microsoft Office: frequently asked, our answer

We’re often asked whether our laptops come with Microsoft Office as standard. The short answer: no. We don’t pre-install Microsoft Office (now called Microsoft 365) either. In this blog we explain why we deliberately don’t. And you might discover that you don’t need Office at all – or that there are better alternatives.

What is Microsoft Office or Microsoft 365?

Microsoft 365 is the best-known software for text, spreadsheets and presentations. It includes programs like Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Some versions also have Outlook for email and Teams for (video) calls. Microsoft also offers a free web version. With it you can do basic edits in your browser, but many features are missing. Pivot tables in Excel are limited, WordArt in Word is gone and PowerPoint has no advanced animations. This is called a freemium model: part is free, but for the features you really need you have to pay. We’re not fans of this model, but we’re (for now) too small to make Microsoft change its mind.

Why we don’t pre-install Office

At TopLaptop we like to be honest and transparent. We never pre-install Microsoft 365 or other software. If you buy a licence from us, you choose: an annual licence with updates or a static version with a year number that ages over time. We’re happy to discuss in person which suits you better.

We also believe the first user of the laptop – that’s you – should set up the device themselves. This is called the Out of Box Experience. That way you can be sure there’s no unnecessary software, cracked programs or backdoors on it. Safe, clean and entirely yours. The only thing we can’t include is that typical ‘new laptop’ smell.

Discounts for students and employees

Microsoft Office is often available at a big discount for students, pupils and employees. Many educational institutions and companies have special contracts for this. In the Netherlands, for example, pupils and students can buy Microsoft 365 cheaply via SURFspot. That way you can still make pivot tables at a discount, write professional reports with snazzy WordArt and brighten up PowerPoints with transitions.

Free alternatives to Microsoft Office

Microsoft 365 is popular, but not the only choice. There are excellent free alternatives like LibreOffice and OpenOffice. These suites are open source and offer far more features than the free web version of Microsoft Office. LibreOffice in particular is powerful and suited to intensive use on your computer.

Comparison: Microsoft 365 Web vs. LibreOffice vs. OpenOffice

Feature	MS 365 Web	LibreOffice	OpenOffice
Pivot tables	Basic	Full	Basic
Macro automation	Not supported	Extensive	Limited
Document formatting	Modern, limited	Extensive	Limited, dated
Ease of use	Cloud/modern	Fast, rich, classic	Classic, slow

We’ve left Google Suite and Apple iWork out of consideration. Google Suite is comparable to MS 365 Web in functionality and is also aimed at online real-time collaboration. Apple iWork is exclusive to macOS users, so that would be comparing apples and oranges.

What’s our advice?

For basic use and collaboration, Microsoft 365 Web can be enough. But if you want to work seriously with pivot tables, presentations or extensive document formatting, you’ll soon fall short. In that case a paid Microsoft 365 licence or a free alternative like LibreOffice is often smarter. LibreOffice is more powerful than the free Office version and costs you nothing. OpenOffice is a little more dated, but works fine for simple documents too.

Conclusion: Microsoft Office is handy and familiar, but not always automatically the best or cheapest choice. Take a moment to consider whether you really need it. Often you can get by just as well with a discount or free alternatives.