Microsoft"s Home Use Program (HUP) is described as an offer that lets employees at "eligible companies" - meaning companies that are Software Assurance customers or those with over 2,000 Office 365 or Microsoft 365 E3/E5 customers - purchase Office at a discount. Earlier this year, the firm started offering Office 365 subscriptions instead of only perpetual Office licenses. Now, as spotted by ZDNet"s Mary Jo Foley, Microsoft has updated its HUP FAQ to reflect that the perpetual licenses are no longer offered.
Specifically, the perpetual licenses that were offered were Office Professional Plus 2019 and Office Home and Business 2019. Now, you"ll only be able to buy a subscription to either Office 365 Personal or Office 365 Home.
According to the website for the Home Use Program, Office 365 subscriptions can be purchased at a 30% discount. That means that a year of Office 365 Home can be purchased for $69.99, which is the normal price of Office 365 Personal. You can get a year of Personal for $48.99.
Obviously, it"s not as much of a discount as it used to be, especially when you consider that Office 365 is a yearly subscription. With the old plan, HUP customers could purchase either of the Office 2019 options for just $14.99.