How to Buy Microsoft Office Cheap and Not Break the Bank

While there are hundreds or even thousands of scam websites out there that promise to sell you steeply discounted Microsoft office products, most of them do nothing more than provide you with a fake download that leads to an infected computer. This is why a Google search doesn't really provide you with many resources.

In order to help readers dig through all of the garbage out there, this article will cover all of the legitimate ways that you can download cheap Microsoft Office software. In this case, cheap can range anywhere from 10 percent off to nearly 80 percent off the retail purchase price. So, read on and find the situation that applies to you, and get your version of Microsoft Office for cheap!

Regular Discounts

Yes, there are a few websites out there that offer legitimate discounts off of Microsoft products. In fact, these are typically the same websites that offer you discounts on a wide variety of software products. One of those is SoftSupreme, an international supplier of software products.


Soft Supreme


Here, you'll find discounts of a whole variety of products, ranging from 25 to even 50 percent off retail. While the discounts are great, they aren't much different than what you'd find if you shopped Amazon.com. Which, by the way, is another great choice for finding good deals on MS Office.

Another good place to check is another online software retailer called Buy Cheap Software, which also sells software at discounted rates.


Buy Cheap Software


Compare prices between these three sources and you'll probably get a fantastic deal. However, if you are at all involved in education, the military, a non-profit or a health organization - then read on for even steaper discounts.

Educational Discounts

If you are student, an educator, or you just work for a school system or University, your best option is to take advantage of Microsoft's educational discount program. You can find these discounts at the Microsoft Education page.


Microsoft Education Programs


At that page, there are entire sections devoted to educators, students or even school administrators. Click on the appropriate section and you'll find some of the steepest MS Office discounts available anywhere. By the way, if you're a student and you love free software, make sure to click on the "Download Dreamspark" link where you'll find over 20 free applications that Microsoft offers to students at no cost.

Non-Profit Discounts

If you are non-profit organization, Microsoft now offers much more affordable small-volume licensing solutions for organizations like yours.

The program is called Open License.

Charity Open License


What that means is that while large corporations may pay thousands or more for a multi-user license of products like Microsoft Office, you can get special Charity pricing of up to 80 percent off retail for a minimum five user site license.

Military and Corporate Discounts

If you are a military member, work for a large corporation or you work for a health organization, you'll want to take advantage of the impressive Microsoft Home Use program.

The program is called Open License.

Home Use Program


Microsoft realized that many of its Corporate partners and organizations have employees that work all day using Microsoft Office. These are employees that often go home and need to continue doing some of their work from home. For employees that can't afford a retail copy of Office, this can be very difficult.

Now, employees and military staff can check what discounts they are elegible for through their organization by visiting the Home Use Program page and entering their work email address and program code (check with your HR department for the code).

Other Resources

Even if you can't afford to pay for a discounted version of MS Office, there are still plenty of options available for an even cheaper price if you're willing to do a little bit of research.

When people buy a retail copy of MS Office, they own that license for the particular computer they've installed it on. If they sell the computer and you buy it, you've also purchased the MS Office license.


Craigslist MS Office License


Better yet, if they uninstall the license, you can buy it from them for, usually, very cheap. You can find deals like this at places like Craigslist and Ebay all the time.

In addition to buying a "used" copy of MS Office from someone, you can opt to use one of the free Office alternatives that are now available on the Internet, such as Google Docs or Open Office.


Google Docs


Google Docs is very impressive because you don't even have to install any software. All documents and spreadsheets are available right on the website, and you can quickly share them with anyone that has an email address.


Open Office


Of all alternatives, Open Office remains one of the most popular solutions that continues to grow in use across the world. The project is sponsored and supported by Oracle. All files that you create in Open Office are fully compatible with a majority of the major Office suites in the world, like MS Office, Corel WordPerfect, and many others.

As you can see, even if you can't afford to walk into a retail store and buy Microsoft Office at the list price, that doesn't mean that there aren't alternatives out there for you. Depending on where you work or what you do for a living, there may be steep discounts available. And if you want to have a completely free Office suite, Open Office is probably the best way to go.