Microsoft increases Office 365 and Microsoft 365 license prices

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Scope and Size of Price Increases

  • Many see the increases (e.g., Business Basic $6→$7, some SKUs $12→$14) as roughly in line with cumulative inflation since the last hike ~4 years ago.
  • Others point out that even “just” $1–3/user/month scales to tens of thousands per year for mid‑sized orgs, and becomes “death by a thousand cuts” when combined with other vendors’ hikes.
  • Frontline plans (F1/F3) and some regional OneDrive tiers reportedly see steeper jumps.
  • A minority argue the changes are trivial for enterprises and not newsworthy.

AI/Copilot as Justification and Flashpoint

  • Widespread perception that price rises are partly to subsidize massive AI/datacenter spend and weak Copilot uptake.
  • Many users do not want AI in Office and resent being forced to pay for it or having Copilot pushed as the default UI (e.g., office.com landing page).
  • Some report that a cheaper “classic” / no‑Copilot plan is only offered as a hidden retention option on cancellation.
  • Others argue that, regardless of HN sentiment, enterprise buyers and executives are demanding AI parity with competitors, even if actual usefulness is mixed.

Lock‑In, Ecosystem, and Lack of True Alternatives

  • Strong consensus that the real lock‑in is not Word/Excel alone but the whole M365 stack: Exchange Online, SharePoint/OneDrive, Teams, Entra/AD, Intune, Defender, Power BI, compliance and governance tooling.
  • Commenters note that replacing just the editors is easy; replacing identity, mail, collaboration, endpoint management, and security policies is enormously expensive and risky.
  • Many claim there is no full‑stack competitor; Google Workspace, Zoho, etc. cover parts but not the breadth or enterprise controls of E5‑style deployments.
  • Some healthcare and regulated sectors are effectively forced onto 365 due to HIPAA/compliance constraints.

Excel, Professional Workflows, and Office’s “Real” Value

  • Long debate over whether there’s any reason to use Office beyond compatibility.
  • Multiple practitioners say Excel is still unmatched for serious/complex spreadsheet and analytics work (Power Query, Power Pivot, OLAP, Graph API, financial modeling), despite known risks and horror stories of costly spreadsheet mistakes.
  • Others argue spreadsheets are overused where databases or proper apps should exist, but acknowledge that Excel’s flexibility and UX make it the “second‑best tool for everything,” so businesses run on it anyway.
  • For basic home/SMB usage, many assert LibreOffice/OnlyOffice/Google Sheets are “good enough,” but power users and finance teams strongly resist switching.

Alternatives, FOSS, and Subscription Backlash

  • Alternatives mentioned: LibreOffice/Collabora, OnlyOffice, OpenOffice (deprecated), WPS, Zoho, Google Workspace, Grist, Rows, SoftMaker/FreeOffice, various niche or self‑hosted stacks (Nextcloud).
  • Common complaints: poorer UX, performance, and Office format fidelity; small differences that cause productivity loss; limited enterprise integration.
  • Several people have moved personal or small‑business work to Google Workspace or FOSS and keep some form of Office only for interoperability.
  • Strong dislike of SaaS and recurring fees; some revert to pirated copies or cheap “perpetual” Office 2019/2024 keys, though there’s concern about activation‑server dependence.

Governments, Regulation, and Privacy

  • Examples cited of governments trying to escape Microsoft: German state of Schleswig‑Holstein, parts of India choosing Zoho, some EU institutions moving toward open formats.
  • Yet many such migrations have historically stalled or been reversed due to compatibility and user pushback.
  • Australian regulator is suing Microsoft over dark‑patterned 365 upgrades; the EU forced an unbundled Teams SKU.
  • Concerns raised about cloud‑hosted docs (Microsoft, Google) and warrantless access in some jurisdictions, but many users still prioritize convenience and collaboration features.

Broader Sentiment

  • Significant resentment toward bundling, perceived rent‑seeking, “AI enshitification,” and the deprecation of tools like Publisher while prices rise.
  • Countervailing view: given how much functionality and storage M365 bundles, and compared to competitors’ pricing, the suite remains a strong economic deal for most enterprises and many families.