Why business structure changes the Office decision
Most Office buying guides ask what apps you need. That is a reasonable starting point — but for UK businesses, the more useful question is how your business is structured and how your team works day to day.
A sole trader buying their own licence has different priorities to a limited company director equipping three remote employees. The version of Office that makes sense, and the way it should be installed, differs meaningfully between those two situations — even if the day-to-day apps are identical.
Microsoft sells Office 2024 through two routes. Office Home & Business 2024 is the retail product. Office Professional Plus 2024 is the volume-channel product. Both install the same application versions; both receive security updates until October 2029. The differences that matter for small UK businesses are price, platform compatibility, installation method, and the support overhead each creates.
Your scenario — which version fits
The four scenarios below cover the situations that come up most often for sole traders and small limited companies in the UK. Find yours and follow it directly.
Sole trader — Mac user
This is the only perpetual Office suite available for macOS. There is no Mac version of Office Professional Plus — that product exists in the Windows volume channel only. Office Home & Business 2024 for Mac includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote, runs natively on Apple Silicon (M1 through M4), and activates via setup.microsoft.com using your Microsoft account. If you only need Word, the standalone Word for Mac licence (£54) is the more economical route.
Note: Microsoft Access is not available on Mac in any version of Office. If your business relies on Access, a Windows machine is required.
Sole trader — Windows PC
For a sole trader on a single Windows PC, Office Professional Plus 2024 is the clear choice. It includes everything in Home & Business — Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote — plus Microsoft Access, and costs £40 less. The channel difference (volume versus retail) does not affect how you install or use it. Both activate the same way, both carry the same end-of-support date.
The only reason to choose Home & Business over Pro Plus on a PC is if you have a specific procurement or policy requirement for retail packaging — which applies to very few sole traders.
Small limited company — office-based or IT-managed
For a small limited company equipping several PCs in an office — or where someone in the business is comfortable handling software installation — Office Professional Plus 2024 offers the best per-seat economics. At £79 per licence, a three-seat deployment costs £237 against £357 for the same number of Home & Business licences. The activation method (Office Deployment Tool) is slightly more involved than Home & Business but does not require a Microsoft account per device, which simplifies management in a multi-machine environment.
If anyone in the business uses Microsoft Access for data management — client records, booking systems, stock — Pro Plus includes it. Home & Business does not.
Small limited company — remote or distributed team
For a limited company with remote staff — even one or two employees working from home on their own machines — Office Home & Business 2024 is the operationally simpler choice. The reason is installation: H&B activates via setup.microsoft.com, which means you send each employee their product key, they go to that URL, sign in with a Microsoft account, and install Office themselves. No remote access, no deployment tool, no phone call.
Office Professional Plus 2024 requires a more involved deployment process that is straightforward if you are on-site with the machine but creates real support overhead when you are trying to help someone remotely. The £40 per-seat premium for Home & Business pays for itself quickly in time not spent troubleshooting remote installs.
5-year cost comparison — perpetual vs Microsoft 365
The chart below shows cumulative cost over five years for a sole trader (single user) comparing Office Pro Plus 2024 as a one-time purchase against Microsoft 365 Personal at the current UK price of £79.99 per year.
Side-by-side: Home & Business vs Professional Plus
The table below summarises the points that matter specifically for sole traders and small limited companies.
| Feature | Office H&B 2024 | Office Pro Plus 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Price (one-time) | £119 | £79 |
| Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook | ✓ | ✓ |
| OneNote | ✓ | ✓ |
| Microsoft Access | ✗ | ✓ |
| Mac compatible | ✓ | ✗ PC only |
| Activation method | setup.microsoft.com (Microsoft account) | Office Deployment Tool (no account required) |
| Remote / self-serve install | ✓ Straightforward | More involved |
| Security updates until | October 2029 | October 2029 |
| Commercial use rights | ✓ | ✓ |
| Best for | Mac users; remote teams; simplicity | PC users; office-based teams; value per seat |
Need Microsoft Publisher?
Publisher is not included in any Office 2024 version — neither Home & Business nor Professional Plus. If your business produces newsletters, flyers, or print marketing materials using Publisher, the only perpetual route is Office Professional Plus 2021 (£69), which includes Publisher and continues to run it indefinitely as a locally installed application — even after Microsoft’s October 2026 retirement deadline for the Microsoft 365 version.
The Publisher retirement guide covers what the October 2026 deadline actually means, what continues to work, and what your alternatives are if you need to move away from Publisher entirely.
A note for VAT-registered businesses
All prices at Software Supplies are shown inclusive of VAT. If your limited company is VAT-registered — as most trading limited companies are — you can reclaim the VAT on your Office licence purchases as a business expense. The effective cost of Office Pro Plus 2024 for a VAT-registered business is therefore £65.83 ex-VAT per seat. At that rate, equipping a three-person team costs under £200 net.
This is a genuine advantage of buying from a UK VAT-registered reseller over grey-market alternatives, which may not provide a valid VAT invoice.
Frequently asked questions
Gary Walsh is the Head of Tech Support at Software Supplies, with more than 20 years in the IT industry. Fully Microsoft-certified and experienced across the full business software stack — from Windows and Office to cloud infrastructure and device management — Gary delivers practical, no-nonsense advice that helps users and businesses get the most from their technology.
