Office (perpetual)

It depends on whether you want a subscription or a one-time purchase, and whether you need the cloud services.

Microsoft 365 is a per-user subscription that gives you the latest Office desktop apps plus Exchange Online mail, OneDrive, Teams, and (on Business Standard and higher) SharePoint Online. New features arrive monthly. Cancel and the desktop apps go read-only after 30 days.

Office Home & Business 2024 (Retail) and Office LTSC 2024 (Volume) are one-time purchases — pay once, keep the apps forever, no cloud services included. Locked feature set: no new functionality, only security patches for 5 years. The fit is regulated, air-gapped, or kiosk environments — or anyone philosophically opposed to subscriptions.

Pick subscription (Microsoft 365 Apps / Business Standard) if you want: the latest features as they ship, cloud services (Teams, Exchange Online, OneDrive), Copilot, and predictable per-user monthly pricing.

Pick perpetual (Office LTSC 2024 via Volume Licensing) if you need: a one-time purchase, no cloud dependency, locked feature set for regulated environments, or offline-only operation. The trade-off is no new features for 5 years and no Copilot, ever.

For most knowledge-worker organizations, subscription wins on TCO over a 3-year horizon. Perpetual wins for specialized, locked-down scenarios.

Up to 50 GB, no. A shared mailbox in Exchange Online does not require a license as long as no user signs into it directly — staff access it as a delegated mailbox from their own licensed account. Above 50 GB the shared mailbox must be assigned a Microsoft 365 license (typically Exchange Online Plan 2).

If you need In-Place Archive on the shared mailbox, that also requires a license. Same if you want to enable Litigation Hold for compliance — those are licensed features, even on a shared mailbox.

No. Visio and Project are licensed separately from Microsoft 365 — there is no Microsoft 365 plan that bundles them. Both come as standalone subscriptions (Visio Plan 1/2, Project Plan 1/3/5) or as perpetual desktop SKUs (Visio Standard/Professional, Project Standard/Professional).

If you only need a handful of users with Visio or Project, the per-user subscription is usually the cleanest path — billed alongside your Microsoft 365 seats through the same CSP.

Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) is the modern Microsoft channel where a partner manages your subscription. Billing is monthly or annual, seats can scale up and down each month, and the partner handles support tickets. Best for cloud-first workloads (Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, Azure) where flexibility matters.

Volume Licensing (Open Value, MPSA, Enterprise Agreement) is the traditional channel for perpetual on-premises licenses — Windows Server, SQL Server, Office LTSC. Three-year commitments are typical, with optional Software Assurance for upgrade rights. Best for perpetual server licensing where you want to own the asset.

Most organizations use both: CSP for the cloud subscriptions and Volume Licensing for the on-prem perpetual licenses.

Microsoft retired the old VLSC (Volume Licensing Service Center) in 2024 and consolidated all licensing management into the Microsoft 365 Admin Center and the Microsoft Cloud Partner Program portal. Volume Licensing customers now download keys, view orders and manage agreements under "Billing → Your products" in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center, signed in with the tenant's global admin or billing admin role.

If you still see references to VLSC in older documentation, mentally swap it for the M365 Admin Center.