Reddit mentions of Microsoft Retail Office Home Business 2013 Product Key

Office 2010/2013 connectivity to Office 365 does not provide access to the iPad app.

Usually, in a small business/home environment, a copy of PKC Office is purchased which is the current version at the time (eg: 2013) and then it is not upgraded again for the life of the computer. There is little core differences between Office versions, as they all fulfill the same basic tasks of opening/editing doc/docx/xls/xlsx etc. files.

As it stands now, to get the iPad app, in addition to the Office 2013 PKC already licensed, an Office 365 subscription will also be required. So the Office 2013 PKC has gone to waste. There is not even a rebate option to "upgrade" from Office 2013 over to 365.



A quick price check shows that Office 365 with apps costs $150 per year.


Office 2013 Home and Business PKC costs $220 one time.

Assuming you haven't already purchased Office 2013 PKC for the computer, your 1st year savings are $70 - if the computer only lasts a year. If the computer lasts 2 years or more, it works out more expensive. Let's say it lasts 3 years, that's a $230 premium just to gain access to the iPad app. If you have already made the purchase of 2013, that's an extra $220 wasted on top ($220 is the initial 2013 purchase which is now useless. So total spend is $450 more over 3 years, than sticking with 2013 which you already have. Awfully expensive for an iPad app).

Then there are the PCs running Office 2007 still going strong. Going to spend this much to upgrade to Office 365 for a few extra features and an iPad app when the Office 2007 performs 99% of it's job perfectly well? Might as well use iWork/Quickoffice or go without really, for the price.


And if you don't want the Office 365 online services, only the subscription to Office 365 Desktop Apps, you still have to get the online services. So even if you are only wanting access to the iPad app, you can't get only this component at a reduced price, you must buy the whole Office 365 including online components even if you are content with your Exchange server, Google Apps or have some other system you are happy with or are required to use.

And don't get me started on Microsoft Office licensing for a Remote Desktop Services environment. Office 365 subscriptions don't work on RDS and it requires a VOLUME LICENSE copy of Office Standard or Professional Plus (minimum order 5) for each COMPUTER (NOT user) it is accessed from.

Only need features of the cheaper Home and Business ($220)? NO, you need Standard ($373)

Already have Office 365? NO, need to buy the above volume license too.

Only have 4 users? YOU WILL NEED TO BUY 5.

Want to access it from multiple computers by the same user? YOU WILL NEED TO BUY A LICENSE FOR EACH.

(Unless it is a home computer, then you can pay an additional $215 "Software Assurance" FOR EACH LICENSE IN THE ORDER to have the right for users to access from home. NO You can't pay the extra only for some users, need to buy it for all.)

Microsoft are the experts at convoluted licensing schemes and screwing you over with it.

Trust me, my company does this every other week:


You don't want to do it if you have no idea what you do. Pay the monthly fee and use Office365


If your boss doesn't like this:


To run an Exchange Server properly you need a new device (or virtual machine) since Exchange Servers tend to hog the hardware ressources which itself costs you around 1000 bucks.


Now you need an OS $750 on amazon


Microsoft Exchange $400


You should get a SSL License for around $80


Plus you need AV software for the server


Things you also need which you might already have:


Domain (rented per month)


Static IP (dyndns)


And of course Outlook 10*$220

At work we've bought a bunch of O2013-licenses that are packaged like this. Just a tiny box with a card inside it with a CD-key.

What we didn't know was the fact that the CD-key in the box is NOT the key used to activate your Office-license, t's a key you redeem online to get another key. Our environment is such that we can't allow the computers internet-access, so we are forced to redeem the key on one machine, then extract the real key from the account we redeem to, then use OSPP.vbs to enter the key, and then use the phone activation.

And I am 100% sure MS is doing it this hard on purpose to justify the 100% price increase if you want a volume license... Bah!

Well, sort of. I got a software reseller that is able to supply me with Online Product Key Licenses, so basically what you get after logging into your Office Account Dashboard and displaying the CD key.

You can however buy a Software download from Amazon. The extra effort however to get the key from the dashboard has to be made.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

Type|Item|Price

----|:----|:----
CPU | Intel Core i3-4130 3.4GHz Dual-Core Processor | $118.93 @ OutletPC
Motherboard | MSI H81M-E35 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard | $50.72 @ Newegg
Memory | G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory | $64.99 @ Newegg
Storage | Crucial M500 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk | $73.48 @ SuperBiiz
Storage | Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive | $54.98 @ OutletPC
Case | Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case | $44.99 @ NCIX US
Power Supply | EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply | $34.99 @ Micro Center
Optical Drive | Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer | $16.99 @ Newegg
Operating System | Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) | $139.48 @ OutletPC
Keyboard | Logitech MK120 Wired Slim Keyboard w/Optical Mouse | $14.99 @ B&H
Other| Microsoft Office Home and Business 2013 (1PC/1User)| $213.00
Other| Adobe Acrobat XI Software| $140.00
| | Total
| Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available. | $967.54
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-04-01 15:17 EDT-0400 |

You can save a lot of money if:

You don't need Win7 professional and can work with Win7 home premium. Here are the differences.

You don't need the Acrobat XI.

If you have a MS Office subscription/licence already.

You don't need the SSD either, but it will make the life of the users more pleasant. If you want to though, you can build it with out it and save the $75.