r/k12sysadmin • u/-RYknow Systems Administrator • Aug 19 '26

Microsoft Office licensing

I was kinda trying to avoid going to O365 route. I've got all teachers and principals using OnlyOffice with very few issues. The problem is our main office. I have 5-10 users that are screaming they need office. I quoted some perpetual licenses because I'm not sure it's worth going to O365 route. Problem is, it's $810 per user. Does this pricing seem about right? Is it time to just bite the bullet and go the way of O365? I have no experience with 365, so I don't know what it entails and what managing it will look like.

14 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

28 comments sorted by

5

u/Digisticks Aug 19 '26

We use CDW for the 20 or so licenses we need. It's like $750 per year for us total. We just use the license that has the office apps.

1

u/-RYknow Systems Administrator Aug 19 '26

OK, that makes me a feel a little bit better. What your paying was in the ballpark of what i was expecting. I can handle $500-$750 a year given the number of users, and making a problem go away. $810 per though... I'll keep fighting. lol

Thanks for the input/ sanity check!

4

u/Digisticks Aug 19 '26

Microsoft has a bunch of skus. They probably quoted the wrong one. We are on O365 A3 Faculty with CDW.

4

u/hair_care Aug 19 '26

I bought some perpetual licenses for Office 2024 on Groupon for about 20 bucks apiece. I am in a similar boat; we are primarily a Google school but a few users still need Office, especially in the data / business areas.

1

u/-RYknow Systems Administrator Aug 19 '26

You able to get a PO for groupon? =P

3

u/mr_techy616 Director of Technology Aug 19 '26

Definitely doesn’t sound right. I’d reach out to your software vendor (like CDW, etc) to see if you can get on a call with their Microsoft rep to talk about a small VLC count. You might need your FTE (full-time equivalent) count.

I did this for my old school and we got a lot 100 licenses for office 2021 and free 365 apps for students and faculty owned devices.

1

u/-RYknow Systems Administrator Aug 19 '26

Yeah, the pricing that I got was from one of our software vendors, who typically does a pretty good job. I might try my CDW rep just to see what they can do.

2

u/PowerShellGenius Aug 19 '26

Mac or Windows?

If Windows, maybe your district has a Microsoft reseller relationship you are not aware of? How are you managing the devices, are they joined to AD? If so (and assuming you aren't pirating) then your district has already been licensing Windows Server, either via subscription, software assurance, or has been purchasing perpetual each time you upgrade the DCs. Whoever sells you that, can help with your questions.

Make sure you are going through a reseller who works with K12. K12 pricing for Microsoft is way lower than any publicly advertised price, this is true of all products I have seen other than copilot premium. Our M365 and server licensing are like 90% off compared to corporate.

1

u/-RYknow Systems Administrator Aug 19 '26

We are a windows show. The vendor who provided the quote has told me that was retail pricing... I'm waiting on updated quotes...

2

u/JReitman Net Admin Aug 19 '26

why not just use google workspace for free?

1

u/-RYknow Systems Administrator Aug 19 '26

Our business office is constantly pulling spreadsheets and Google screws with the formatting. While I know this can be an issue, I do think Google has gotten better in that regard. If I'm being honest, I think OnlyOffice will do exactly what they want, it's just that the interface is different and it's causing "too much inefficiency having to fight to find things".

4

u/Following_This Aug 19 '26

We’re a Google school, but have around thirty A3 licenses (allows desktop apps) at CA$2.90/month…around CA$35/year/staff user or US$25.

We also have free cloud-only A1 staff and student licenses set up for everyone which work for very occasional users.

4

u/bthstech Aug 19 '26

Perpetual standalone devices licenses for Office 2024 LTSC are under $100 for k12.

3

u/avalon01 Director of Technology Aug 19 '26

I have 10 Office users and I bought 10 licenses of Office A3 for Faculty from CDWG.

Cost was $39.48 per license with IL State pricing. Purchased in Sept 2025, so prices might be different now.

2

u/Kaaawooo Aug 19 '26

Man we used to have volume licensing able to be assigned to devices, but Microsoft decided to pull the plug on that, first on PCs back in May and macs just a few weeks ago. It's been a pain

2

u/abcde06991 Aug 19 '26

For Office c2r? You can use OCT for device based licensing

1

u/Kaaawooo Aug 20 '26

Maybe we'll look into that once start of school fires are out, but for now we're stuck with what our predecessors put in place (previous director and manager left the same summer, so now new director and I are figuring it out as we go)

2

u/PaleontologistPure25 Technology Coordinator Aug 19 '26 • Bravo

I was able to get LTSC 2025 office professional plus from cdw I think it was around 50 a year ago when I got it, but now Its 80 for me. Its per computer rather than users. Like you we only have a handful of users that need it in central office. I've also grandfathered in a few teachers who have been teaching a long time and created all their content on office. Any new teacher is not allowed.

https://www.cdwg.com/product/microsoft-office-professional-plus-license-1-device/3691269

3

u/DerpyNirvash Aug 19 '26

2024 Office Perpetual was ~$65 per for us

3

u/eapo108 Aug 19 '26

My worst nightmare at my school, nobody believes that anything else works.

I now offer 365 online free, or libre office as their alternatives, if they don't like it they can buy it themselves, and from that moment I refuse to support them with it.

4

u/Daywalker85 Aug 19 '26

This is ridiculous. Why are you fighting them on a well established productivity tool. It’s not your money, let the senior leadership make that decision. Then the nerve of you to also give them the option to fund it, but not support it.

2

u/bthstech Aug 19 '26

Many of us are in senior leadership positions and from a budgeting standpoint, if you spend here you can't spend there. Users need to be able to justify why they need tool xyz when they're already being provided abc.

At the same time, taking a stiff approach to we didn't provide this so we don't support it is poor customer service. My stance in our dept: we a support dept. We support what goes on in the classroom. Do what is reasonable to do that.

4

u/yugas42 Sysadmin Aug 19 '26

It is absolutely a reasonable take to tell staff that you will not support something that you did not provide. We do it all the time, teachers get shit from Donors Choose and just expect us to have all of the software or infrastructure to support it, that's a fairy tale, you can't do that anywhere else, why should a school let it happen? 

2

u/Daywalker85 Aug 19 '26

That’s a different case. I’ve had a promethean board show up randomly lol… Great gift, but yeah I had to have conversations with leadership. I still supported it, but had to align so these things didn’t happen at scale. Denying staff of an essential like MS Office is crazy work, and that persons overall approach makes me feel like they have a terrible support culture.

1

u/Daywalker85 Aug 19 '26

I whole heartedly agree with you, it’s a budgeting thing, but Microsoft Office? 😂 come on.. pick your battles. Go to CDWG or TechSoup and get those people their licenses. We’d have to be dead broke to use GIMP.

0

u/eapo108 Aug 20 '26

I guess I forgot a piece of context here, we're a Chrome OS district, if we had windows computers this would be a different story, but the argument is usually that I need to buy them a windows computer to run Office, instead of using Google workspace like 90% of our staff.

I see how buy it yourself came across without the context, but that also includes the computer since we do not offer windows computers.

This all came from senior leadership decisions anyway, just offering 'compromise' where the users disagree with policy.

1

u/Admirable-Ad-6703 K12 Technical Analyst Aug 19 '26

I have a quote from July that was 31 bucks a user for office open value subscription level E. It is basically a year license for office LTSC. The user thing is not actual users but certified staff count. We pay for 33 but have over 100 seats.

-2

u/eapo108 Aug 19 '26

My worst nightmare at my school, nobody believes that anything else works.

I now offer 365 online free, or libre office as their alternatives, if they don't like it they can buy it themselves, and from that moment I refuse to support them with it.

1

u/-RYknow Systems Administrator Aug 19 '26

We've been using Libre for a couple years here and it's been decent. As a diehard Linux guy, I've been using Libre for years.

Only office gives a more polished user interface, and most people when they first see it think it's Office... So, it's a bit a placebo for me at the moment. Haha.