Microsoft Office Subscription: Is it cost-effective?

I recently applied for (and got accepted into) Red Rocks Community College. I specifically applied for the Health Sciences program, whose campus is in Arvada, Colorado, which is sort of in the general vicinity of Downtown Denver. But anyway, for this article, that is kind of beside the point.

One of the benefits of this particular academic institution is the fact that they give their students a license for Microsoft Office 365 at no additional cost. When it was first introduced with Windows 8, I was intrigued at the concept. In short, the consumer pays an eight-dollar monthly fee, and receives software upgrades at no additional cost when they are released, as long as the subscription is still valid. 

The subscription, if purchased at retail price, grants a user five desktop licenses, as well as five additional tablet and phone licenses, each. This costs one hundred dollars per year, and also comes with an hour of the paid version of Skype, so there are a lot of benefits.

On the reverse side, a retail box copy of the current version of Microsoft Office (now 2016 for both Mac and PC) is a flat fee of one hundred and fifty dollars (all prices are United States dollars) and not only doesn't get the additional perks of Office 365, but once the Office license is purchased, the user is stuck with the current version of Office on their machine with no hope for an upgrade unless another retail product is purchased.  

Initially, I thought that the pricing meant that Office 365 would be a waste of money, especially since when it was introduced, Microsoft hadn't updated Office for Macintosh since 2011 -- not that I had ever intended to purchase a Mac in the first place. However, a few weeks ago, Microsoft released Office 2016 (as mentioned above) and it was released for Macintosh as well as PC. The cost for the full retail version, as also mentioned above, was between one hundred fifty and four hundred dollars, depending on the version purchased. When placed in this perspective, Office 365 is a bargain.  

The subscription also includes licenses for up to ten mobile devices for the Home version, and up to three for the University edition, but in the latter case, there is a cost of one PC license if three mobile licenses are used. Ironically, Microsoft's Office Mobile apps are already available in the Google Play Store at no charge, regardless of whether the user has Office 365 or not, and I already have them installed on my phone (see Just Made an App Swap) so this isn't really good or bad news, it's just news. On the flip side, though, a person can just head over to Google Play and download the apps separately and save one of their licenses for a desktop or laptop computer as well.

All in all, I feel that yes, Office 365 is a cost effective alternative to its full retail counterpart. While I was skeptical at first, I have practically become converted to the concept, and I will admit, that having a license handed out to me by an academic institution just for enrolling with them might have swayed my vote.