Office 2019 vs Office 2021: what changes and which to buy
Office 2019 and Office 2021 come with the same apps — Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Access and Publisher — and both are perpetual licenses. The difference lies in Excel functions that are now taken for granted, and in support.
The differences
- Support: Office 2019 support ended on 14 October 2025 and it no longer gets security patches. Office 2021 is supported until 13 October 2026.
- Excel 2021 adds XLOOKUP, XMATCH and LET, plus dynamic arrays: FILTER, SORT, SORTBY, UNIQUE, SEQUENCE and RANDARRAY.
- Excel 2021 adds Sheet Views and calculates SUMIF, COUNTIF and AVERAGEIF faster.
- Word, Excel and PowerPoint 2021 support real-time co-authoring and modern comments in shared documents.
- Word 2021 has Dark Mode and Line Focus; Outlook 2021 has Translator for more than 70 languages and Instant Search.
- PowerPoint 2021 records presentations with presenter video, ink and laser pointer.
- Office 2021 saves in OpenDocument 1.3 and has a visual refresh in line with Windows 11.
- Both run on Windows 10 and Windows 11.
System requirements side by side
| Office 2019 | Office 2021 | |
|---|---|---|
| Operating system | Windows 11, Windows 10, Windows 10 LTSC 2021/2019, Windows Server 2025/2022/2019 | Windows 11, Windows 11 LTSC 2024, Windows 10 LTSC 2021/2019, Windows Server 2025/2022/2019 |
| Processor | 1.6 GHz, 2 cores | 1.1 GHz, 2 cores |
| Memory | 4 GB (2 GB on 32-bit) | 4 GB |
| Disk space | 4 GB | 4 GB |
| Screen resolution | 1280 x 768 | 1280 x 768 (64-bit needed for 4K) |
| Graphics | DirectX 9+, WDDM 2.0+ on Windows 10 | DirectX 9 or later |
| Notes | .NET 3.5 / 4.6+; NO Microsoft account required | .NET 3.5 / 4.6+; NO Microsoft account required |
Which one is right for you?
Office 2021 is the sensible choice: the same apps, the new Excel functions and support until October 2026. Office 2019 still works and its license remains valid, but it no longer gets security updates.