If you have ever been curious about the difference between the variety of personal and business computer software programs out there, you are not alone as this is often an area of confusion for many users. At Jaguar, we have people contacting us all the time to ask us about the difference.

Many times the only difference between the two is that beyond the similarities associated with each program, the business software option is likely to have some extra features that allow businesses to adapt the program to their specialized business-related needs.

Now with that being said, this is actually not the case for the likes of Microsoft’s Office 365 Home and Office 365 Business applications. These two programs do in fact each possess their own distinct features and capabilities. Another question you may have is, ‘why is this distinction so important?’

If you are a small to medium-sized business owner, you will want to be aware of the difference in each version, because it is not uncommon for small businesses to end up purchasing the Office Home program instead of the Business version as it is their belief that these two programs are the same.

Now again, since these programs are actually different, you can probably see that this may pose a bit of an issue for businesses who want to benefit from software that is designed specifically with business solutions in mind. Therefore, as a business owner if you are using the Home version, you are likely to find you are missing out on many of these important capabilities.

So now that this initial variation between the two programs has been cleared up, what is the actual difference between Microsoft Home Personal and its counterpart, Microsoft Home/Personal & Business?

To begin with, it is important to also clarify that when registering for Office 365 as a whole, there are multiple services that a customer can sign up for – and together these services all add up to your personalized Office 365 plan. For example, programs such as the emailing service, Exchange, the Sharing feature, SharePoint and the cloud storage element, known as OneDrive to mention a few, may all be added to your plan on an individual basis.

Another decision that Office 365 users will need to make as they set out to personalize their applications, is whether they will register for the ‘Home’ or the ‘Business’ version – with the understanding that these programs do represent two different categories. Subsequently, this should be the first decision they need to make even before selecting their à la carte services and features.

To further explain the difference between the two, the Home/Personal program is designed to suit the needs of an individual user or an entire family. While the more basic services are included in this plan, such as Skype, OneDrive and Office ProPlus, more business-related components are not included in the basic package.

Therefore, if you want to utilize Office 365’s programs and services in a business environment, you will want to register for the Microsoft Home/Personal & Business plan as it will also enable you to subscribe to additional features that include the email service, Exchange and the beneficial business feature, SharePoint.

To further benefit your business-centred requirements, the Office 365 Business version, also allows you to devise personalized plans for you company as well for each employee based on which services they require for their daily tasks. For example, additional features such as VoIP phones through Skype for Business, the internal social network Yammer, PowerBI: Business analytics, Compliance protection, and online conference calls and meetings through Skype can all be selected via the Business software platform version.

As you can see, the Business counterpart of the Office 365 program deserves to be recognized as a distinct entity as it can allow companies to enhance their business-related tasks well beyond what the capabilities offered through the existing Home/Personal version can.

In the end, with a bit more background on these two user-friendly programs, you can more effectively choose which program will be the best fit for you and your business right from the start. In turn, you can also just as quickly take advantage and use these services to their fullest potential.