Are you ready for Office 2021 end of life?
Five questions to measure how far you still have to go before 13 October 2026.
1 / 5 — Do you know which Office version runs on each of your computers?
Plenty of Swiss SMEs bought Office 2021 so they would never have to think about subscriptions again. The logic looked solid: pay once, get working software, and no monthly invoice. That logic is now running out. On 13 October 2026, Microsoft will ship the last fixes for Office 2021, and then nothing.
Does that mean you should rush to Microsoft 365? Not necessarily. In fact, Microsoft itself offers two paths, and the subscription is not always the right one. Doing nothing, however, is not a neutral choice. A copy of Word or Outlook without patches stays exposed to every flaw discovered after that date. This article will therefore help you decide with the facts in hand: the official dates, the hidden costs of each option and a method to act before the deadline.
First, the reassuring part: your apps will not shut down. According to Microsoft’s official page on the end of support for Office 2021, all your applications can keep working. Microsoft also states that it will offer no extension and no extended security updates. In other words, there is no paid grace period this time, unlike what Windows 10 users were offered.
In practice, here is what disappears after 13 October 2026:
Moreover, the date covers the whole 2021 family. It applies to Office Home and Business 2021, very common in small companies, and to Office LTSC 2021, the volume-licensed edition. Project 2021 and Visio 2021 stop on the same day. As for Office 2016 and Office 2019, they have already been out of support since October 2025.
To find out which version runs on your machines, open Word, then go to File and Account. The exact product name appears there. Check a few representative computers: in a small business, several versions often coexist without anyone knowing.
The first risk is obvious. Every month, researchers uncover flaws in office suites. A single Word or Excel file received by email is often enough to exploit them. After 13 October, however, those flaws will stay open on your computers. The danger therefore does not show up the next morning, but it grows with every vulnerability published.
Meanwhile, up-to-date versions will keep receiving fixes. When a flaw affects both Microsoft 365 and Office 2021, only the former will get the patch. As a result, the security gap between your machines and those of an up-to-date company will widen every month, and attackers go first for what is no longer protected.
The second risk surprises more people. Many companies run Office 2021 on their desktops alongside Exchange Online mail or files stored in OneDrive. Yet Microsoft’s documentation on connectivity to Microsoft 365 services sets a limit here too: Microsoft only supports Office LTSC 2021 connecting to these services until 13 October 2026.
For instance, Outlook 2021 will not lose your mailbox overnight. However, Microsoft warns that older versions may miss out on new features. Over time, they may also run into performance or reliability problems. That is because service changes are no longer tested against them.
Finally, there is the legal angle. Article 8 of the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection requires appropriate technical and organisational measures to ensure the security of personal data. The law names no software. Nevertheless, after an incident, explaining that a computer processed customer data with an unpatched office suite for months will be hard to defend.
The first option simply extends your current model. Microsoft actually recommends it for organisations that are not ready to move to the cloud. Microsoft sells Office 2024 and Office LTSC 2024 as perpetual licences, and their support runs until October 2029. You buy once, you install, and your teams get familiar applications.
This option does come with three limits worth knowing before you order:
Office 2024 therefore fits a specific context well. Think of a standalone workstation, a heavily regulated environment, or a small team that uses Word and Excel with no online services. For a team that already shares files and email in the cloud, on the other hand, it mostly postpones the problem.
The second option is the one Microsoft pushes first. With a Microsoft 365 subscription, the apps update continuously. Consequently, end of support stops being an issue as long as you stay on a current version. Connecting to Exchange Online, SharePoint and OneDrive also remains supported.
Be careful with the plan you pick, though. Microsoft 365 Business Basic only gives access to the web and mobile versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint. To get the desktop apps back, you need Business Standard at the very least. Many SMEs find this out after the migration, when someone goes looking for their usual Excel.
In addition, the subscription opens the door to Copilot, the AI assistant built into Word, Excel, Outlook and Teams. It requires an extra licence, but it simply does not exist in perpetual versions. For a team that writes, analyses and presents a lot, that is a concrete argument, provided users are trained to make the most of it.
The real cost of Microsoft 365 is not the subscription, by the way. It is the support around it. Menus change regularly, new features keep arriving, and teams that were never trained often use a tenth of what they pay for.
To make the call, put both options next to each other. The table below covers the criteria that really matter in a small business.
| Criterion | Office 2024 | Microsoft 365 |
|---|---|---|
| How you pay | Perpetual licence, paid once | Monthly or annual subscription |
| End of support | October 2029 | None, as long as updates are applied |
| New features | None after release | Continuous |
| Copilot | Not available | Available with an extra licence |
| Connection to Exchange Online and OneDrive | Supported until October 2029 | Supported continuously |
| Next forced migration | 2029 | None |
In short, Office 2024 buys you four quiet years. Microsoft 365, on the other hand, removes the question for good, in exchange for a recurring cost and a training effort. For most teams that already work together online, the second choice remains the more consistent one.
This autumn hits project teams twice. On the one hand, Project 2021 and Visio 2021 lose support on 13 October, like the rest of the suite. On the other hand, an even closer deadline is waiting for them.
Microsoft has indeed announced that Project Online will be retired on 30 September 2026. The online portfolio management service disappears completely, and its data becomes inaccessible. If your schedules still live there, exporting them is an absolute priority, even before the Office question.
Note, however, that this retirement affects neither Project desktop nor Planner. Microsoft now steers its customers towards Planner, whose premium plans include Gantt charts, dependencies and portfolio views. For complex schedules, the perpetual Project 2024 remains supported until October 2029.
Three weeks are enough for a company with a few dozen computers, provided you start right away. Here is the order we recommend:
Lastly, keep a written record of the process. It documents the security measures you took, which also helps in case of an audit or an incident. If you switch to the subscription, our practical guide to Copilot in Microsoft 365 will help you get value from the new features in the very first weeks.
Office 2021 reaching end of life will not switch off a single computer on 14 October. It does, however, turn every computer left behind into an entry point that nobody will ever patch again. The decision is therefore not about whether to move, but about which way to go.
Office 2024 extends the current model until 2029, with nothing new. Microsoft 365 ends forced migrations, at the price of a subscription and a real support effort. Either way, start with the inventory this week: it will tell you how much time you really have left.
Will Office 2021 stop working on 14 October 2026?
No. The apps keep opening and working. However, they no longer receive any security fixes, and Microsoft offers no paid extension.
How do I check which version of Office I have?
Open Word, then File and Account. The product name appears under “Product Information”. If it says Microsoft 365, you are already on the subscription.
How long is Office 2024 supported?
Microsoft supports Office 2024 and Office LTSC 2024 until October 2029. They only receive fixes, never new features.
Will my Office 2021 files open in Microsoft 365?
Yes, the file formats are the same. Test macros, custom templates and business-specific add-ins first.
What happens to my Project Online schedules after 30 September?
They become inaccessible, as the service shuts down for good. Export them now to Project desktop or to Planner with a premium licence.
ITTA is the leader in IT training and project management solutions and services in French-speaking Switzerland.
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