Microsoft Home Use Program
Microsoft Home Use Program (HUP) is a program where you can buy Microsoft programs at a discounted rate. If your company have an agreement with Microsoft and it's pretty common if your company use a lot of Microsoft programs
Traditionally it's been mainly Office programs you can buy and exactly what, have been depending on what Office programs your company is running. As the company I work for have been running standalone Office, M365 have not been available for me in the past and only the standalone license Office package
Now Microsoft is pushing M365 harder and only offer Microsoft 365, it have stopped offering Office Professional Plus and Office Home and Business. If your company have selected you for additional application discounts, you might also see Visio Professional and Project Professional
How do I know if I'm eligible?
Go to microsoft.com/en-us/home-use-program [↗] and fill in your company e-mail and click Get started
Now you'll get a confirmation Thanks! Check your work email to confirm eligibility
Check your e-mail
You will get an e-mail, informing you if you are eligible or not
As you can see on the e-mail above, I was eligible. Now I can click Get started (or copy past the URL found further down in the e-mail)
Login to your Personal Microsoft Account
After clicking the Get started link, you'll be taken to a login page for Microsoft (if you're not already signed in)
You need to logon with your personal Microsoft Account and not work account. If you don't have an account, you can click create one
Select your offer
You can take part of these offers, even if you've an active M365 subscription from before. You'll get 30% off your M365 subscription through HUP and as long as you've enabled automatic renewal, you'll continue receiving 30% discount on the renewals as well. When I wrote this article at the beginning of the summer, they had a 50% off first period deal to new HUP signups, but now is back to 30%. Still, 30% off every renewal isn't that bad deal
The discount will be based on the normal sales price in your region for M365. I've selected US here, as most is familiar with US$. I personally signed up using PHP, as I'm located in the Philippines at the time. M365 prices can vary slight around the world, as the tax rates might be different and I also feel there's some minor adoptions to local markets
If you use Visio Professional and Project Professional in your current assignment, your company might have added the option for you to get them through the HUP as well
What if I already have a M365 subscription?
If you already have an active M365 subscription (as was the case for me), time will be added to your current subscription
I bought 1 year of M365 Family from HUP and that extended my current renewal date (expiry date) with one year. So I can see my next renewal is in two years and the renewal price is listed with the 30% discount
Source: Microsoft.com
