Microsoft licensing agreements comparison for commercial and government.

Offerings

Commitment-based cloud
services and on-premises
software

Transactional cloud services
and on-premises software

Transactional (Open License
and Open Value
non-organization-wide) or
commitment-based
(Open Value agreements)
cloud services and
on-premises software

Transactional cloud
services only

Three years

Non-expiring

Two years (Open License),
three years (Open Value agreements),
or one year (Open Value government
agreements only)

One year (auto-renew)

Purchase coverage

Organization-wide

As needed

As needed (Open License
and Open Value
non-organization-wide) or
organization-wide
(Open Value agreements)

As needed

Purchase term

Three years for initial
purchase, co-terminus
for additional purchases

One year or shorter
for select cloud services

Two years (Open License),
three years (Open Value
agreements), or one year
(cloud services and
Open Value government agreements)

One year

Purchase term expiration

Enrollment expiration

Third account anniversary
for Software Assurance;
next account anniversary
or multiyear for cloud services

Authorization expiration
(Open License), agreement
expiration (Open Value agreements),
or subscription term
expiration (one year for
cloud services)

Subscription end date
(one year or monthly)

Minimum commitment

250 (for government) or
500 (for commercial)
qualified devices/users
per pool

500 points per product
pool or 250 cloud services
users by pool (per year)

Five licenses or Licenses
and Software Assurance
(L&SA), one user subscription
license (USL), or use of
Azure pay-as-you-go

One USL or use of
Azure pay-as-you-go

Target organization size

500 or more users
(250 or more users for
government)

250 or more users

5 to 499 users for
on-premises software;
one or more users for
cloud services (up to
300 USLs for Office 365
Business editions)

One or more users

Sales model

Microsoft direct or
partner indirect (based on
geo and sector)

Partner indirect

Partner indirect

Partner indirect

Ordering

In the month of first
use for the initial product
order; annually for
subsequent orders
(per enrollment)

As needed (per purchasing
account)

As needed (Open License
and Open Value non-organization-
wide per agreement) or in
the month of first use for
the initial product order and
annually for subsequent orders
(Open Value agreements per agreement)

As needed (per CSP)

On-premises
software license

✔

✔

✔

Non-perpetual license
for on-premises software

✔

(Enterprise Subscription Agreement)

✔

(Open Value Subscription)

Cloud services user
subscription license (USL)

✔

✔

✔

✔

Provisioning of cloud
services prior to order

✔

✔

Software Assurance

✔
(included)

✔
(optional)

✔
(optional for Open License;
included with
Open Value Agreements)

Price list

Commercial and Government

Commercial, Government
and Academic

Commercial, government,
academic, and nonprofit
organizations for the
Open License

Commercial and Government

Price level
determination

Based on user and
device license quantity
by pool or qualifying
contract for commercial;
single price level for government

Based on points by
pool or qualifying
contract for commercial;
single price level for
public sector

Based on product pools
(commercial Open License)
or device quantity (commercial
Open Value agreements);
single price level for public sector

No price level
(price set by CSP)

Price protection

All products and services
included in the agreement

One-year subscription
for cloud services

Select products (Open
Value agreements,
organization-wide)

Cloud services subscription
length in one-year increments

Upfront payments

✔
(one to three years)

✔
(one to three years)

✔
(Open License one to
two years; Open Value
one to three years)

✔
(monthly)

Annual (spread)
payments

✔

✔

✔
(Open Value Agreements)

Microsoft Financing
(where available)

✔

✔

✔