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SOFTWARE
Office 2021 joins the October retirement list as customers weigh pricier alternatives
Microsoft will retire Project Online and remove Publisher from Microsoft 365 over the coming weeks, while support for perpetual versions of Publisher and for Office 2021 will end shortly afterward.
Publisher, Microsoft's desktop publishing application, dates back to the Windows 3.x era. Microsoft announced its retirement in 2024 and will remove it from Microsoft 365 subscriptions on October 1, 2026. Support for perpetual versions will end on October 13 alongside Office LTSC 2021 and Consumer Office 2021.
Project Online will retire on September 30. The following day, Project Online Essentials – a licensing SKU that gives users limited access to Project Online and Project Server – will reach end of life. It has not been available to new customers since October 2025.
The retirement could catch out organizations that have not migrated. Essentials provides relatively inexpensive licenses for users who needed to update tasks, submit timesheets, and view project information without the broader capabilities of Microsoft's more expensive plans.
Unlike Publisher, which has no direct replacement, Microsoft recommends moving Project Online Essentials users to Planner Plan 1 or Planner and Project Plan 3, depending on the capabilities and Project Server access rights they require. The additional functionality and potentially higher cost may not appeal to everyone, though.
There are also third-party replacements. ProjectLibre, for example, launched ProjectLibre Cloud AI 2.0 this week. It costs just under $10 per user per month when billed annually and is one of several third-party alternatives to Microsoft's project management products.
While Microsoft will not offer an Extended Security Updates program for Office 2021 after support ends, third-party provider 0patch says it will supply unofficial security fixes for critical vulnerabilities for at least another three years.
Organizations still assigning Project Online Essentials licenses must move affected users to supported alternatives before October 1 to avoid interrupting their access. ®
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