Cost guides
What Microsoft licences actually cost
Microsoft list prices, the CALs nobody budgets for, and the exact point where a subscription overtakes a one-time purchase — worked through with real numbers.
Windows Server 2022 license price: full cost breakdown
What Windows Server 2022 actually costs in 2026 — Standard vs Datacenter vs Essentials, core packs, CALs and the real total for a typical 16-core server.
See the breakdown →Office 2024 lifetime licence: what it costs and what you get
Office 2024 one-time purchase pricing in 2026 — Home, Home & Business and Professional Plus, versus the running cost of a Microsoft 365 subscription.
See the breakdown →Visio licence cost: Professional 2024 vs Visio Plan 1 and Plan 2
How much Microsoft Visio costs in 2026 — Visio Professional 2024 one-time pricing against Visio Plan 1 and Plan 2 monthly subscriptions, with a break-even table.
See the breakdown →SQL Server 2022 licence cost: per-core vs Server+CAL
SQL Server 2022 pricing explained — Standard and Enterprise per-core costs, the Server+CAL alternative, and where each model becomes cheaper.
See the breakdown →
What actually drives a Microsoft licensing bill
List price is rarely the number you end up paying. Windows Server is priced per physical core with a 16-core minimum per server and an 8-core minimum per processor, then every human or device that connects needs a client access licence on top. SQL Server offers a per-core model with no CALs and a Server+CAL model that is far cheaper for small, countable user populations. Office splits between a perpetual purchase you own and a subscription you rent.
The pages below work each of those models through with real arithmetic — including the break-even point where a subscription overtakes a one-time purchase, and the moments where adding one more virtual machine or one more part-time employee changes the cheapest answer entirely.
- 16
- core minimum per Windows Server
- 8
- core minimum per processor
- ~2.5 yrs
- typical Office subscription break-even
- 2
- SQL Server licensing models compared
Licensing models at a glance
The model decides the bill far more than the edition does. Find yours before comparing prices.
| Product | How it is counted | The cost nobody budgets for |
|---|---|---|
| Windows Server Standard | Per physical core, 16-core minimum | A CAL for every user or device that connects |
| Windows Server Datacenter | Per physical core, unlimited VMs | Only pays off above roughly 12 VMs per host |
| SQL Server Standard (Server+CAL) | One server licence plus a CAL per user | Becomes unworkable once users are hard to count |
| SQL Server Standard (per core) | Per core, 4-core minimum per instance | Virtual cores count, not physical, when licensing a VM |
| Office 2024 (perpetual) | Per device, one-time | No feature updates, no Outlook in Home & Student |
| Microsoft 365 | Per user, per month | Cost never stops; five years doubles a perpetual buy |
| Visio / Project | Per user or per device | Plan 1 vs Plan 2 differ on desktop app availability |
Get these five numbers before you request a quote
- Physical core count per server, including inactive cores — Microsoft counts them anyway.
- Peak concurrent users and total named users; the smaller number decides the CAL model.
- Number of virtual machines per host today and your realistic 24-month projection.
- Whether anyone outside your organisation touches the system — that changes the licensing model entirely.
- How long you will keep the hardware; the answer decides perpetual versus subscription on its own.
Licensing cost FAQ
- Why is Windows Server priced per core rather than per server?
- Microsoft moved to core-based licensing with Windows Server 2016 so that pricing scales with compute capacity. You license all physical cores in the server, with a floor of 8 per processor and 16 per server, then add CALs for access.
- When does Datacenter beat Standard?
- Standard grants two virtualised OS environments per licensed set of cores, so you re-license the same cores for each additional pair of VMs. Somewhere around 10 to 14 VMs per host, Datacenter's unlimited virtualisation becomes cheaper.
- Is a perpetual Office licence cheaper than Microsoft 365?
- Over roughly two and a half years, yes, if you do not need Outlook, mobile apps or 1 TB of cloud storage. Beyond that the subscription keeps charging while the perpetual licence keeps working.
- Do I need CALs for a server nobody logs into directly?
- Usually yes. CALs cover authenticated access of any kind, including service accounts and devices that connect indirectly through middleware — the multiplexing rules explicitly close that loophole.
- Are second-hand perpetual licences a legitimate way to cut cost?
- Within the EU, yes for perpetual licences that were first sold in the EEA and are transferred in full, following the Court of Justice's UsedSoft ruling. Subscriptions and partially split volume agreements are not transferable.
- Do these figures include VAT?
- No. All cost breakdowns use ex-VAT list pricing so they compare cleanly across countries; your invoice will add local VAT at checkout.