Office Web Apps platform comparison overview
Applies to: Office 2010
Topic Last Modified: 2014-03-11
Microsoft Office Web Apps are online companions to Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. They enable people to view, share, and work on documents with other people online across personal computers, mobile phones, and the web.
There are three different ways you can get Office Web Apps. Business customers who are licensed for Microsoft Office 2010 through a Volume Licensing program can run Office Web Apps on-premises on a server that runs Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 or Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010. For more information, see Microsoft Volume Licensing. Microsoft also offers a hosted SharePoint Online service that can run Office Web Apps. Office Web Apps are also available to consumers through OneDrive. By comparing the capabilities of Office Web Apps in three different environments, you can help determine the best approach for your organization.
Note
Outlook Web App is not covered in this article as it is provided with Microsoft Exchange Server or Exchange Online. For more information, see Getting started with Outlook Web App in Office 365 or What's new for Outlook Web Apps in Exchange 2013.
The following table provides a summary of the capabilities of Office Web Apps on OneDrive, on Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products if they are installed on-premises, and Office Web Apps on SharePoint Online. For the most current capabilities of Office Web Apps on SharePoint Online, see Office 365 Service Description for Office Web Apps.
| Capability | OneDrive* | SharePoint 2010 installed on-premises** | SharePoint Online*** |
|---|---|---|---|
Audience |
For personal use |
For business use |
For business use |
Storage space |
25 GB |
Configurable by IT |
Configurable by IT |
File size limits |
50 MB per file for Word, PowerPoint, and OneNote: 2 MB for Excel |
Configurable by IT |
10 MB to render in Excel Web App. 250 MB upload limit for Word, PowerPoint, OneNote and Excel files. |
Pricing |
Free |
Office 2010 volume license |
Volume license for Office 2010, or Office Professional Plus 2013, or subscription for Office 365 ProPlus |
Ad Supported |
✓ |
||
Backup and restore |
✓ |
✓ |
|
Document life cycle management |
✓ |
✓ |
|
IT admin control |
✓ |
✓ |
|
Ability to create new documents† |
✓ |
Configurable by IT if Office desktop applications are not installed on the active computer. |
Configurable by IT if Office desktop applications are not installed on the active computer. |
Browsers supported |
Windows: Internet Explorer 7 or later versions, Firefox (latest released version), and Chrome (latest released version) Mac: Safari (latest released version), Firefox (latest released version) Linux: Firefox (latest released version), Chrome (latest released version) |
Windows: Internet Explorer 7 or later versions, Firefox (latest released version), and Chrome (latest released version) Mac: Safari (latest released version) (limited functionality), Firefox (latest released version) Linux: Firefox (latest released version) Chrome (latest released version) Office 2010, Service Pack 1 (SP1) supports Chrome (latest released version) on Windows and Linux. |
Windows: Internet Explorer 8 or later versions, Firefox (latest released version) and Chrome (latest released version) Mac: Safari (latest released version), Firefox (latest released version) Linux: Firefox (latest released version), Chrome (latest released version) |
Mobile support |
Word, Excel, and PowerPoint Web Apps |
Word, Excel, and PowerPoint Web Apps |
Word, Excel, and PowerPoint Web Apps |
Mobile browsers supported |
Internet Explorer: Windows Phone 7 or later versions Safari 5: iPhone 3G and 3GS, iPhone 4 (viewing), and Android 2.2 (viewing) Safari 5.1: iPad (limited viewing and editing capability) Safari 6 or later versions: iPad versions 2 and 3 (full functionality) |
Internet Explorer: Windows Phone 7 or later versions Safari 4 & 5: iPhone 3G or 3GS, iPhone 4 (viewing) Other browsers: BlackBerry 5.x and later versions, Nokia S60 3.x and 5.0, and Android 1.6, 2.1, and 2.2 (viewing) |
Internet Explorer: Windows Phone 7 or later versions Safari 5: iPhone 3G or 3GS, iPhone 4 (viewing) Safari 5.1: iPad (limited viewing and editing capability) Safari 6 or later versions: iPad versions 2 and 3 (full functionality) Other browsers: BlackBerry 5.x and later versions, Nokia S60 3.x and Nokia S60 5.0, and Android 4.0 or later versions (viewing) |
Note
- For the most current information about the capabilities of Office Web Apps on OneDrive, see OneDrive and Office work together and Office Web Apps on Office.com.
** For the most current list of the browsers supported by Office Web Apps on SharePoint 2010 installed on-premises, see Plan browser support (SharePoint Server 2010) or Plan browser support (SharePoint Foundation 2010).
*** For the most current and detailed list of the capabilities of Office Web Apps on SharePoint Online, see the following articles.
† For information about how to create new documents, see Using Office Web Apps to Create New Files.