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Updated and revised May 12, 2025
Dear fellow users,
Microsoft announced in late 2024 that it will discontinue and drop support for Microsoft Publisher after October 13, 2026. The announcement was posted on Microsoft's 365 admin center on February 15, 2024:
"In October 2026, Microsoft Publisher will reach its end of life. After that time, it will no longer be included in Microsoft 365 and existing on-premises suites will no longer be supported. Until then, support for Publisher will continue and users can expect the same experience as today."
Microsoft also stated that it will try to incorporate Publisher like features in other 365 apps:
"As we look ahead to the retirement of Microsoft Publisher, we are exploring modern ways to achieve other common Publisher scenarios across applications like Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Designer. We will update as we have more to share. "
Learn more on Microsoft's website
Publisher has been around since 1991 and has been used by millions for preparing newsletters/bulletins, brochures and cards for organizations, parishes, etc. Like you, many are wondering what to do. Your option is to either purchase other desktop publishing software (see below), or use Microsoft Word. I have used Word to create bulletins, although it involves more work and is some ways awkward to use. It is possible to print bulletins in booklet format and you can create text boxes and link them as in Publish. The only advantage is that Word offers better control and use of styles.
Can I still use Publisher on my computer?
Users who have the stand-alone edition can keep using the software and reinstall it forever. Publisher included with 365 will continue to run on your computer, except if you must reinstall or switch to a new computer. It's not clear yet whether Microsoft will automatically uninstall the software, or simply prevent the software from running after October 2026. For those using the 365 version of Publisher, Microsoft advises users to create PDF versions of their documents to preserve them.
Alternative Software
Unfortunately, Microsoft has already stopped selling licenses for the standalone version of Publisher. Other companies that sell Publisher licenses online have also stopped selling Publisher.
For a complete list of desktop publishing software available to users, visit these pages on Wikipedia:
Comparison of desktop publishing software:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_desktop_publishing_software
List of desktop publishing software:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_desktop_publishing_software
Be aware that publication software like Adobe InDesign and QuarkXPress are extremely expense and designed for the professional desktop publication industry, and involve a steeper learning curve. There are less expensive online-based or desktop-based publication desktop publication apps available.
What's the closest equivalent to Microsoft Publisher?
At this point, Microsoft 365 users who need a Publisher-like app should consider purchasing Affinity Publisher 2. It is easy to use and has more features than Microsoft Publisher (e.g., include footnotes, better text handling). You can purchase and download it directly from Affinity's website (or through Microsoft Store in Windows 10 or 11). For more information about Affinity Publisher, visit: https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/publisher/. Affinity Publisher has received generally favorable reviews and awards. A huge bonus is that the software is available for both the Windows AND macOS platforms (and lately an iPad version was released). Affinity Publisher is only available as a stand-alone desktop app. There is NO subscription. Cost is $86.99 CAD ($US cost will be less) and is one-time purchase. You will get updates, and you can always upgrade, when you need to. Affinity is a European-based software company that has been around for many years and continues to develop and update Affinity Publisher. Affinity also sells photo-editing software that works great with Affinity Publisher.
Ruperstland,
Canada
Screenshot of Microsoft Publisher:
A desktop publishing application from Microsoft that focuses on page layout and graphic design.
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
Publisher is great to use making Personalized Cards and Newsletters. I too feel very disappointed to hear that Microsoft wants to close Publisher.
Word & PowerPoint don't have the same features.
Microsoft don't disappoint your users of Publisher.
I'm really annoyed, I quite recently bought Publisher 2021 and it never mentioned that it was being discontinued! I edit a newsletter for a small non-profit and don't think they should reimburse me as it won't be part of Office 365 which they recently purchased to combine everything, including Publisher. Publisher then becomes useless for me personally as it was bought for the purposes of the non-profit.
Thanks GameFiend1000 for your comments.
Sorry to hear of your experience with Publisher. However, many people have used Publisher successfully, and their experiences have been positive.
If there is frustration in using Publisher, it may be because the software uses a different concept than Word. In Publisher one works with text boxes. And you can format those with more options and settings, and one make the text flow from one text box to another. Publisher is vastly easier than any similar apps produced by Adobe. I used Adobe products in the past, and they were so difficult and cumbersome to use, I simply gave up.
Arguably, yes, you can create bulletins, cards, and booklets in Microsoft Word. Word's styling features are more advanced. I have used Word many times for such publications, and it works. In Word however you need to rely heavily on section breaks and column breaks, which makes formatting more challenging and time consuming. Of course, you can indeed use text boxes in Word instead of section and column breaks. Precise positioning of those text boxes is more difficult. Also, try getting the text to flow to from one text box to another text box. If there is a setting to do this in Word, where is it? Only a few weeks ago did we finally discover a very hidden setting in Word that lets one print pages in booklet format. It's so hard to find, most users will not know it even exists. We still have to do some testing to see how that setting works during printing.
Respectfully,
Ruperstland, Canada
Dale,
If you purchased the standalone version of Publisher 2021, then it should still work.
Thank you for your reply. I am quite aware of text boxes. Did you know that everything you just described is done by Word? It just doesn't have the same templates built in, which is about the only advantage that Publisher has, but as my link showed Microsoft provide many templates that can be used in Word for such purposes.
The concept of text boxes or content boxes is the basis of most desktop publishing software, so Adobe, Quark, Scribus and more provide them as a fundamental building block. Even the free online DTP software that I mentioned is based on them.
My main gripe with publisher is that Microsoft used it as a blunt weapon to trap people in a walled garden where its format could not be opened by anyone else. It was a monopolistic cash grab and one of many similar tactics used by Microsoft at the time and before and since (Internet Explorer, Zune and on it goes)
Yes, Microsoft have come a (small) way since then, largely because they have been legally forced to stop doing such things and partly because market forces have forced them to adjust (Office Open XML, which never became fully supported by any Microsoft product even though Microsoft promised governments and the courts it would be the default format, Linux, LibreOffice, etc, etc), and perhaps that is why they don't see a place for Publisher any more, because it was only ever Word with a slightly different coat of paint and a unique file format designed specifically to trap people. That is in part why people are now upset that they are killing it, because they cannot import the files into other software (except for LibreOffice and Corel Draw recently, though both limited somewhat). It is well past time for format lock in wars and well past time for Publisher to die. It should never have existed, it should have been some wizards and perhaps a toolbar added to Word.