I am wondering why Zorin is more expensive from windows key license?
On the blog Zorin the price sayed the microsoft windows is more expensive but this is not true.
The same price office and another software isn't true.
The webside Zorin is very old and not updated.
That is my observation.
Having played with Windows 11 as a VM, that assertion is incorrect. Windows 11 Pro costs £212, with no Office Suite. Zorin is £40 and comes with LibreOffice. If you want MS Office you are talking subscription. People who use Windows are unaware how significantly inferior Home is to Pro, and always has been.
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Microsoft selling one type license without subscription.
It was earlier Microsoft selling that type license it was on short time.
The cost was cheaper from subscription.
I am to much digging any information and observation what is now and not what was before.
I understable Core it is the same version what Pro without add software what could be installing from repository?
Zorin OS edition releases occur sooner than Windows OS releases. So you can fit more Zorin OS Editions into a Window OS release time frame.
On Average, you can roughly say that you can purchase two Zorin OS Pro editions per Windows OS release cycle.
Zorin OS releases about every two years, Windows OS can release between 4 and 6 years. If we roughly guess at 2.5 years Zorin and 5 years Windows OS, we have a very rough average.
One Zorin OS Pro comes with everything needed; there are no additional subscriptions or costs.
One Windows License Key comes with just the base Operating System. To get Office Suites or other software, you must pay additional costs or subscriptions.
Windows OS pricing depends on the Edition; Lite, Home, Pro, Education, Tablet, Enterprise. The pricing can vary by quite a lot. But every prices list I have seen is usually much greater than the cost of two Zorin OS Pro purchases (Two, due to faster release cycle).
For me in the USA, Windows OS Home costs $139
Windows OS Pro is $199
But, looking online, I can find various prices based on Marketing deals, from as low as $5 to $30.
Usually, sales or deals that take off 90% of a price have some hidden features to either lock you into something or get that money out of you some other way.
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Any gamer knows, if their going to be on Windows, they will be paying like 200 dollars for Win11 Pro, in order to have a fully featured OS.
In contrast, Zorin OS Pro costs only 40 dollars, is already fully featured technically in Core, but you get added goodies in pro, and support the devs too.
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I know these ''Deals''. These are a bit Gambling because that don't have to be regular Licences. These will be offered from Key Sellers. The Problem is: It isn't directly clear what You really get. It could be an OEM Licence for Example. It could be some kind of Group Licence in origin and the Seller sells every Place as an individual Licence which it doesn't is.
It can work but don't have to. You can get Issues maybe at a later Time when for Example one of these Windows H-Updates comes and the System deosn't get it or it get it but the Licence suddenly isn't suddenly no longer valid. So, I would be really careful when buying these kind of cheap Offers. These Offers of course are not all dubious, but it is a bit Gambling.
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@Bourne you gave a price of $32 dollars for Microsoft Education. Zorin produces a 5+ Gb Educational version at no cost with a full suite of Education packages. The only thing that isn't present, obviously, are education applications that were designed for Windows. I was surprised to see Arduino in Microsoft's list of Windows 10 Education package. When I tried to look up an Arduino project when I was working in a school I was forbidden from looking! (It was a project to make an LED shirt that showed the speed of what the cyclist wearing it was doing.
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That is not true. I bought a key license from a partner microsoft. @Aravisian What about people what are not a gamer and using only mostly webbrowser for watching news and paying billings.? In the open source linux distributions what are mostly free. i don't using example this software.
In my opinion, you can't really compare the two.
If you don't want to or can't pay for it, you can use the core version free of charge. Does Microsoft do that too? No, there is nothing free, licenses cost money and there are also subscription models such as Cloud, Office 365 etc.
I understand the $47.99 more as support for the further development of Zorin OS.
We got a great operating system from Artyom @AZorin and his brother and I was an absolute Windows fan from Win 95 to Win 11.
Only the development of Windows 11, like telemetry (sending data to the provider), AI and recall made me want an alternative.
Zorin OS is a really great alternative and I hope for many more years to come.
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Zorin is cool operating system but propably Pro is for people who using that software.
Core is the same what Pro without add software from app store.
I still have Zorin 16 what I bougt and will taken updates to april 2025
@Dexxa That is wright subscriptions for people who using that software.
In my opinion internet and people cannot be sure everyone using that software.
In windows without telemetry you cannot using a updates.
I am using diffrent operating system to my preferences.
Besides linux social people are very toxic when I sayed i bought Zorin they writing I must be made and kidding.
That is really human nature when you want help someone from "linux world". Maybe because mostly from them was "arch society". I cannot imagine why people can be enemies because you using another distribution.
Well I will not be taken this discussion because it could be like a river neverending history for arguments which one is best.
For me every operating software have limits and some gratefull things.
Peace and be safe in this weird a world.
I don't really understand that, everyone has to decide for themselves whether they want to buy a Pro or the free Core?
I'm also on other forums and there are users who would never spend money on a Linux distribution.
As I said above, this should be seen more as support for the Zorin project. 
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Thanks for explanation.
It's wild to me that you're complaining about the price for something that's literally just a bundle (plus a few handmade layouts) that's made for convenience. Everything that comes with Zorin Pro can be installed manually on the free (Core) edition. If you're savvy enough, you can create those layouts by yourself, too. You're paying for the convenience and supporting the project, not as much for the product.
If you even have to be convinced why that doesn't compare to paying a spyware company for an operating system that is arguably the worst in recent times (Even hardcore Windows fans are fed-up with Microsoft pushing stuff down their throats these days), I don't think you truly understand the fundamental difference between the two.
The webside Zorin is very old and not updated.
Of course, it's a personal observation, and you're welcome to share yours. But have you seen some of the other distro's websites? And not just distros, most open-source software has terrible UI/UX (not just their website, but sometimes the actual product, too).
There was some discussion somewhere that the lack of UI/UX designers in the open-source space is the reason for open-source software having terrible websites. Compared to many of them, Zorin's website is a breath of fresh air.
If 'updated' means a bunch of parallax effects, dark shiny icons, and whatever the heck goes on these days in the name of modern web design, I'm happy the Zorin website is "not updated."
I find it's very lightweight, with a modern font (Did you know Inter is a popular font?) and a purposeful design that's very easy to navigate.
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There are a few points to be made against it. I don't think any are terrible, but there is an awful lot of huge text and vertical scroll.
I'd personally prefer more pages with more specific purposes, less massive font, and so on. Taking the help page as an example of vertical scroll that's unhelpful, I think they could fit every category in a single screen, with links to the top three articles they currently have, and present it all at a glance instead of having to scroll through multiple screens.
The bottom level help pages are fine, and scroll only if the article is long enough to justify it. They also don't use huge text. The Zorin OS and Zorin Grid pages bother me a fair bit for having such low information density. This is not an efficient use of space. It's fairly pretty, but the design forces me to scroll SO MUCH to get everything they want to say about Grid:
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Coincidentally, I bought an Asus Zenbook OLED just today. It came with a Windows 11 Home edition. Never mind the fact that in 2025, all laptops should come with the Pro edition (in fact, there should be one edition; look at macOS -- every Mac comes with macOS, and there's no Home or Pro edition), check out how much Microsoft charges me to upgrade to Windows 11 Pro.
That's about $123 in today's currency exchange rates.
Mind you; I'm in a low-purchase power country where most software companies have reduced pricing. Steam games are 40-50% cheaper, Canva Pro subscription is 50% cheaper, and Netflix is about 20-30% cheaper. Not Microsoft, though. They want the full price.
I'm not arguing with you that you found a Windows license for around 30 bucks. But keep in mind that the overwhelming majority will not be computer-savvy (not know where to look), so they'll use Microsoft's prompt to get into the Microsoft Store and pay that price to upgrade to 11 Pro, even if they don't really need it.
Case in point: I ended up rejecting the upgrade. I'll use Windows for a handful of apps only, and I'll be dual-booting with Linux soon anyway, so I don't really need any of the bitlocker or other 11 Pro-only features. But it should show you that Zorin is in no way more expensive than Windows, even if you found a way to get a Windows copy for far cheaper.
Yes, and that is totally fine. That is the Reason why I wrote:
I agree that Pro should be it, at least for consumer retail. There's more to it than Bitlocker though, and one thing that actually MIGHT be of value to you (note, I'm not suggesting it's of enough value to pay that awful markup) is Group Policy Editor. In a corporate environment, it allows system administrators to lock things down in ways that ensure the computer is used in accordance with company policy. For home users, it can allow you to toggle off some of the nonsense that makes Windows so obnoxious.
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