What are the best Microsoft Office al­ter­na­tives? 7 solutions compared

Free and af­ford­able al­ter­na­tives to Microsoft Office offer many essential office features like word pro­cess­ing, spread­sheets, and pre­sen­ta­tions—often as web or cross-platform apps. Popular choices are well-suited for personal or ed­u­ca­tion­al use but they can also serve as a complete al­ter­na­tive office suite.

An overview of the Microsoft Office al­ter­na­tives

Microsoft Office Online

Microsoft Office Online is the free web version of the well-known Microsoft 365 ap­pli­ca­tions. You can work directly in the browser with Word, Excel, Pow­er­Point, or OneNote—no in­stal­la­tion required. All you need is a Microsoft account.

The advantage is that you can edit your documents from anywhere as long as there is an internet con­nec­tion. Office Online is es­pe­cial­ly great for real-time col­lab­o­ra­tion since multiple people can work on a document si­mul­ta­ne­ous­ly and see changes live. No updates are necessary—the web apps are always up-to-date and therefore also have access to the latest Copilot features, which make it possible to automate various steps in Word and other Office ap­pli­ca­tions.

However, Microsoft Office Online also has some lim­i­ta­tions. The features are more limited than in the desktop versions—complex for­mat­ting, macros, or add-ins are only available to a limited extent. Ad­di­tion­al­ly, it relies on the internet, and documents are stored in the Microsoft Cloud (OneDrive), which might deter privacy-conscious users.

Google Workspace

The online ap­pli­ca­tions from Google Workspace are available for private users free of charge. Thus, you can generally use the suite as a free al­ter­na­tive to Microsoft Office. Besides the three classic office ap­pli­ca­tions Docs (text), Sheets (spread­sheets), and Slides (pre­sen­ta­tions), the suite also includes the popular email program Gmail, the cloud storage Google Drive, and col­lab­o­ra­tion tools like Google Meet and Google Chat. All you need to use it is a valid Google account. A monthly sub­scrip­tion is only required if you need advanced func­tion­al­i­ty or want to use premium features. The in­te­grat­ed AI assistant, Gemini, helps you summarize content, analyze data, and generate text whenever you need it.

The Google Workspace apps allow you to open and save documents in current Microsoft 365 formats—though there may be oc­ca­sion­al minor for­mat­ting or layout errors. This is mainly because Google ap­pli­ca­tions have sig­nif­i­cant­ly less for­mat­ting flex­i­bil­i­ty and fewer features. Another slight drawback: you store and edit your files online on Google’s servers, and therefore, you have no control over security and data privacy.

Li­bre­Of­fice

Li­bre­Of­fice is a de­riv­a­tive of OpenOf­fice, which is why it resembles the office package in many ways. Unlike OpenOf­fice, Li­bre­Of­fice can also save files in .docx-, .xlsx-, and .pptx-format. In practice, however, there are sometimes minor shifts in the layout. There are sig­nif­i­cant­ly more updates for Li­bre­Of­fice than for OpenOf­fice, making the package par­tic­u­lar­ly in­ter­est­ing for users who like to stay up-to-date and try the latest versions.

However, the Li­bre­Of­fice de­vel­op­ment team has oc­ca­sion­al­ly in­te­grat­ed un­de­vel­oped features into its software in the past, or errors occurred during the de­vel­op­ment of new features. Since these issues are usually resolved in the next version, the software still ranks among the best Microsoft Office al­ter­na­tives. Like OpenOf­fice, Li­bre­Of­fice works on Linux, Windows, and macOS. Ad­di­tion­al­ly, Li­bre­Of­fice offers a viewer for Android and a document editing app for iOS.

WPS Office

WPS Office is a free to use Microsoft-365 al­ter­na­tive, com­pris­ing a word processor, a pre­sen­ta­tion creator, and a spread­sheet program. WPS Office is com­pat­i­ble with Microsoft Office file formats, and the suite also utilizes the Ribbon interface instead of a tra­di­tion­al menu. The office suite is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux as well as for iOS and Android. Ad­van­tages of WPS also include tabs, which make switching between documents easier, and the Paragraph Layout Tool, which sim­pli­fies designing in­di­vid­ual para­graphs.

Unique features also include the eye pro­tec­tion mode, which turns the back­ground a soft green, and the dark mode, which changes the back­ground to a medium gray. WPS 365 offers an online version that allows for col­lab­o­ra­tive document editing. Some users may find it dis­ad­van­ta­geous that certain features, like extensive PDF editing functions, cloud storage, A features, or an ad-free interface, are only available with a paid monthly sub­scrip­tion (WPS Pro or WPS AI).

Calligra Office

Calligra is available for Windows, macOS, FreeBSD, and Linux, with the suite designed par­tic­u­lar­ly for Linux systems. The full range of programs doesn’t include the al­ter­na­tive to Microsoft Office in all editions. For instance, Windows users only have access to the word pro­cess­ing program (Words) and pre­sen­ta­tion creation (Stage). Apps like the spread­sheet (Sheets) or the project man­age­ment tool (Plan) are reserved for Linux users. The programs are com­pa­ra­ble to those from OpenOf­fice and Li­bre­Of­fice, but they offer sig­nif­i­cant­ly fewer features. Calligra can open Microsoft Office file formats but cannot save them.

The drawing program Krita is now published by its own foun­da­tion, but it is still closely linked to the Calligra Office package. All Krita de­vel­op­ers are members of the KDE Community, which also develops Calligra Office. Krita is es­pe­cial­ly known for its variety of brush options and an interface that allows for quick ad­just­ment of the workspace to suit the current project.

SoftMaker Free­Of­fice

If you value software developed locally, Free­Of­fice by SoftMaker offers a highly in­ter­est­ing al­ter­na­tive to Microsoft Office. The three ap­pli­ca­tions in this office suite, which focus on user-friend­li­ness and efficient per­for­mance, are called TextMaker, PlanMaker, and Pre­sen­ta­tions. The package requires very little storage space and can even run from a USB stick, making it easier to use on different computers. You can choose between the modern ribbon layout or the classic menu and toolbars.

Free­Of­fice is available for Linux, macOS, and Windows, with versions also available for iOS and Android. This Microsoft 365 al­ter­na­tive can easily open and save file formats like .docx, .xlsx, and .pptx as well as older Microsoft formats. A great advantage of the local company SoftMaker is the excellent man­u­fac­tur­er support. Ad­di­tion­al features such as a thesaurus, a formula editor, in­te­grat­ed AI, and a function for exporting .epub files are available in the paid monthly sub­scrip­tion SoftMaker Office NX Universal.