Free alternatives to Microsoft Office (top 3) [Guide]

Everyone loves Microsoft Office software and rightly so, it’s arguably the best software for writing documents, creating spreadsheets, presentations and more. Particularly with the latest Office 365 features for automatically enhancing the design of your documents. But if you don’t want to have to pay for licensing or can’t get it for free (because you’re not a student). Here are the top 3 free alternatives to Microsoft Word (and other Office software like Excel and Powerpoint).

#3 – Google Docs

If you use Gmail or any other product from the Google Suite, you’ve already got an Google Docs account. Google Docs is a cloud based online Office alternative with all the applications you could require

Pros

• Integrated into Gmail
• You just need to have a Google account
• Supports offline editing too even on Chromebooks
• Features Docs (Microsoft Word alternative), Sheets (Excel alternative), Slides (Powerpoint alternative) and Forms (for creating and sharing forms)
• Easy to share and collaborate documents with others
• Excellent voice to text engine
• Has Add-Ons for more features and themes

Cons

• Not as feature rich as Office 365
• Interface could be argued as being too simple and minimalistic compared to the Office suite
• Not all macros and forms on documents created on a desktop app will work

#2 – Microsoft Office Online

If you use Outlook/Hotmail/Live you already have a Microsoft account which is all you need to use Microsoft Office online for free. This features the all familiar Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint. They all work very well with a similar familiar interface. This option is great for light users who want the same look and feel as the traditional Microsoft Office apps.

Pros

• Familiar interface – very similar to the desktop Office 365
• User interface is more attractive than Google Docs
• Works very well for most users
• Has the essential Word, Powerpoint and Excel

Cons

• Lacks features of the premium Office 365
• Doesn’t support all formatting, forms, macros as the desktop versions

#1 – Libre Office

Libre Office is the most popular free open source alternative to Microsoft Office 365. It’s regularly updated and works on all major operating systems including Windows, MacOS, Android, iOS, Linux and more. It features alternatives for the full suite of Office apps including Microsoft Word – known as Libre Office ‘Writer’. The Powerpoint alternative is known as ‘Impress’ and Excel alternative is known as ‘Calc’. The user interfaces are much the same and work very smoothly. They even have a portable version of their apps so you can even run the software off a USB.

Pros

• The best downloadable free alternative
• Supports Macros and formatting better than Google Docs and Office Online
• More feature rich than the online alternatives
• Easy to use and works smoothly on even lower spec devices
• All software including Writer (Word), Calc (Excel) and Impress (Powerpoint) support a lot of the functionality you get with Microsoft Office 365 apps
• Updated regularly
• Designed to work offline
• Supports remote storage to cloud platforms (like Google Drive etc)

Cons

• Not as many automatic theming ‘designer’ options as Office
• User interface isn’t as fancy as Microsoft Office
• Formatting can be lost when editing files between Microsoft Office and Libre Office