Well known for its productivity tools, Microsoft 365 is definitely one of the most powerful and popularly used Office Suites worldwide. Its users range from individuals, businesses, and education to enterprises. While Office 365 productivity tools offer advanced functionality, it is equally expensive. So, if you’re someone who does not want to invest in such products, we have alternatives to Office 365.
When switching to a new program, cost, features, compatibility, application performance, supported devices, and user experience are some of the factors you must consider. After using and analyzing all Office Suite programs myself, I have compiled the 10 best free and premium alternatives to Office 365 in this article. Additionally, the pros and cons of the programs may help you to choose the right alternative for you or your business.
Google Workspace
After the Microsoft Office applications, Google Workspace is another most popular productivity tool used in schools and businesses.
Google Workspace has all applications which you can find in Office 365 for free. For example, Gmail, Meet, Calendar, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Apps Script, Drive, Keep, and many more. So, you can always opt for Slides as an alternative to Powerpoint, Docs for Microsoft Word, Sheets for Excel, and so on.
The best part is some of the Google Workspace applications offer better functionality while being a free program. When comparing Google Sheets and Excel together, Google Sheets outperformed Excel in terms of user experience, functions, collaborations, and pricing.
Overall, due to the easily integrated workspace, real-time collaboration, and simple UI, you can easily get the hang of the applications without any training.
It is not possible to go through all applications of Google Workspace in detail. But, you can take a look at the pros and cons of Google WorkSpace in the table below. It might help you to decide if it’s the one for you.
| Pros | Cons |
| Free | The free version lacks storage, premium, and advanced features |
| Included Applications: Docs, Sheets, Slides, Apps Script, Forms, Gmail, Meet, Chat, Calendar, Drive, Cloud Search, Keep, Sites | Not-so-powerful apps |
| Multi-device Capability allows Deskless Productivity | |
| Supports Add-Ins | |
| Compatible with Office 365 applications | |
| Keyboard Shortcuts to perform tasks | |
| Protection from spam and phishing |
WPS Office
WPS Office is free office software built for both personal and professional purposes. It is well known for its “All in One” productivity tools which comprise applications such as Writer, Spreadsheets, Presentation, and PDF in a single WPS Office app. You can also find other default menus such as WPS Cloud, Files Repair, OCR, PDF to Word.
The supported devices for WPS Office are Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, etc. After Google Workspace, WPS Office can be another best alternative to Office 365 as it is compatible with MS Office, Adobe PDF, and Google Docs tools.
For beginners, WPS Office provides an Operation Guide for each task in all of its tools. So, even if you’re new to the application, you won’t have trouble exploring it.
The Ribbon Menu of WPS Office applications closely resembles to that of Microsoft 365. For Instance, you can find Home Tab, Insert Tab, Page Layout Tab, Formula Tab, etc in Spreadsheets just like Excel. The same goes for the WPS Writer and MS Word. Thus, you will have a similar user experience.
| Pros | Cons |
| Free | The free version has limitations on features like PDF editing, Page Management, File Scanning, and many more. |
| Included Applications: Writer, Spreadsheets, Presentation, PDF. | Ads pop-ups in the free version can interrupt the experience |
| Compatible with Microsoft Office, Google Workspace, and Adobe PDF. | |
| Compatible with Microsoft Office, Google Workspace, Adobe PDF. | |
| Offers more than 100,000 free and professional templates for Word, Excel, and Presentation for an easier workflow. |
LibreOffice
LibreOffice is an open-source software that offers office productivity tools for free. This application is popularly used in homes, businesses, government departments, etc.
LibreOffice supported devices are Linux, Mac, Windows, and Android. You can easily download the application from the official download site. The Application is constantly releasing newer versions to offer the latest features.
LibreOffice has tools like Writer for Word Processors, Calc for spreadsheets, Impress for Presentations, Draw for diagrams, Math for formula editor, Base for Database, etc.
Also, most of the LibreOffice applications such as Calc, Writer, Base support Macros. You could use them to run powerful applications. For extended functionality, LibreOffice has powerful extensions you can install in applications.
The good thing about using LibreOffice as an alternative is that its applications are compatible with Office applications. You can easily work with Office users. However, LibreOffice lacks real-time collaboration. While Calc has a collaboration option, other apps like Impress, Writer, and Draw are limited to one user only.
| Pros | Cons |
| Free | The free version does not provide technical support or additional services. |
| Applications include: Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw, Math, Base | Does not offer Real-time collaboration. |
| User-friendly UI and supports multiple device | |
| Keyboard Shortcuts | |
| Compatible with Microsoft Office Applications like Excel, Word, Powerpoint, Publisher, etc | |
| Powerful Extensions |
OnlyOffice
OnlyOffice is a free and open-source application that offers products such as Document, Spreadsheets, Presentation, and Form Template. Just like WPS Office, OnlyOffice also has all of these products packaged in one single app. The app is available for Windows, Linux, Mac, iOS, and Android users. While there are individual and home packages, OnlyOffice has mainly focused on enterprises for premium users.
In terms of UI, the design is pretty simple and slightly resembles Office 365’s look. OnlyOffice stands out for its security features which are in compliance with international security standards. So, it can be best for business uses.
Apart from it, the app is popular for providing seamless and real-time collaboration. You could communicate with your collaborators via an in-built Chat, Zoom, Telegram, Jitsi, and Rainbow.
Each OnlyOffice app has in-built Plugins with Macros, YouTube, Google Translator, Photo Editor, Highlight code, etc. You could use all of these extended features for performing your work. It is highly compatible with Microsoft Office file formats.
| Pros | Cons |
| Free | Limited to 2 users in the free version |
| Products: Document, Spreadsheet, Presentation, Form Template | Premium OnlyOffice offers more advanced features in terms of storage, a collaboration room, etc |
| Offers Encrypted Data Protection. Higher Security with GDPR and HIPAA compliance. | |
| Seamless Collaborations | |
| Ad-free | |
| Collaboration with Cloud services like Nextcloud, Sealife, kDrive, ownCloud, Liferay, etc. | |
| High-level compatibility with Microsoft Office files |
iWork
If you are someone who use Apple products such as iPhone, iPad, or Mac, iWork tools can be a better alternative for Office 365. iWork is Apple’s built-in productivity tool which includes Pages, Keynote, Numbers, etc. As an iPhone user myself, I often use these applications to perform tasks from my mobile. Not to be biased, but my favorite is Pages in iWork.
All of iWork applications offer real-time collaboration and default templates and designs. You could also use the Messages and FaceTime apps of your Apple device to communicate with your teams.
As a substitute for Microsoft Word, you can use the Pages application to create and design your document. On Pages, you could start with various in-built document templates such as reports, or create your own. Some of the striking features of Pages are it offers Screen View mode for iPhone, quick translation, converts handwriting to text, math equations, offline collaboration, paragraph styles, presenter mode, table of contents, text wrap, charts, shapes, comments, accessibility descriptions, and many more.
iWork’s Numbers is an awesome tool to create spreadsheets. You could use this app to solve complex calculations, create charts/graphs, data entry, organize information, and many more. Numbers support features like Sort and Filter, Worksheet links, 100+ functions including the XLOOKUP, Pivot Tables, Math equation, and export files in CSV, TSV, etc. What I like most about Pages is that it is compatible with Microsoft Excel files. Yes, you can export or import Excel spreadsheets whenever needed.
Keynote is an application designed to create presentations. You can find dynamic backgrounds, custom themes, add live videos to slides, interactive shapes, captions, and many more. iPhone and iPad users can also take advantage of the outline mode for presentation. Similarly, since Keynote is also compatible with Microsoft Powerpoint, it’ll be easier for you to collaborate with Office 365 users.
| Pros | Cons |
| Free | Limited to Apple Users only |
| Include Apps: Pages, Numbers, Keynote | Need an Active Internet Connection to use some features. |
| Pages support Microsoft Word, Numbers is compatible with Microsoft Excel, and Keynote with Microsoft Powerpoint. | Software Limitations:iPhone – iOS 15 and later iPad- iPadOS 15 or later Mac – macOS 12 or later |
| Real-time Collaboration including FaceTime and iMessage. |
OfficeSuite
OfficeSuite is a free application that offers a package of Office tools such as Documents, Sheets, Slides, Mail, PDF, etc. It has its own storage drive called MobiDrive where you can get up to 20 GB of storage for free. OfficeSuite is available for Windows, iOS, and Android devices.
When using OfficeSuite applications, I felt as if I was using the Microsft Office tools. The UI, Application theme Colour, Ribbon menu, and Account settings are exactly the replica of Microsoft Office. So, this familiarity will make your user experience smooth and convenient. Also, as it offers real-time collaboration, it can be great for professional use.
OfficeSuite is compatible with Microsoft Office and Cloud Services such as Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, etc.
| Pros | Cons |
| Free | Free versions miss features such as animations in slides, subtotals in sheets, format painter in docs, etc. |
| Included Applications: Documents, Sheets, Slides, Mail, PDF | Limited Languages compared to other Office 365 alternatives |
| Amazing Collaboration | Not available for Mac users |
| Seamlessly switch OfficeSuite apps between devices | |
| 20 GB free cloud storage | |
| Cheaper premium alternative than Office 365 |
FreeOffice
FreeOffice is a free Office suite version of SoftMaker that includes products such as TextMaker, PlanMaker, and Presentations. It offers its services for both business and personal uses. FreeOffice is available to Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android mobile users.
TextMaker is a word processor built to create, edit, and design all kinds of documents. The PlanMaker is a powerful spreadsheet program with 430+ functions you could use as an alternative to Microsoft Excel. Similarly, Presentations can be a useful program to make presentations.
In terms of User Interface, FreeOffice has both a modern ribbon and Classic Menu. So, you could switch as per your preference. The modern ribbon looks similar to Office 365’s UI as it even has a Quick Access toolbar. For touchscreen PC users, there’s also a touch mode in the FreeOffice applications.
File sharing and working with Microsoft Office users is possible because you can save FreeOffice files in the docx, xlsx, and pptx formats.
| Pros | Cons |
| Free | No technical support for the free products. |
| Included Applications: TextMaker, PlanMaker, and Presentations. | |
| Compatible with Office 365 products: Excel, PowerPoint, Word, etc. | |
| Switchable Application Ribbon. | |
| Open and download FreeOffice files in Microsoft Office file formats. | |
| Touchscreen Mode for Touchscreen PC |
SoftMaker
SoftMaker is a premium Office Suite program of FreeOffice. But, as it’s a cheaper alternative to Office 365, you can opt for this program if you want advanced features and functionalities. Its applications are TextMaker word processor, DataMaker Database program, Presentations, and PlanMaker Spreadsheet program. SoftMaker is available for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and Linux devices.
Talking about the User Interface, SoftMaker allows its users to switch from classic to ribbon and vice versa. You could also customize the Ribbons, use Touchscreen mode, Dark Mode, etc.
Recently, SoftMaker has introduced in-built ChatGPT tools in TextMaker, SQLite Databases compatibility in PlanMaker, Notes in Slides, support of WEBP picture format in Office programs, and many more.
| Pros | Cons |
| Cheaper than Microsoft 365 | Expensive when compared to FreeOffice |
| Products: TextMaker, PlanMaker, Presentations, DataMaker. | |
| Supports other Microsoft Office and Office 365 files version, even the password-protected ones | |
| Free Customer Support | |
| Fast and Powerful |
Polaris Office
Polaris Office is a premium office program that offers products like Sheet, Slide, PDF, and Word. While there’s an Office package for personal uses, the company has mainly targeted Office products for institutions and businesses. Its premium plans are Polaris Office Basic, Smart, and Pro which are comparatively cheaper than Office 365.
Polaris Office is available on multiple devices such as Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS. You can find the app in the default Microsoft Store, Apple Store, or Google Play Store to download it. It has its own cloud drive called “Polaris Drive.” However, the company has extended its cloud connectivity with other services like Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, Onedrive, etc.
The features of Polaris Office include Polaris Drive to access your work with one account, sharing documents, co-editing in real-time, compatibility with Microsoft Office, in-built AI tools, etc.
| Pros | Cons |
| Best for Commercial Use | Ad Pop-ups in free version |
| Products: Sheet, Slide, PDF, Word | The free version lacks Advanced Functions for all apps. |
| Multidevice with Web and App version | |
| Real-time collaboration and co-editing | |
| Extended Cloud Connectivity | |
| Edit Microsoft Office file formats |
WordPerfect
WordPerfect is a complete package of Office Suite for Professionals, Home, and students. Its Office Suite includes applications such as WordPerfect, Quattro Pro, Presentations, AfterShot, eBook Publisher, WordPerfect Lightning digital notebook, and Paradox database management system.
For spreadsheets, you can use Quattro Pro, WordPerfect for a word processor, presentations for presentations, and WordPerfect lightning to send emails. WordPerfect has a simple UI that kind of looks like older Office versions such as 2003, and 2007. So, it might not be as appealing to some users.
In terms of features, WordPerfect has built-in PDF functions, Macro Manager, mail merge expert, multiple file formats, legal toolbar, bates numbering, etc. Talking about its compatibility, WordPerfect supports most of Microsoft file formats such as docx, xlsx, and pptx.
| Pros | Cons |
| Free Trial Version | Premium Product |
| Products: WordPerfect, Quattro Pro, Presentations, AfterShot, eBook Publisher, WordPerfect Lightning digital notebook, and Paradox database management system. | Plain UI |
| eBook publishing and great PDF support | |
| Compatible with Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, and Word file formats |