Microsoft Office Alternative Now In 2021
The top best Microsoft Office alternatives can increase office productivity.
Best Microsoft Office Alternatives
Microsoft Office continues the most popular productivity suite for documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and – whether as a download software package or while the cloud-based Microsoft 365 suite – through powerful apps such as Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Publisher, Access, Outlook, and more.
But, a range of Alternative opponents have become increasingly attractive, not least because of also price-competitive licensing prices, and some are free to use. But, spending less or nothing doesn’t surely mean that the software is of cheaper quality, as the open-source community can testify.
There can be problems with sharing documents between different office suite platforms, which can be a real concern. This is why while choosing an Alternative to Microsoft Office, you want to be sure of any shortfalls that might limit your usage of the software, especially if you’re going to share or collaborate on documents with different users who have one or more different offices suites.
If you’re doing the Microsoft Office Alternative as a standalone piece of software, there shouldn’t be any such problems, but it is something to be careful of if you end up changing to a different software suite.
The best in the Microsoft Office Alternatives are generally robust programs with full functionality and minor issue sharing files with other platforms. However, some come close to the full functionality of Microsoft 365 by its cloud service bundle that includes OneDrive and Microsoft Teams.
Here we’ll show the best of them, on with their powers and defects.
1. WPS Office
Has the best Microsoft Office Alternative free tier and advanced features for subscribers
WPS Office was released in 2016 with Chinese software developer Kingsoft. This is an office suite that is available for Windows, Linux, Android, and iOS. The suite is available in English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, and Russian.
It gives a free and a premium tier. The free level enables you to use Writer, Presentation, and Spreadsheets, which are alternatives to the Microsoft Office suite, which it also follows precisely. WPS allows a PDF to Word converter, which is quick and straightforward to use. It helps bulk exportation and can also split-merge PDF files if required.
The suite allows 1GB of free cloud storage for iOS and PC users, but this service is not available for Android.
The ‘Premium’ tier enables the user to connect up to 9 devices at once. It also makes rids of all those annoying adverts that are commonplace on the free tier.
WPS has been criticized for not providing collaboration beyond those that track changes and enable users to insert comments. Users have also been told that the interface can be quite lazy at times if it comes to loading documents. Linux users have noticed that not all fonts are automatically included and that they have to be installed individually.
As Android user’s installation is quite large and criticism has been leveled, it also makes the developer lightweight.
- You can download WPS Office here
2. Zoho Workplace
A genuinely new alternative to Google Docs
While Google Docs recognizes its brand’s strength, perhaps also widely used, Zoho Workplace is very significant in its own right. It’s certainly more like a desktop office package, and it’s powerful enough to have brought businesses like the BBC and Nike as usual users.
Zoho’s new-look word processor (which leaves the classic Word-style interface in support of a formatting sidebar) is well-presented and capable of producing professional-looking docs, and it has a sterling spreadsheet and just display package alongside it.
- They’re only the tip of the iceberg, but – Zoho Workplace includes a powerful site creation tool, a file management solution, and several collaborative tools. Some are on the simple side, so they’ll likely not replace anything you might already have in place; however, if you’re starting as a small business Zoho is a great jumping-off point.
4. Google Workplace
Google Workplace is a different Microsoft Office Alternative worth considering, as it’s developed by the internet behemoth Google especially for collaborative and group work. The three key tools run successfully in any web browser and are available as mobile apps for Apple and Android devices.
Google’s free office suite doesn’t allow the advanced tools you’ll find in Microsoft 365 or many rivals. However, everything is laid out clearly and logically, and all your files will be stored and synced automatically, so you don’t have to trouble about transfers and backups.
The workplace’s chief problem is that opening files created using other office software is cumbersome, and file formatting isn’t always appropriately converted. This is partly because Google’s office tools use web fonts first than ones stored locally on your device, and partially because Microsoft documents sometimes contain features not supported on Google.
5. iWork Suite
iWork Suite is included with your Mac: Pages, Numbers, and Keynote. These are Apple’s Microsoft office alternatives to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. For example, pages are the best option for Word for Mac.
Since these are Mac oriented applications, the user interface is different. Instead of being extremely difficult, the choices are displayed in the context menu on the side. And it doesn’t have as various features as the Microsoft Office suite. Given that all three apps are now mature, all the bases are covered.
As soon as you get used to them, it is entertaining to utilize them (which we can’t always state about Microsoft Office). While the modification choices are restricted, whatever is offered is quite stylish. When you provide a discussion in Keynote, you’ll probably end up creating something beautiful. The same opts for pages– scrolling through text, images, and graphics is a smooth experience that makes you desire not to tear your hair out.
iWork Suite permits you to import and export Microsoft Office documents (although they are conserved in the iWork format by default). And even if you’re not using a Mac-specific font, sharing Office files shouldn’t be a big deal. iWork also has networking capabilities, but truthfully, I would not recommend utilizing them. They are not as trusted as Google’s offer.
6. LibreOffice
LibreOffice is commonly recognized as the best open-source option to the Microsoft Office suite. This indicates that it is completely free and readily available on a large number of platforms. It is the best Microsoft Office alternative for Mac. If you are utilized to the Microsoft Office interface (before the ribbon era), you won’t need a lot of experience to adjust to LibreOffice. Unlike Google Apps, LibreOffice Suite comes with fantastic offline computing apps with all the professional features you expect.
To make work much more pleasurable, LibreOffice recently added an inline element. So you can sync files from OneDrive or Google Drive and edit them directly in LibreOffice (although there is no cooperation function). LibreOffice likewise does its task well when it concerns formatting while importing Microsoft Office files. Furthermore, complicated Excel spreadsheets imported into LibreOffice Calc work as they should.
LibreOffice originated from OpenOffice, which was a de facto option to Microsoft Office. However, OpenOffice hasn’t seen many recent updates, and its management is considering withdrawing the job. That is why we advise that you keep away from OpenOffice.
In contrast, LibreOffice’s results so far have been excellent.
7. Office Online
When all else stops working, open Office.com, it provides you access to free Office for Mac. Office Online is a complimentary, basic Microsoft Office service that runs in any internet browser.
Although the feature set is restricted, the essentials of editing documents, worksheet solutions, and presentation functions are covered. You will have access to OneNote, Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel.
Edit Office Documents in Dropbox.
A Dropbox partnership with Microsoft means you can open an Excel, Word, or PowerPoint document shared with you on Dropbox. You don’t necessitate an Office 365 license, but you will need a free Microsoft account. Utilizing this choice opens a document in Office Online.
Ditch PowerPoint for Better Online Tools.
PowerPoint is powerful, but it’s also relatively old. If you want to be unique with your presentations, try more new tools for online discussions.
– Slides: This is my preferred for quickly creating gorgeous presentations. A free account provides you to produce and send files online. To export, you will need to switch to a paid version.
– Prezi: While this service is more startup-focused, Prezi’s visual tools surpass anything you can get with PowerPoint.
– Canva: is an online image editor; however, it has a massive library of discussion design templates. Plus, Canva offers you all the necessary tools to produce a tailored presentation.
Embrace Markdown.
Here is an idea purely off the field. If you’ve dropped Windows and accepted the Mac platform, you’ve probably already started to appreciate the simplicity of macOS if you desire more than to develop and edit plain text documents and attempt using Markdown.
Markup is a syntax like HTML, however much more uncomplicated. When using the Markdown app to write, don’t get lost in the lots of menu choices. All format is done utilizing shortcodes.
For instance, to mark a word in italics, surround it with asterisks. You can create a complex format document without lifting your fingers from the keyboard. Furthermore, Markdown exports to pure HTML, and you can create stunning PDFs utilizing apps like Ulysses.
If required, utilize Microsoft Office free of charge.
Buying the most recent Microsoft Office variation will cost you several hundred dollars (or an Office 365 subscription). The majority of the time, the choices above will be enough for you. Google Docs works as an excellent option to Word, and so do Sheets and Excel. If you are searching for an offline Microsoft office Alternative for Mac, LibreOffice needs to be ample. But in some cases, you have to utilize Office for a particular job or a minimal duration.
There are various ways to do this without paying, using Office Online or some mobile apps. In our guide, we’ve described all of your Microsoft office Alternative for free, as well as getting a low-cost Office license.
