Alternatives to Microsoft Office Word for all platforms with any license

  • LibreOffice - Writer

    Writer has all the features you need from a modern, full-featured word processing or desktop publishing tool. It's simple enough for a quick memo, but powerful...

    • If you do not need some very rare functions, LibreOffice Writer is better and totally libre alternative! KuboFHromoslav • May 2017 • 15 agrees and 1 disagrees Disagree   Agree
    • LibreOffice can do 90%+ of what Microsoft Office can do, and it costs 100% less! Guest • Dec 2016 • 26 agrees and 7 disagrees Disagree   Agree
    • It doesn't handle citations and referencing well. With Word you can use Endnote as an add-on. I can't see how to use citations and referencing built-in or add an add-on like Endnote. Guest • 9 days ago Disagree   Agree
    • More straight-forward than Microsoft's product, and it's free! RemovedUser • May 2019 Disagree   Agree
    • IT'S FREE. It' actively being developed, and its legit competition. Although, sometimes it turns text into gibberish. I don't know what that's about. Guest • Mar 2019 Disagree   Agree
    • It is absolutely free and handles .docx and .doc files better than the other alternatives provided. Additionally, it supports more features than other alternatives like Google Docs. Guest • Jun 2017 • 7 agrees and 0 disagrees Disagree   Agree
    • The closest I could find to a free MS Office alternative, does pretty much everything MS Word does. DanielPinto • Feb 2019 Disagree   Agree
    • It is better than Open Office. It could redraw the MS-Word-created diagrams which Open Office could not. Guest • May 2016 • 25 agrees and 4 disagrees Disagree   Agree
    • Tries to provide a lot of useful tools. Opened a piece of artwork for me that nothing else would. Has a thesaurus (very,very, useful). The builder(s) deserve compensation for providing it. Guest • Dec 2017 • 2 agrees and 0 disagrees Disagree   Agree
    • Well supported. Updated regularly, and best of all it's open source! Guest • Oct 2018 Disagree   Agree
    • It handles large documents better than word does. Guest • Mar 2017 • 10 agrees and 5 disagrees Disagree   Agree
    • Free, multiple platform, and probably the richest set of functionality, other than Microsoft Office Word. Word improved recently for the Mac, but is still not as good as on Windows, but LibreOffice is pretty much the same everywhere. Google Docs and IBM Docs are probably closest, otherwise, and have web forms. Apache OpenOffice seems to be losing momentum, would be nice if the code bases would merge, they'd focus on a combined effort. Guest • Jan 2018 • 2 agrees and 0 disagrees Disagree   Agree
    • Lots of features, but still has compatibility issues with DOCX files. (Thanks to Microsoft) 3psilon • May 2018 • 0 agrees and 1 disagrees Disagree   Agree
    • LibreOffice is the best free alternative to MS Office I have tried. It offers all I need in word processing software. It has a smart modern interface and does not require a steep learning curve if you are accustomed to MS Office. A truly great package. Guest • Apr 2018 Disagree   Agree
    • It is cross platform which is very useful when you need to edit a document in either windows, gnu/linux, and mac. Microsoft Office is not able to run on gnu/linux for now. 9y0xwefhpw • Apr 2018 Disagree   Agree
    • It's very easy to use, Small. I asked for a new feature. The team debugs fast. mohammadetemaddar • Nov 2016 • 6 agrees and 1 disagrees Disagree   Agree
    • The worst UI and UX, easy to crash. rnickson • Mar 2018 Disagree   Agree
    • Freedom. If you care about that go for LibreOffice. Also you've got pretty much the same common feature, which is quick enough for everyone. Word stay good if you really want to go deeper in some modificatio, but it's really not worth the price (alone without Office 365). Guest • Apr 2017 • 1 agrees and 1 disagrees Disagree   Agree

    Free Open Source Mac Windows Linux BSD PortableApps.com ... ReactOS

    Export to PDF Export to HTML Export to Word Hybrid PDF ... Hyperlinks Live Meeting Open Source apps Portable Presentations as Video Support for Themes Add a feature

    LibreOffice - Writer icon

  • Google Docs

    Google Docs is an online word processor, part of Google Drive , that lets you create and format text documents and collaborate with other people in real time.

    • Google Docs, just nailed everything, the synchronization is perfect, easy to use, and works every time, especially the collaboration feature. heviot • Mar 2019 • 0 agrees and 1 disagrees Disagree   Agree
    • same job and free and hosted in cloud Guest • Feb 2019 Disagree   Agree
    • It has most of the features you need and works great in the browser. rockiger • Jan 2019 Disagree   Agree
    • Not so many abundant features, fast and auto-save. Guest • Jul 2017 Disagree   Agree
    • Cloud based document storage and editing. n10m • Feb 2016 • 6 agrees and 0 disagrees Disagree   Agree
    • Access documents everywhere, no harmful macro commands so no risk of virus infection adolftekkanna • Dec 2016 • 2 agrees and 1 disagrees Disagree   Agree
    • Online syncing, very lightweight, sharing documents, sleek UI. Guest • Jan 2017 Disagree   Agree
    • I like the multiplatform editing. Very useful feature, when you edit on your phone and easily can continue editing in pc. bohdanfetso • Oct 2016 • 2 agrees and 1 disagrees Disagree   Agree

    Free Web Android iPhone Chrome OS Android Tablet ... iPad

    Real time collaboration Collaborative writing Team Collaboration Autosave log ... Apps with End-to-End Encryption High Availability IFTTT integration Multiple Font Colors Office Online integration Works Offline Export to PDF Add a feature

    Google Docs icon

  • WPS Writer

    WPS Writer, part of WPS Office , is dependable and fast word processing software that is highly compatible with...

    • Very poor multi language / proofing support. Guest • May 2019 Disagree   Agree
    • WPS is a more stable alternative to word for low-end PCs running on old CPUs like Celeron or Pentium. it also contains more features then other alternatives like Liberoffice and Openoffice. Guest • Apr 2019 Disagree   Agree
    • Interface is very similar to Microsoft product Guest • Mar 2019 Disagree   Agree
    • Keeps taking me all over the document. Not cool! Making my life much harder! Guest • Sep 2018 Disagree   Agree
    • Very nice ribbon interface, often better DOCX compatibility than LibreOffice. 3psilon • May 2018 Disagree   Agree
    • WPS have a good compatibility with docx and its UI is almost similar with office Guest • Sep 2017 Disagree   Agree
    • It is absolutely free. It also has some incredible features like pdf to word and much more. WPS Office gives all necessary components of MS-Office i.e. Word, Excel, Power Point. The best part is that it is cross-platform. SuperMinds • Jul 2017 • 4 agrees and 1 disagrees Disagree   Agree
    • WPS Writer has a very similar layout to MS Word Guest • Aug 2017 Disagree   Agree
    • I think WPS Office is the closest you can get to Microsoft Office (Word, Excel and PowerPoint). It handels .docx witch was my main problem. The WPS Writer may be in a early stage but I see alot of potential of it becomming better, more easy to use, beautiful and more stable. Guest • Jan 2017 • 10 agrees and 2 disagrees Disagree   Agree
    • it is absolutely one of the best alternatives to microsoft Word but the only thing that it does not have is the equation editor: it is present only in the windows version of the application but not on the linux version. Guest • Mar 2017 • 3 agrees and 1 disagrees Disagree   Agree
    • It has Microsoft-alike interface and has much features Guest • Jan 2017 Disagree   Agree
    • Fully Functional with .docx and various formats that are compatible with Microsoft office word. The Features and layout are also very similar and shouldn't take long to learn the program :) Guest • Sep 2016 Disagree   Agree

    Freemium Windows Linux

    Built-in PDF converter Compatible with Microsoft Office Office-like Tabbed interface ... Convert Word documents to PDF Add a feature

    WPS Writer icon

  • Apache OpenOffice Writer

    Writer, part of the Apache OpenOffice suite, is an open-source word processor. It supports the ISO standard Open Document Format (ODF) for...

    • It is basically a free version of Microsoft Office. martintin_916 • Mar 2019 • 1 agrees and 0 disagrees Disagree   Agree
    • Microsoft Office is costly and slow, but OpenOffice is free and fast. rose64bit • Apr 2018 • 1 agrees and 2 disagrees Disagree   Agree
    • Poor features and quite complicated interface Guest • Jan 2017 • 4 agrees and 3 disagrees Disagree   Agree
    • Will not use later than Word 97 documents Guest • Nov 2015 • 3 agrees and 4 disagrees Disagree   Agree

    Free Open Source Mac Windows Linux BSD

    Functions Open Source apps Export to PDF Spell checking Add a feature

    Apache OpenOffice Writer icon

  • Notion

    With so many tools, it's hard to keep everyone on the same page. Notion is a new tool that unifies them all. It's like Google Docs, but everything is...

    • More similar to oneNote or evernote than word. Guest • Apr 2019 • 2 agrees and 0 disagrees Disagree   Agree
    • This is not comparable to word, it is just a note and calendar app, it may be the alternative to google calendare, keep, evernote or todoist, but not to any word processing program Guest • May 2019 • 2 agrees and 0 disagrees Disagree   Agree

    Freemium $ $ $ Mac Windows Web Android iPhone ... Android Tablet iPad Software as a Service (SaaS)

    MarkDown support Hierarchical structure Nested Notes Real time collaboration ... Wiki-like interface Collaborative writing Data first Drag n drop Embedded media Google Drive integration Integrated Search Intuitive Interface Kanban boards Knowledge base Latex Math Support for @mentions Nested lists Real time collaboration Real time editing Slack integration Student discount Syntax Highlighting Team Collaboration To-Do management To do lists Youtube integration Add a feature

    Notion icon

  • AbiWord

    AbiWord is a free software word processor. The name "AbiWord" (pronounced "Abby Word") is derived from the root of the Spanish word...

    • AbiWord is a great simple word processor. However it doesn't have many advanced features. Just a simple text document. And it's free! kaylinTechAU • Jan 2017 • 4 agrees and 0 disagrees Disagree   Agree

    Free Open Source Linux BSD PortableApps.com Haiku GTK+ ... AmigaOS

    Lightweight Multiple languages Portable Spell checking Add a feature

    AbiWord icon

  • Pages

    Create gorgeous documents in minutes with the Pages for Mac word processor — featuring a stunning design, writing tools, and performance.

    • Microsoft Office Word is expensive and slow, but Pages is free, fast, responsive, and integrates very well with the rest of macOS. rose64bit • Apr 2018 Disagree   Agree
    • Clean, simple, yet powerful app design puts all of the editing tools within easy reach and without clutter. georgegarner • Feb 2018 • 1 agrees and 1 disagrees Disagree   Agree

    Free Mac Web iPhone iPad

    Cloud sync Desktop publishing Export to Word Group collaboration ... ICloud Integration Sync with iCloud Live collaboration Real time collaboration Export to ePub Export to PDF Team Collaboration Add a feature

    Pages icon

  • Scrivener

    Typewriter. Ring-binder. Scrapbook. Scrivener combines everything you need to craft your first draft, from nascent notion to final full stop.

    • It's a hole research/writing management tool, extremely flexible, generous in it's licence and allowing easy data recovery if anything goes wrong by keeping every piece of work in an open format! Guest • Nov 2016 • 2 agrees and 0 disagrees Disagree   Agree

    Commercial $ $ $ Mac Windows Linux iPhone iPad

    Corkboard Distraction free writing Document compiler Export to Word ... iPhone/iPod sync Support for LaTeX Outline mode Quotas support Export to ePub Export to PDF Scripting Split files into sections Visual Organization Write in separate docs Add a feature

    Scrivener icon

  • TextMaker

    TextMaker is a Microsoft Word-compatible word processor, part of SoftMaker Office.

    • If you are like me: one who only needs the necessary to fulfill your needs, and really like when the response of the software comes quickly (think that the MS Office in general certainly does not). This is the right solution. It is fully compatible with outputs formats from MS Word; it is fast; and it does everything you need to white a nice and organized document, whatever that is. Guest • Sep 2018 • 2 agrees and 0 disagrees Disagree   Agree
    • Powerful features with a very intuitive interface. Outputs in MS Word formats plus ODT, PDF, HTML and ePub, among many others. Reads most common formats, including MS Word. Fully customizable interface. Fast and compact. Excellent documentation. The best word processor for personal use, period. DiegoAzeta • Oct 2016 • 1 agrees and 0 disagrees Disagree   Agree
    • Really fast, really compatible with Microsoft Office. Guest • May 2016 • 2 agrees and 0 disagrees Disagree   Agree

    Freemium Windows Linux Windows Mobile Android Android Tablet

    Autocompletion Compatible with Microsoft Office Portable Export to ePub ... Export to PDF Add a feature

    TextMaker icon

  • LaTeX

    LaTeX is a document markup language and document preparation system for the TeX typesetting program. The term LaTeX refers only to the language in which documents are...

    Free Open Source Mac Windows Linux BSD

    Text formatting Add a feature

    LaTeX icon

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Microsoft Office Word Comments

Comment by Cyberia
about Microsoft Office Word · Nov 2017 · Helpful Not helpful 1 Helpful Report as spam

I have to admit that there is no alternative to this one. I have tried OpenOffice and its clones, they are too buggy and crash quite often, at least on windows.

Also I like the fact that it politely asks for your permission before connecting to the internet.

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Comment by Furgelnod
about Microsoft Office Word · Jun 2011 · Helpful Not helpful 1 Helpful Report as spam

The best word processing programme in my opinion, openoffice has some way to go before being up to its standard. Though I wish you could purchase it by itself, as its about the only thing in the ms office suite I use.

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Comment by OmgItsTheSmartGuy
about Microsoft Office Word · Jun 2011 · Helpful Not helpful 1 Helpful Report as spam

Microsoft Word pretty much sets the standard for word processors. And unlike Internet Explorer, which sets the lowest standard possible for browsers, that's not necessarily a bad thing. It costs a ton for what it does, but I think that Word does it pretty well.

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calends · Oct 2012

I'll agree. Word is so much better than OO, LibreOffice, and Apache Open Office (I've actually tried them all and dual boot with Lubuntu Linux) that I KNOW that people that say they are better are just Open Source tools. It's the same with people that say that Linux is a lot better than Windows 7, etc. Are you kidding me? Try using Linux heavily for a month and get back to me. I hope you know what the command line is :) Make sure you read tutorials on using Sudo (or you could seriously eff up your installation). Make sure you understand the file system! In fact, to even install Apache OO (the best iteration in my opinion) I had to do a bunch of crazy command line garbage. OH...and with Linux ALWAYS make sure you're prepared to do things in a roundabout way, make sure you have tons of time to "tinker" (as Linux people love to say).

By the way...IE is a very good browser. Have you used it? It's extremely fast. The biggest problem, and the reason I won't use it, is that it doesn't have a convenient ad blocker. It's a huge problem. IE has some of the best HTML 5 performance.

Thelle · Nov 2012

I totally agree. Most easy-to-use word processor, but if you do advanced formatting (images with descriptions, references, automatic numbering) you quickly find funny quirks and strange auto-formatting that are hard and sometimes impossible to change.

For advanced text editing Small Adobe InDesign iconAdobe InDesign seems to be the best choice, but there is a steep learning curve.. For the geeky academic that likes code and full control Small LaTeX iconLaTeX seems like the number one choice.


Comment by Guest
about Microsoft Office Word · Jun 2017 · Report as spam

It is stable, easy to use and fast, even though its huge.

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Denied incorrect alternatives.

Comment by coth
about Microsoft Office Word · Apr 2016 · Helpful Not helpful Report as spam

Look at MS Office Word. It's a word processor, so as other alternatives, except few.
Small Microsoft Office Word iconMicrosoft Office Word

Scroll down and i'll see WPS Office. Scroll down a bit more and you'll see correct alternative - WPS Writer.

WPS Office is an alternative to MS Office. Full suite to full suite, writer to writer. Despite that WPS Office was denied of being removed.

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Free Alternative to Word

Comment by Diaboto
about Microsoft Office Word · Jul 2014 · Helpful Not helpful Report as spam

Check out Nevron Docs - https://docs.nevron.com/

This is probably the best free alternative to Word - it works on Windows, Mac and Online. It can open .DOCX, .RTF and .HTML files and has export to .PDF, .HTML etc. It is also faster than Word.

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JohnFastman · Feb 2017

2017-02-26:
Beware: The link Diaboto recommends (https://docs.nevron.com/ ) has an expired https certificate, meaning that in principle the connection is insecure and could be malicious. A link to Nevron office (without a valid certificate) is here: https://www.nevronoffice.com/products-nevron-office-about

JohnFastman · Feb 2017

*with a valid certificate (the link I gave).
Apologies for the typo.


Word for notes

Comment by careylin
about Microsoft Office Word · May 2013 · Helpful Not helpful Report as spam

Word, in recent years, has been not just the go to for word processing but also note taking. I use it on OSX so I can only speak for that platform. I find its notebook view/layout to be nice yet the rest of the program is slow. If it was a separate notes only program I would be satisfied, but for now they are together. For this reason I suggested Circus Ponies NoteBook to be a reasonable alternative for those still only using Word for note taking. Not sure it belongs here, but hoped someone else might find it useful.

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Nice list - but no Nisus?

Comment by manskybook
about Microsoft Office Word · Jan 2012 · Helpful Not helpful Report as spam

It's not clear when this list of alternatives to MS Word was created (or even when the comments were made). Might be nice to date your site to give some currency to your information.

But, as to my subject line, why is Nisus left out of this list? It's been a Mac word processor since near the beginning of Macintosh time. It was (and is now, again) known for its sophisticated search and macros. Try http://www.nisus.com/

(no, I'm not in any way associated with them)

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calends · Oct 2012

Umm...Why don't you add it?


Comment by askj113
about Microsoft Office Word · Jun 2011 · Helpful Not helpful Report as spam

Let's break it down:
Openoffice is the standby free office choice. Unfortunately that means its as bloated as microsoft office, more so in recent years. It can take forever for writer to open, especially on older systems.
Abiword is lightning quick and pretty cool, but I've always had trouble with the menus being different and differently named from office, whereas openoffice makes more of an effort to match word.
Google docs is fantastic for online stuff, but fairly limited for anything but basic writing.

Q10 is a fantastic writeroom alternative for windows; it shows you a black screen with a simple statusbar and lets you write undistracted. It'll certainly add another step to your work flow but it's worth it for me for the simplicity and focus it gives. Not a replacement for an office program, but an addition to it

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calends · Oct 2012

Word isn't "bloated" for people that need those features. If you don't need those features? An RTF editor like Wordpad would be great for you. Abi Word is hideously ugly on my Windows installation and also really buggy for some reason. Focus Writer is better than Q10 :)


Comment by ajayazad578
about Microsoft Office Word · Feb 2018 · Helpful Not helpful -1 Helpful Report as spam

Microsoft Office word is providing our large number of services like for making PPT's for excel sheets etc Personally I love to work on Mircosoft it makes my work easier if are also giving Microsoft support services if you are having problem you're welcome MS Power Point Customer Service

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General comment

Comment by gnashingteeth67yahoocom
about Microsoft Office Word · Mar 2017 · Helpful Not helpful -1 Helpful Report as spam

Thank you for offering or possibly suggesting other routes to the software turnpike littered with little toll booths that will(would) gleefully accept our monies.

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Comment by robertmu
about Microsoft Office Word · Jan 2016 · Helpful Not helpful -1 Helpful Report as spam

i have use it for years and i think it works fine, i don't think is the best but i works as i need to, but maybe they shouldn't change it all the time, i mean, they give new features every now and then and they are really things no one really use. there's no need to make it so confusing.

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Comment by Aaron
about Microsoft Office Word · Jun 2011 · Helpful Not helpful -1 Helpful Report as spam

Openoffice Writer I find to be the perfect alternative to this. Writer may take a little bit to load, but it can do a lot more than Word can, at least in my opinion. The newest Microsoft Word to me is confusing, annoying, and slow a lot of the time. I use Openoffice on my laptop all the time its great.

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calends · Oct 2012

What can writer do that Word can't? Care to give some real-world experience? How is Word 2010 confusing? lol. Microsoft made it so easy that you'd have to be an idiot not to understand the ribbon. It's ALL THERE IN FRONT OF YOU. Office 2010 is faster than OO and LO. Apache OO is pretty fast, not sure about that one. Good luck installing Apache OO though.