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Five free alternative office suites

Microsoft is set to unveil its own free Office suite as the competition catches up.

By Nicole Kobie, 17 Nov 2009 at 09:00

They’re the workhorses of modern applications, the ones you couldn’t get through your day without. But do we really still need to pay for office productivity suites?

Buying Word, Powerpoint and Excel from Microsoft still costs rather a lot - it's currently around £270 on Amazon.com for the standard version.

But you don't need to pay out, as there are free alternatives. And the competition must be worrying the Redmond giant, as it’s set to release its own free, web-based apps alongside Office 2010 next year. (Click here for our review of the technical preview of the web-based Office.)

However, they’ve got some solid competition. Google Docs will see 30 to 50 updates over the next year, according to president of Google's enterprise division Dave Girouard, who claimed the tweaks will mean businesses can "get rid of Office if they chose to."

It’s not just a Google vs Microsoft battle either. Here are our picks for five alternatives – web based and otherwise – to paying out for an office suite.

Google Docs
To start, there’s web-based Google Docs. It offers a spreadsheet, word processor and presentation software, all free of charge.

However, there are some security issues. Everything is saved on Google’s servers, which might not bother you, but data has been leaked before. As it’s web-hosted, access could be a problem if the system fails – which it has for Gmail.

On the upside, Google Docs are accessible from mobile handsets and thanks to Google Gears can now even be used offline.

Google Docs’ biggest selling point – price aside – is collaboration. Documents are easily shared, and can be we worked on at the same time by users, with changes reflected in real time. In addition, your documents are available on any PC with internet access.

Google Docs are already in use by one in five businesses. Though that's presumably in addition to other office suites.

Open Office
This is Microsoft’s biggest competition, though it might not be reflected in user numbers. While OpenOffice.org 3 just saw its 100,000,000th download, it has about 13 to 14 per cent of market share on Windows desktops, with Office holding 95 per cent. Obviously some are using both.

Technically called OpenOffice.org – for patent reasons – the suite was developed off the back of StarOffice, bought by Sun Microsystems in 1999. So it’s been around for a while, to say the least.

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4 comments

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Office Suites

Although Office 2007 is very "pretty" and today far better value than its ever been, my personal choice these days is Open Office which does the job very well and I love the price ! It is an amazing suite which can be considerably reduced in terms of footprint via 'custom install' to the essential WP and Spreadsheet applications. It offers a wide range of document formats to save in so compatibility isn't really an issue. For me the only weak point lies in the Dictionary come Spell Check, this does need expanding in its scope. Whilst 'mainstream words' are fine, start moving away even slightly into more unusual words and phrases and it gets lost. It will throw up a miss spelt word with some of the most odd alternatives imaginable, that apart, more than does the job and does it well.

By popskihaynes on Tuesday Nov 17

Some more free alternatives.

You should also try SSuite Office for a free office suite. They have a whole range of office suites that are free for download. Their software also don't need to run on Java or .NET, like so many open source office suites, so it makes their software very small and efficient. You may try these links: http://www.ssuitesoft.com/index.htm or http://www.ssuitesoft.com/ssuiteexcalibur.htm or http://ssuite5element.webs.com/thefifthelement.htm

By BeBob_Esq on Wednesday Nov 18

What about databases?

Why do discussions like this never take Access and its alternatives into account?

By JoyceBeck on Friday Nov 20

You've forgotten one crucial entry...

Sadly, more often than not the impressive work done in Germany on integrated office suites is overlooked. Let's not forget that OpenOffice was originally a German project (anybody remember StarOffice 5?). Let's not forget amazing if quirky solutions like Papyrus. But above all, let's not forget SoftMaker and their suite of office products, especially TextMaker and PlanMaker. In German government tests, SoftMaker's Word filters were found to be better than anybody else's (a fact we can confirm from our own experience), and TextMaker also handles very long files much, much better than Word (much faster, more stable). SoftMaker's products form the basis for Ashampoo Office Suite, and are just about to be upgraded to SoftMaker Office 2010. The price is pleasing (EUR 69, or less if you buy it now), and it's well worth evaluating in any case. And no, I don't work for/with or have any commercial interest in SoftMaker. Just appreciation for very good, vastly underrated software.

By MadaboutDana on Friday Nov 20