Everyone is familiar with Microsoft Office; it’s the business industry standard. It is more now than ever starting at $69.99 per year or $6.99 per month. For those on a tight budget or just cheap there are free alternatives.

Microsoft Office Online

The first is none other than Microsoft’s own Microsoft Office Online. Office Online is an excellent alternative. It has much of the functionality of the desktop version without the expense. It does one thing you can’t do with the more expensive desktop version; you can use it anywhere with an Internet connection. (You can use the web-app in with Office 365 desktop.)

OnlyOffice

OnlyOffice is a suite of programs written in JaveScript (the web technology). It has a web-app feel because it is a web-app that runs on your computer. Free Download

There is a home server product that cost $149 (one time purchase). And a professional products that runs on a office server for $1200.

LibreOffice

The best desktop application since it forked from OpenOffice is LibreOffice. LibreOffice is very much like a slightly older MS Office. It has many of the same features. Notably missing is most the crap in MS Office that you don’t need. It is an awesome software.

Google Drive

Google Drive and its paid version now called Google Workspaces is an okay alternative to MS Office. It lacks a lot of the functionality of MS Office but it is fine for most people. What is really great about the Google Drive applications; Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Forms, and Scripts is the collaboration features. You can share a document with a co-worker, friend or a group, and they can edit the same exact document. They can contribute to it individually or all of the persons in the group edit at the same time. It is fantastic!

OpenOffice

OpenOffice is the predecessor of LibreOffice. OpenOffice is still very similar to Libre and MS Office but since the fork (separation) few people are using OpenOffice but going with Libre instead.

WPS Office

WPS Office is a desktop application that has all of the usual office apps plus a PDF editor. It has a lot of templates. Though they look webish like OnlyOffice, WPS is a lot faster.

Free 7 day free trail. After that it’s $29 per year.

Zoho Office

I’ve used Zoho in the past and I didn’t think that much of it, but it appears that they have done some work. I was very comfortable with the interface and the performance was very snappy.

Softmaker Freeoffice and SSuite Office were two others I saw but there are many more too numerous to review all of them.

All of these will get the job done with varying amounts of difficulty. My choice has been Google Drive for many years. It fits my workflow. What’s you favorite!