Software5.02.2025

Say goodbye to Microsoft Office

South Africans who can no longer afford or have grown tired of the price increases on Microsoft Office’s subscription-based variant, Microsoft 365, have a myriad of free alternative productivity suites to choose from.

MyBroadband recently analysed local pricing adjustments on Microsoft 365 Personal and Family and found that prices had increased by over 165% in the past 12 years.

Effective mid-January 2025 for new subscribers and 8 March 2025 for existing users, the price of Microsoft 365 Personal is R159 per month, while the Family plan costs R199 per month.

Although Microsoft is offering Classic variants without its new AI capabilities at the previous price points, these will only be available for a limited period.

Fortunately, productivity software is in no short supply.

Although Microsoft Office may be the most popular choice overall, many cheaper or free alternatives will provide many of the same capabilities of its most popular apps – Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

The Document Foundation’s LibreOffice is generally regarded as one of the best Microsoft Office alternatives and is the default productivity suite for Linux distributions.

The software uses the OpenDocument format but also supports many of the other popular format types used in Microsoft Office.

LibreOffice offers a word processor, spreadsheet app, presentation software, database management system, vector graphics editor, and a formula editor.

The software is open-source, supports 110 languages, and is available on Linux, macOS, and Windows systems.

Below are four more alternative productivity suites which offer many of the same features as Microsoft’s software.

FreeOffice — Best Microsoft Office lookalike

SoftMaker’s FreeOffice is designed, first and foremost, to be familiar to Microsoft Office users, with either a classic or ribbons user interface that resembles the larger software giant’s tools and settings layout.

FreeOffice includes support for all Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint file formats, including the most popular docx, xlsx, and pptx types.

A standout feature of FreeOffice is its useability with touchscreens, including larger icons for easy tapping.

However, certain features including key spreadsheet tools like creating and modifying cell styles are only available in its paid version — SoftMaker Office NX Universal — priced at R94.99 per month.

OnlyOffice — Best free option for small businesses

Developed by Ascensio Systems SIA, OnlyOffice said it counts major cloud services provider Oracle among their biggest customers.

The software is cloud-based and is described as “highly compatible” with Microsoft Office formats.

The free Community Edition allows for collaboration on up to 20 devices suitable for small businesses.

In addition to word processing, spreadsheet, and slideshow apps, OnlyOffice has software for order fulfilment and sales documentation.

WPS Office — The Chinese contender

Developed by Chinese software company Kingsoft, WPS Office will be familiar to users of Amazon Fire tablets, where it comes pre-installed.

WPS Office is available in a free ad-supported version, which includes its word processor Writer, slideshow app Presentation, and Excel-equivalent Spreadsheets.

Upgrading to the paid Premium tier lets customers use the suite on up to nine devices at a time and eliminates the ads from the interface.

WPS Office is supported on Android, iOS, Linux, and Windows.

Google Workspace — Best for integration with other Google apps

Google Workspace — previously called GSuite — is a great option for those who are already deep in the company’s ecosystem.

Its productivity apps include Docs, Sheets, Slides, Keep, and Forms.

These have several features which are integrated with other popular Google apps, including Gmail and Drive.

While its features work best when connected to the Internet, the apps can also be used offline.

One issue that some users have with Workspace is that it sometimes does not play well with formatting and fonts from Microsoft Office files.

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