What are the free Microsoft Word al­ter­na­tives?

Which free Microsoft Word al­ter­na­tive is best for you depends first and foremost on what you want to use the writing program for. Depending on what is important to you in your work, the al­ter­na­tives to MS Word presented here each offer different ad­van­tages and dis­ad­van­tages.

A com­par­i­son of MS Word al­ter­na­tives

Apache OpenOf­fice Writer, similar to Word

Apache OpenOf­fice was operated under the name OpenOf­fice.org until 2012 and now is simply called “OpenOf­fice”. The OpenOf­fice Writer is the most popular among the Microsoft Word al­ter­na­tives, and together with Li­bre­Of­fice, it’s most similar to the original. Like the Microsoft Office package, OpenOf­fice consists of a word processor, a drawing program, an al­ter­na­tive for Excel, a database tool, a tool for math­e­mat­i­cal formulas and a pre­sen­ta­tion tool. OpenOf­fice doesn’t, however, provide an al­ter­na­tive for the Outlook email program.

OpenOf­fice Writer has all the functions that you need in everyday office life. It is important that OpenOf­fice can open all Microsoft Word formats. When saving work, OpenOf­fice Writer only supports the older file formats (.doc, .xml). Most of the details are in the layout, however sub­tleties such as the placement of footnotes could shift content around. It is therefore rec­om­mend­ed to convert documents to pdf documents before you print them. OpenOf­fice Writer is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Ports for Solaris and FreeBSD are also available.

Li­bre­Of­fice Writer, the al­ter­na­tive to OpenOf­fice

An al­ter­na­tive to the al­ter­na­tive. Li­bre­Of­fice split off from OpenOf­fice in 2010 after dis­agree­ments with Oracle, who was the main sponsor at the time. The layout and functions of the program are largely the same, but there are some important dif­fer­ences. The Li­bre­Of­fice Writer can edit and save the DOCX file format, whereas OpenOf­fice can only open it. If you often swap documents with other Microsoft Office users, it’s rec­om­mend­ed you use Li­bre­Of­fice.

Li­bre­Of­fice also provides sig­nif­i­cant­ly more updates than OpenOf­fice, which can be both ad­van­ta­geous and dis­ad­van­ta­geous. The advantage is that de­vel­op­ers eliminate errors, close security gaps, and implement new features. However, they sometimes also create functions that aren’t 100% ready and not all users have the patience to keep in­stalling new updates every two months.

Zoho Writer, many functions in one

Zoho Writer is a good choice if you are looking for a com­pre­hen­sive, free al­ter­na­tive to MS Word. In addition to the writing program Zoho Writer, users of the Zoho Office Suite can also use Zoho Sheets, an al­ter­na­tive to Excel and Zoho Shows (similar to Microsoft Pow­er­Point) free of charge. So if you are not just looking for a free Microsoft Word al­ter­na­tive, but need more com­pre­hen­sive functions such as creating and editing pre­sen­ta­tions for your work, then the Zoho Office Suite is perfect for you.

Zoho Writer is a web-based word pro­cess­ing ap­pli­ca­tion specif­i­cal­ly designed to give you most of the features you would expect from an al­ter­na­tive to MS Word. For example, there is the option of real-time col­lab­o­ra­tion, which allows you to work together on documents. In addition, Zoho Writer convinces with a com­pli­cat­ed import and export of different file formats (docx, pdf, rtf etc.), as well as a selection of different templates, which makes it easier to get started with the program.

WPS Office Writer, an al­ter­na­tive for frequent writers

The company, Kingsoft, has been dis­trib­ut­ing its Office package WPS Office since the 1980s. In addition to various paid versions, the man­u­fac­tur­er also offers the extensive Office Free Edition. The structure of the text pro­cess­ing program looks very similar to that of Microsoft, comes however with a few changes. For example, it is possible to open several documents within the program and switch between them with the help of tabs. Another special feature is the two display formats “Eye Pro­tec­tion Mode” and “Night Mode”, which makes the writing area very easy on the eye.

Files can be saved in different file formats. Therefore, not only the WPS format is available, but also other common file types, including DOCX. If you log in, you can also access a personal cloud and save the files online. Users also have the simple option of securing the file with a password and es­tab­lish­ing en­cryp­tion. Thanks to its simple user interface, which is very similar to that of Microsoft Office, and its com­pat­i­bil­i­ty with other programs, WPS Office Writer is a very good al­ter­na­tive to MS Word.

SoftMaker Free­Of­fice, the word processor from Germany

The German software man­u­fac­tur­er SoftMaker also offers a very good free Microsoft Word al­ter­na­tive with Free­Of­fice. In addition to its fee-based offer, a free version is also available in the form of Free­Of­fice TextMaker. All users have to do is enter a valid email address. You can choose between a classic menu structure and the modern ribbon view. Re­gard­less of which one you choose, the window is very neat and tidy.

When saving the documents, you can choose either between Microsoft Office file formats or the in-house SoftMaker formats. Ad­di­tion­al­ly, you have the pos­si­bil­i­ty to export documents as pdf or epub. The free office suite also includes a spread­sheet program and pre­sen­ta­tion software. Free­Of­fice receives regular updates and is available for Windows, Linux, and Mac. There are also versions for Android smart­phones.

Write­Mon­key, writing without dis­trac­tion

Write­Mon­key is the right choice for anyone who wants to write without being dis­tract­ed by advanced layout features. The full-screen mode is most similar to the simple white (or depending on the settings, black, green, or another color) paper, where you can let your cre­ativ­i­ty run wild. Right-click to access the menu, which will then allow you to fade out certain parts of the text, or be able to jump between different para­graphs. You can set the timer for the amount of time you want to con­cen­trate. The built-in word com­ple­tion also saves a lot of time when typing.

Write­Mon­key is the smallest of the desktop programs mentioned here. It doesn’t need to be installed, which means that Write­Mon­key can be used on a USB stick and then put onto other computers. To open Write­Mon­key, simply download the ap­pli­ca­tion file folder, copy it to a random folder on your hard drive, and then open the Write­Mon­key.exe file. Texts can be saved from Write­Mon­key as txt files or exported to Word. Whether Write­Mon­key is the right Microsoft Word al­ter­na­tive for you, despite its somewhat un­fa­mil­iar design, probably depends on your own writing pref­er­ences. What is clear, however, is that Write­Mon­key scores points with its un­com­pli­cat­ed in­stal­la­tion and ease of use.

Google Docs for online word pro­cess­ing

Google Docs is an online writing program. If you have a Gmail account, click on Documents in the tool bar to go to Google Docs. You can also open your documents using Google Drive. In Google Docs, you can create new documents and work with multiple users on the same document at the same time. You can see straight­away what changes other users have made to the document. This is es­pe­cial­ly useful when you want to write a text together with others, or when working with editors. As with Microsoft Office, OpenOf­fice, and Li­bre­Of­fice, Google Docs also provides features for creating tables (Sheets) and pre­sen­ta­tions (Slides).

The dis­ad­van­tages of Google Docs are that it’s slower and has fewer features than free Microsoft Word al­ter­na­tives that are stored on the computer. The layout options of Google Docs are much more limited. Also, many users have reser­va­tions about trusting the internet with con­fi­den­tial in­for­ma­tion. In addition, the func­tion­al­i­ty of Google Docs depends on the quality and security of the internet con­nec­tion. For­tu­nate­ly, there is also a Google Docs app that you can download to your computer or smart­phone and then work on Google Docs in offline-mode.

Of course, there are also al­ter­na­tives. For oc­ca­sion­al group work, Etherpad is suitable and can be accessed without an account. Etherpad has fewer functions for text editing, but is the fastest tool when it comes to group work.