8 Best Free Office Suites for Mac That Aren’t Microsoft.
Most users looking for an office suite for Mac will probably think of one option – Microsoft Office. This is still one of the best office suites, regardless of platform, but there are other options you might not have considered (or even knew) for macOS.
Choosing the best office suite for Mac will depend on your budget, but there are many free office suites for Mac that you can install for free. To help you out, here are eight of the best free Mac office suites available to install or use today.
Apple iWork
After Microsoft Office, the next and best office suite that Mac users can start using right away is Apple iWork. Apple’s three original paid iWork office applications have been available for free for Mac devices since 2013.
Pages is a word processor with ready-made templates for common documents such as letters, as well as the ability to insert tables, charts, images, and more. Apple also has a basic spreadsheet application called Numbers, which supports multiple sheets and, like Pages, comes with ready-made templates.
Finally, Keynote works as a replacement for PowerPoint with the same features as transitions and animations. You can download all three iWork apps from the App Store.
Google Docs (Docs / Sheets / Slides
While iCloud offers iWork online apps, it’s not the best office suite for Mac. If you want the features of Microsoft Office for the web without paying for Office 365, you need to try the Google Docs suite.
–
The Google Docs package, available for free to Google Account users, comes in a package of three (four if you count Google Forms as well). Docs is a word processor, Sheets is a spreadsheet tool, and Slides is a presentation tool that can compete with PowerPoint and Apple Keynote.
Google Docs is well packed with many of the features you’d expect to find in a full-fledged Office alternative, as well as extensive collaboration features that allow you to share and edit documents in real time with others.
LibreOffice
Few open source projects are sized and polished to compete with a billion-dollar Microsoft Office suite like LibreOffice. Thanks to the community of volunteers who helped create it, LibreOffice has grown into one of the best office suites available for the Mac.
This offshoot of the once popular OpenOffice contains products that match the typical Microsoft Office collection, with a word processor, spreadsheet tool, presentation designer, and database manager. He also takes it two steps further with a vector graphics tool and a formula builder for mathematicians.
Best of all, LibreOffice has excellent support for Office file formats such as DOC and DOCX. LibreOffice is a complete replacement with many features similar to Microsoft Office, plus some additional features.
FreeOffice Strong
As the name suggests, FreeOffice is a free Office suite available for Mac, Linux, and Windows users. Like other free Office alternatives, it targets three main Office products: Excel-style products (PlanMaker), PowerPoint (presentations), and Word (TextMaker).
If you want an office experience, FreeOffice will provide it. It is very similar to its Microsoft counterpart, with a ribbon interface, basic functionality, and support for common Office file formats such as DOCX.
Some features, such as mail merge and high quality spell check, require a paid upgrade to SoftMaker Office If this gets in the way, look elsewhere.
Calligra
Another free and open source replacement for Office is the Calligra package from KDE Originally designed for Linux users, Calligra is a cross-platform office suite for macOS, Linux and Windows computers. To install it on a Mac, you’ll need to install the Homebrew package manager
You can try at least ten Calligra applications, ranging from a standard word processor (words) and spreadsheet tool (spreadsheet) to more specialized applications including the mind mapping tool (Braindump).
We’re not going to pretend that Calligra is the most advanced office suite for the Mac, it isn’t. However, it is functional, comprehensive, and free, with more built-in tools than some of its more attractive (and costly) competitors.
Apache OpenOffice
Apache OpenOffice is the spiritual successor to the previously popular (but now discontinued) OpenOffice.org suite. It shares code with LibreOffice with similar functionality, although there are some important differences between the two.
Unfortunately, the biggest difference is active development. LibreOffice has a vibrant community behind it, while Apache OpenOffice is a bit slower with releases about once a year. In recent years, they have mainly focused on bug fixes rather than important new features or updates.
There are better office suites for Mac, but if you want a solid old Mac experience, Apache OpenOffice is for you.
WPS Office Free
As a free version of the paid WPS Office, WPS Office Free acts as a free ad tester for Mac users. This is not a criticism – WPS Office Free is still a good office suite for Mac.
WPS Office looks like it was built for the Mac with an attractive and modern interface that knocks out some of its older competitors like LibreOffice. Similar to iWork and FreeOffice, WPS Office Free targets the Microsoft Office marketplace with tools for creating presentations, texts, and spreadsheets.
It supports Office file formats and also supports editing and creating PDFs. You can download WPS Office Free from the App Store or from the WPS Office website.
Dropbox paper
Dropbox Paper is a quick collaboration and document editing tool built into the Dropbox cloud storage interface. It’s also the only app on this list that isn’t a full replacement for Office, but Dropbox Paper still deserves a mention.
You can use Paper to create more unusual types of documents for planning projects, taking notes, building a portfolio, and more. Similar to Google Docs, you can also collaborate in real time with other Dropbox Paper users.
It might not be the Word replacement you’re looking for, but if you already have a Dropbox account, give it a try.
Choose the best Office suite for Mac
If you want the best Office suite for Mac, you don’t need to pay. Microsoft Office is still a great office suite for Mac, but it doesn’t have to – you can create documents on macOS for free without it, using Apple iWork or one of the other free or open source alternatives we’ve mentioned.
Whether it’s Google Docs or Microsoft Office itself, let us know your favorite office suite for Mac in the comments below.
–
Comment on “8 Best Free Office Suites for Mac That Aren’t Microsoft”