The five best free alternatives to Microsoft Word

The five best free alternatives to Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word has become the standard in the world of word processors bypassing many really interesting free alternatives.

Although Microsoft Word has become the standard for text editors, there are many alternatives of all kinds that can supply the flagship tool of the office suite. The convenience of having everything in the same pack means that we do not go out to explore very valid tools that can save us on more than one occasion.

Many times we have them installed on our device or they even come integrated with the mail client we use every day. But they go unnoticed without sorrow or glory and we resort to installing more applications or programs that take up unnecessarily memory.

We are going to review the 5 free tools that can replace Microsoft Word without first notifying you that some may not support specific formats or the internet connection dependency of some of them.

Google Docs

Google Docs is probably the most used Word alternative. Its main asset is that it is integrated for free in all Google accounts. For example, just by having a Gmail email we can access all the functionalities of Google Docs (or Google Documents, as they have translated it) on our computer, tablet or smartphone.

The problem with Google Docs is that it practically forces us to use Google Chrome if we want to take advantage of all the functions. If we do not have the Google browser it will be impossible to open or create new text documents without an internet connection . If we are regular users of Chrome, it won't disrupt our lives too much.

On the contrary, if we download it on a tablet or smartphone it will be fully operational even without internet. In fact, in some Android devices it is already installed by default as an app to open this type of files. Google Docs allows you to create collaborative documents for editing among several people and synchronize all data with the cloud so that they are accessible from all our devices.

Apple pages

If we have a computer with macOS it is very possible that we have encountered Pages . It is Apple's direct counterpart to rival Microsoft Word and Google Docs in text editors.

It is widely used within the apple ecosystem because it is completely free when we buy a brand computer and also offers the possibility to install it on iPhone, iPad and access from any browser on a PC. An internet connection is not necessary to use it on any of the devices and it has synchronization through iCloud , the Apple cloud .

LibreOffice Writer

Those of us who have been in the internet and technology for a few years have almost certainly found the LibreOffice free office suite at some point. It is, like Microsoft Office, a complete pack with numerous tools such as spreadsheets and presentation editor.

LibreOffice Writer is more similar to older versions of Microsoft Word because of an appearance that is far removed from the minimalist standards that prevail today. Although at the moment of truth, it is compatible with all Office formats, it performs its function equally well and is available for Windows, macOS and Linux. Be very careful because you don't save the files in the cloud.

WPS Writer

The fourth alternative we recommend is WPS Office . A series of productivity applications developed by the Chinese company Kingsoft Office available for Windows, Linux, iOS and Android. For a while now they are the applications that come by default in some smartphones of Chinese brands to open and edit text documents, spreadsheets and presentations.

Although it has a Pro version, the most popular is the free version that allows access to almost all functions. The free version of WPS has synchronization in its own cloud and supports the vast majority of the formats of the almighty Microsoft Word.

Dropbox Paper

One of the great strangers of text editors comes from the hand of one of the most famous storage clouds of all time. Dropbox is the productivity center of millions of people around the world who can also access a very minimalist text editor.

Dropbox Paper synchronizes with our cloud, allows collaboration in the documents created and integrates with some productivity services such as Google Drive or Trello and with more fun ones like Spotify .

Bonus track: Word Online

The exclusively online version of Word is an excellent free alternative to the classic program installed on our computer. The differences with the normal software are scarce the only thing that we will need an internet connection.

As a good online service, you have full synchronization in OneDrive through our Microsoft account and the possibility of creating collaborative documents. A way to use Word that can take chestnuts out of the fire if we find ourselves on other people's computers and need to access our files or create a new one.