When it comes to office productivity suites, there is little doubt that Microsoft Office dominates. But despite its deep roots and reknown, as well as its comprehensive array of offerings, Office is not necessarily the best option for everyone. Parsing the ever-expanding list of features—many of which you’ll never use—can feel overwhelming. For the majority of users, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint are all that’s really wanted. Which brings us to the final issue: Office’s hefty price tag.
Fortunately, free office suites abound, many of which are compatible with Microsoft Office docs. We compared six of the most popular free alternatives to see how well they replicate the most commonly used features of Microsoft Office.