The latter is particularly useful free alternatives to Microsoft Access are hard to find. The last three are tools you won't find in many other free office suites, and are designed for vector diagrams, mathematical functions and databases, respectively. The suite contains six programs to cover every common office task: Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw, Math and Base. It's compatible with all Microsoft document formats, and has almost every feature you'll find in the latest versions of Word, PowerPoint and Excel. LibreOffice is so good, you'll wonder why you ever paid for office software.
+Huge software suite +Full MS Office compatibility +Completely free
Upgrading to a premium Polaris account gives you access to extra features including a PDF editor, removes ads, and the ability to search within a document. If that’s not enough space, you can connect Polaris Office to Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, Microsoft OneDrive and Amazon Cloud Drive – or save work locally to your device. Your free Polaris account comes with 60MB monthly data transfer, 1GB cloud storage, and can be used across three devices (one desktop and two mobile). This is necessary because Polaris Office is a cloud-based service. You’ll then need to sign in with Facebook or Google, or create an account. You can decline all of these – just keep an eye out.
Take care if you choose to install Windows version, you’ll see various additional pieces of bundled software, which could potentially include a browser extension from McAfee called WebAdvisor, a market research tool called PremierOpinion, and antivirus software. It’s compatible with all Microsoft document formats, and offers a slick ribbon-based interface with some basic customization options.
This cross-platform free office software is available for Windows, macOS, Android and iOS, and comes pre-installed on some Samsung handsets. If you own a Samsung phone, you might already be familiar with the mobile version of Polaris Office. However, there's no one-click set up or access, and instead you have to go through a sign up process that begins by providing details of an existing business domain. If you want to signup for the free version of Zoho Workplace you need to search the pricing page for the "Forever free" plan. Some are on the simplistic side, so they'll likely not replace anything you might already have in place, but if you're starting out as a small business Zoho is probably a good jumping-off point. They're just the tip of the iceberg, however – Zoho Workplace includes a powerful site creation tool, a file management solution and many collaborative tools.
Zoho's new-look word processor (which ditches the classic Word-style interface in favour of a formatting sidebar) is very well-presented and capable of producing professional-looking docs, and it has a sterling spreadsheet and reasonable presentation package alongside it. It's certainly closer to a desktop office package, and it's strong enough to have attracted businesses like the BBC and Nike as regular users. They might work for a while, but they are definitely not a legal option.While Google Docs is, thanks to the strength of its brand, probably more widely used, Zoho Workplace is very good in its own right. Don’t fall for the eBay sellers that offer Microsoft 365 or Office 365 subscriptions for $1. When you’re looking for these deals, make sure they are from a legitimate site. After discounts, you might get the Home plan for around $80 ($20 off) from Amazon. If you monitor the deals, you’ll find some discounts for the Office 365 Personal Home plans online. Microsoft’s website is not the only place where you can sign up for an Office 365 subscription. Instead of paying for it out of your pocket, you can ask for it to be covered as a company expense. If the Microsoft Office suite is important for you to get work done, you can make the case to your employer. If you can convince them to add you for free, that’s an even better option. That means you can get the entire Microsoft Office 365 experience for around $17/year. That way you can split the $99/year cost between six users. Hey, if you can share your Netflix account, why not your Office account too?
If you find a professional or a small business-person who uses the plan, you can ask them to add you to it. Speaking of the Microsoft 365 Home plan, you can ask around to see if you know anyone that already uses it. You can find Windows laptops that cost less than $500 that come bundled with a free Office 365 Home plan that can be shared with up to 6 users. Yes, this is not the most cost-effective option, but if you’re shifting to working from home, or if you’re in the market for a new PC, you can look for ones that come with a Microsoft Office 365 subscription.