Eight alternatives to Microsoft Office
Looking for an alternative to Microsoft Office? Our reviews round-up gives you the details of several popular options.
Google Docs beta
Google Docs is part of Google Apps, which includes Gmail and other services. Google Apps offers both a free version and a version with support and additional features for US$50 per user per year.
Price: approximately AU$65 per user per year
Download link
OpenOffice.org
OpenOffice.org is an open source project supported by Sun Microsystems. It's popular, and offers a diverse range of applications and features, but no support.
Price: free
Download link
StarOffice 8
StarOffice is the supported version of OpenOffice.org, which includes some additional features for a US$70 licence fee.
Price: approximately AU$80
Download link
IBM Lotus Symphony
Lotus Symphony is IBM's office suite, and it's free. It contains a word processor, a spreadsheet and a presentation program. It can be downloaded from the IBM website.
Price: free
Download link
ThinkFree Office 3
ThinkFree Office remains one of the cheapest proprietary office applications available, at US$50. It offers a free online component that makes it more portable.
Price: approximately AU$64
Download link
Apple iWork '08
Mac users will likely be familiar with this office suite designed to integrate with other Apple services. As far as office applications go, it's also quite cheap.
Price: AU$99
Download link
Corel WordPerfect Office X4
Wordperfect Office X4 comes close to Microsoft Office in its breadth and depth of features, and as such presents a nice alternative for businesses looking for a fully featured, supported alternative.
Price: AU$599
Download link
Zoho
Zoho is an online office suite that offers additions including email, CRM, invoicing, presentations, databases, wikis and more. Some of Zoho's services can be upgraded by subscription.
Price: free
Download link