Alternatives to MS Office

 

With more businesses moving to the cloud, and Google Apps in particular, one of the questions that comes up is whether organizations still need MS Office.  The fact that MS Office use is drastically lower than peceived within most companies is a subject for another post.

For many organizations, they still need a solution for existing (legacy) documents as well as documents shared with them by others still using MS Office.  The good news is that you have a number of strong competitors that are free, or very low cost, and that run across multiple platforms.  Here a few.

Kingsoft Office

Cost:  Free; Premium Edition for Windows is $69.95
Platforms:  Windows, Android, iOS, Linux

Kingsoft Office is a free MS Office compatible suite available on Windows, Android (including Samsung devices and International), iOS (iPad and iPhone), and Linux.  The suite integrates with Google Drive, as well as Box and Dropbox.

Office Suite from Mobile Systems Inc.

Cost: Android: Free or $9.99 for Premium; iOS: $1.99 (promotion; normally $14.99)
Platforms: Android, iOS

Work with and print Office format documents, as well as PDF and ZIP files.  A file manager works with local files and attachments on smartphones and tablets and can also access Google Drive, Box, Dropbox, OneDrive and SugarSync, plus sharing via email, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi Direct.

QuickOffice form Google

Cost: Free with Google Apps account
Platforms: Android, iOS

Edit Word, Excel and PowerPoint files read PDFs.  Works only with Google Drive and supports printing to Wi-Fi printers.

DocstoGo from DataViz

Cost: Free
Platforms: Android, iOS

Supports MS Office 97, 2010, and 2013 formats.  An in-app purchase is required to use Google Drive, Box, Dropbox, and OneDrive.

Polaris Office 5

Cost: Free
Platforms: Android, iOS

Allows workgroups to use email or social contacts to collaborate on documents.  Works with Google Drive, Box, Dropbox and other WebDAV sites. The iOS version supports OneDrive as well.

CloudOn

Cost: Free; Pro version for $3.99 per month includes printing
Platforms: Android, iOS

Rather than building apps to execute on the local device, the CloudOn connects to a free service that executes Office apps in the cloud, and opens and edits files there. Only screen updates and gestures go back and forth. CloudOn saves to a Google Drive, Box, Dropbox or OneDrive account.