Updated October 14, 2026. Prices in USD.
Microsoft 365 Personal costs $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year. You may not need it:
- You edit files with people who use Office: Microsoft's own Word, Excel and PowerPoint for the web, free with a Microsoft account.
- You want a full office suite on your computer: LibreOffice, or ONLYOFFICE if your files are almost all .docx, .xlsx and .pptx.
- You need to open, fix and send back one file, with no install, no account and no upload: WordCraft, GridCraft and DeckCraft in a browser tab.
| Price | Runs | Office files | Account | Main catch | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft 365 for the web | Free | Browser | Native | Microsoft account; files live in OneDrive (5 GB) | Online only, fewer features than the desktop apps |
| LibreOffice 26.8 | Free, open source | Windows, macOS, Linux | Opens and saves .docx, .xlsx, .pptx and the old .doc, .xls, .ppt | None | Complex documents need some manual reformatting; macros don't run |
| ONLYOFFICE 10.0 | Free, open source | Windows, macOS, Linux | Built around .docx, .xlsx and .pptx | None | Desktop install |
| WordCraft, GridCraft, DeckCraft | Free, open source | Browser (or desktop) | Open .docx, .xlsx, .pptx; save .docx and .xlsx, export a .pptx copy | None | Alpha; no autosave in the browser |
Microsoft 365 for the web
Microsoft gives Word, Excel and PowerPoint for the web away with a free Microsoft account. Formatting is Office's own, so a document comes back the way the sender expects. The price is that your files have to live in OneDrive (5 GB free), you have to be online, and the page is designed for users in the United States.
LibreOffice
LibreOffice is the complete free suite: Writer, Calc, Impress and more, for Windows, macOS (Apple silicon and Intel) and Linux. It opens and saves .docx, .xlsx and .pptx, and it is the one to reach for with old .doc, .xls and .ppt files. The limits are clear: complex documents need some manual reformatting, VBA macros load but don't run, and things such as pivot tables, form fields and WordArt can come across imperfectly. It saves in ODF by default, so remember to pick the Office format when sending a file back.
There are two versions at any time. 26.8 is the newest; 26.2 is the branch the project recommends if you want the most tested one.
ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors
ONLYOFFICE is built around Office's own formats: .docx, .xlsx and .pptx are its native files, not something it converts to and from. Version 10.0, released October 13, 2026, also edits PDFs and opens ODF files. It is free and open source on Windows, macOS and Linux. Pick it over LibreOffice if you mostly exchange .docx, .xlsx and .pptx with Office users and don't need legacy formats.
WordCraft, GridCraft and DeckCraft in a browser
These three are part of the open-source Craft apps, rebuilt from scratch to work like Word, Excel and PowerPoint, ribbon included. They run in a browser tab with no account, and the file is opened and saved on your computer, never uploaded. That makes them the quick option for a contract you'd rather not put in someone's cloud, or a machine where you can't install LibreOffice. They are alpha, and each has its own rules for saving.
WordCraft opens .docx, the old .doc, .odt, .rtf, Markdown, HTML and LaTeX. It always saves .docx and exports PDF with links and bookmarks. It has styles, tables, track changes and references; its developers put it at about 60% of the way to replacing Word.
GridCraft opens .xlsx, .xlsm, the old .xls and .csv, saves .xlsx, and supports more than 500 of Excel's 523 functions, plus charts, sparklines and PivotTables. Macros are kept in the file but never run, and the browser version can't display Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Hebrew or Thai text yet.
DeckCraft opens .pptx, .potx and .ppsx and presents full screen. Its own save format is .deckcraft; to send a PowerPoint file back, use Export, which writes a .pptx copy, or a PDF of the slides, notes pages or handouts. It can't open the old .ppt, and slides set in fonts it doesn't have, such as Calibri, reflow with a substitute.
None of the three has autosave in the browser, so download a save when you finish each change.
LibreOffice or ONLYOFFICE?
If your files come from Office users and go back to them, ONLYOFFICE works in their formats natively. If you also deal with old .doc and .xls files, need a database or drawing app in the same suite, or want the most mature project, LibreOffice. Both are free; if one mangles a particular file, open that file in the other.
For a one-off, skip the install: open the file in WordCraft, GridCraft or DeckCraft, check it, save, and send.