Open Source Microsoft Office Alternatives
A curated collection of the 1 best open source alternatives to Microsoft Office.
The best open source alternative to Microsoft Office is LibreOffice. If that doesn't suit you, we've compiled a ranked list of other open source Microsoft Office alternatives to help you find a suitable replacement.
Microsoft Office alternatives are mainly Office Suites. Browse these if you want a narrower list of alternatives or looking for a specific functionality of Microsoft Office.
An integrated office suite backed by The Document Foundation, compatible with most document formats and free to download, use and redistribute.
LibreOffice is an integrated office suite built on copyleft licenses and compatible with most document formats and standards. It is backed by The Document Foundation, which represents a large independent community of enterprises, developers and volunteers, and it stays free to download, use and distribute.
This repository holds the core source, so it is aimed at people who intend to change the suite rather than run it. Two routes exist. Extensions can be written against the generic UNO APIs using the SDK, while a genuinely useful feature is easier to add in the code base itself, if you are a reasonably able C++ programmer.
Roughly two hundred modules make up the tree, and a handful carry the code most contributors need.
- Applications: sw, sc and sd hold Writer, Calc and the shared Draw and Impress code.
- VCL: the widget toolkit and one of the rendering abstractions.
- Framework: assembles toolbars, menus and status bars from XML descriptions and VCL widgets.
- SAL and tools: a system abstraction layer plus basic internal types such as rectangles and colors.
- Graphics helpers: basegfx, canvas and drawinglayer break drawable objects down into renderable primitives.
Build baselines are Visual Studio 2022 on Windows 10, Xcode 14.3 or later on macOS 13, and GCC 13 or Clang 18 on Linux, with JDK 17 and Python 3.11 required for many parts. LODE scripts set up an initial environment on Windows and macOS, and every module carries its own README.
