Best Microsoft Office alternatives

Microsoft has dominated the office software market for over a decade. Its ubiquitous Office remains the standard for businesses in preparing documents, spreadsheets, presentations and databases.

So powerful is Microsoft in this market that in 2008 its default document format, Open Office XML (OOXML), became an ISO standard, making Microsoft Office a recognised international standard for editing and archiving documents.

However, the last several years have seen a proliferation of office suites. This has principally been driven by a movement towards cloud computing, a paradigm that gives businesses access to on-demand, low-cost applications online via the Software as a Service (SaaS) model.

Despite this strong movement, there has also been a steady stream of competitors in the desktop space, with many offering high-quality alternatives to Microsoft Office for minimal or no cost.

If Microsoft Office isn't quite the right fit for you or your business, or you're thinking you might be able to cut costs by migrating, this article is for you. Here, we closely examine the largest competitors in terms of price, flexibility and features.

Contents

1. Introduction
2. Corel WordPerfect Office X5
3. Google Docs
4. IBM Lotus Symphony 3.0<</li>
5. Apple iWork '09
6. Microsoft Office Web Apps
7. OpenOffice.org 3.3.0
8. ThinkFree Office 4
9. Zoho Docs
10. Conclusion

Via ZDNet.com.au