Best Microsoft Office Alternatives for Chromebook

5 Best Microsoft Office Alternatives for Chromebook

5 Best Microsoft Office Alternatives for Chromebook – Microsoft is pulling the plug for Office on Chromebook. With WPS, Polaris and Co. we present five alternatives.

On Chromebooks, Microsoft Office is only available as a web application. If you want to work offline and in a real Office application, you need alternatives. We present them to you here:

Best Microsoft Office Alternatives for Chromebook

AndrOpen Office: Almost perfect

Provider: Akikazu Yoshikawa | App version: Android | Customized for Chrome OS? Yes. | Premium version? Yes, for €0.99/month to be able to print.

The office environment shares a lot with the free Open Office on desktop PC. Common features include free alternative formats such as .odt and the outdated user interface reminiscent of Office 2007. The mouse support is excellent. Scroll wheel and right button work like on the computer, the displayed context menu is extensive and leaves nothing to be desired.

Isn’t that Office 2007? The design of AndrOpen Office is outdated, but the scope is gigantic!

There are two details that are disturbing. On the one hand, AndrOpen Office displays a second mouse pointer that always lags behind the Chrome OS counterpart, which is confusing when navigating quickly. Developer Yoshikawa charges €0.99/month for PDF export and printing of your documents, so it follows the general subscription trend.

You can download the free basic version from the Google Play Store .

Polaris Office: Commercial break in the office

Provider: Polaris | App version: Android | Customized for Chrome OS? Minimal. | Premium version? Yes, for €20.99/year incl. taxes.

Basically, this office environment is free of charge, but it comes with a thick advertising package. Switching off the advertising costs 4.69 euros per device. The manufacturer also offers two subscription plans with cloud access and automatic data sync.

Slim design, decent performance. A spell checker and various comfort functions are missing in Polaris Office.

Aesthetically, the developers emulate Microsoft, garnishing the slim design with almost all known shortcuts of the oversized model. If you are switching, you will find your way around immediately. In terms of scope, the only thing missing is a spell checker and some layout functions that other suites have.

Polaris Office is available on the Google Play Store .

WPS Office: Office quickie without highlights

Provider: WPS | App version: Android | Customized for Chrome OS? Minimal. | Premium version? Yes, for €20.99/year incl. taxes.

The basic version of the WPS Office Suite is free of charge. With it you can create, edit, save and print Word, Excel and Powerpoint files. The simple user interface is based on the modern Office 365.

WPS Office is solid – but the optional downloadable spell checker is a total failure.

Not all everyday key combinations are built in. There is mouse support, the right and middle mouse button have no function. WPS Office cannot open files that you have already copied to the Chromebook. This only works in Chrome OS File Explorer. If you “only” want to edit your documents quickly, this program environment is worth a look. For an expanded scope, WPS urges you to subscribe. This costs €20.99 per year and offers access to many colourful, sometimes very chic design templates.

WPS also offers its office suite in the Google Play Store .

SoftMaker Office: ARM-exclusive

Provider: WPS | App version: Android | Customized for Chrome OS? Yes. | Premium version? Yes, for €0.99/month.

SoftMaker’s office suite only runs on ARM processors – it refuses to work on our Acer CB325 with an Intel CPU. The suite is divided into three program parts that you have to download separately: TextMaker (Word), PlanMaker (Excel) and Presentations (PowerPoint).

Many free designs, comprehensible navigation and comfortable even on small screen diagonals. The Softmaker suite is among the best office alternatives on Chrome OS.

Of all the programs tested, SoftMaker comes closest to the Office experience. The suite offers almost 100% of the key combinations, and the app is the front runner when it comes to the supported file formats. At €0.99 per month, the optional subscription fees are low. If you pay the fee, you can print, export documents as PDFs and share them directly from the program and export your works as e-books in epub format.

To download Softmaker TextMaker for text documents. Here you will find Softmaker PlanMaker for your spreadsheet documents. You can create Powerpoint files in Softmaker Presentations, which can be downloaded here .

Collabora Office: Lots of light and lots of shadows

Provider: Collaborata | App version: Android | Customized for Chrome OS? Minimal. | Premium version? no

Collabora Office is generally a good working environment with some slacks. It’s not even the small format selection for your files. Rather, it is annoying that the developers do not use important shortcuts and the navigation is fiddly, detailed and sluggish. Some buttons, including Help and the Keyboard Shortcuts tab, don’t work at all. And the mouse integration is moderately successful, it often stops if you want to open the context menu via the right mouse button.

But there are also many positives. The performance is among the best in the test field, the program comes with a huge range of different fonts and offers both the common Microsoft and Open Office formats. Furthermore, the active spell checker is quick and extensive. What clearly speaks for a download of Collabora Office: This alternative to Office is completely free. No hidden activation costs, no subscription.

The download is available in the Google Play Store .

Chrome OS on-board means: No Alternative to Office

Office applications from Google are preinstalled as G-Suite on every Chromebook. This is based on Office, the processing is similar to the Microsoft counterpart. However, for reasons of data sovereignty, the Google tools are not an alternative. If you work offline, the documents cannot be found in the Chromebook storage. You only have the option to create a local copy after you have reconnected to the internet.

Another limitation of comfort is that the Google office tools only run as a preconfigured extension in the Chrome browser, which is also preinstalled. Distraction-free writing is hardly possible despite the screen being maximized. Some components, such as the spell checker, are only available with an intact network connection.

What and how we test

We went on a hunt and tested a total of 5 Office applications for Chromebooks. We used a compact Lenovo IdeaPad Duet Chromebook and the Acer Chromebook CB315, which is one of the best laptops with Chrome OS .

The duo differs in terms of screen size, memory equipment and processor. The latter resulted in the SoftMarker suite not running on one of the two devices.

In addition to the general performance, we evaluate the usability. How similar is the respective app to the Microsoft model? What makes them better or worse? And finally, export options, printing options and variety of formats are further factors in deciding on an Office alternative.

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