European Alternatives to Microsoft Word

Collabora Online Logo

Collabora Online

United Kingdom
Open Source
Self-Hostable

Collabora Online is a powerful and flexible online office suite designed for collaborating on documents, spreadsheets, and presentations in real-time. It supports a variety of document formats and integrates seamlessly into existing...

CryptPad Logo

CryptPad

France
EU
Open Source

CryptPad is a versatile and secure collaborative platform that prioritizes user privacy. Designed for individuals and teams seeking to work together without compromising data security, it provides a suite of productivity tools...

Infomaniak kSuite Logo

Infomaniak kSuite

Switzerland

kSuite is an innovative suite of tools offered by Infomaniak, designed to enhance productivity and collaboration for businesses and individuals alike. With a strong emphasis on privacy and data protection, kSuite provides...

LibreOffice Logo

LibreOffice

Germany
EU
Open Source
Self-Hostable

LibreOffice is a powerful open-source office suite that offers a wide range of tools for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, and more. Developed by The Document Foundation, it is available for multiple...

MobiOffice Logo

MobiOffice

Bulgaria
EU

MobiOffice is a versatile mobile office application designed to enhance productivity for users on the go. With a robust feature set, it caters to individuals and teams that require access to documents...

Nextcloud Office Logo

Nextcloud Office

Germany
EU
Open Source
Self-Hostable

Nextcloud Office is a powerful, collaborative office suite that integrates seamlessly with Nextcloud, an open-source cloud storage solution. It offers a rich set of features for document editing and collaboration, catering to...

ONLYOFFICE Logo

ONLYOFFICE

Latvia
EU
Open Source
Self-Hostable
Non-European Parent Company

ONLYOFFICE is a powerful online office suite that provides productivity tools for document management, collaboration, and project management. Designed to enhance efficiency and streamline workflows, ONLYOFFICE offers a user-friendly interface and a...

Softmaker Office Logo

Softmaker Office

Germany
EU

SoftMaker Office is a versatile and powerful office suite designed for users who seek an alternative to traditional software like Microsoft Office. This European-developed software provides a comprehensive solution for word processing,...

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European alternatives to Microsoft Word are word processors that open and save .docx files. The directory lists LibreOffice Writer and TextMaker from SoftMaker Office (both Germany), the ONLYOFFICE document editor (Latvia) and the browser-based editors in Collabora Online (UK), Nextcloud Office (Germany), CryptPad (France), Infomaniak kSuite (Switzerland) and MobiOffice (Bulgaria). Word is the word processor of Microsoft in the USA. This page is about writing and layout; for the whole suite see European alternatives to Microsoft Office, and for browser-based writing tools European alternatives to Google Docs.

Why people look for a Word alternative

Word is mostly sold in a Microsoft 365 subscription, and documents are saved to a US cloud by default. Schools, authorities and companies that want a free program, a one-off licence or a provider in Europe compare the tools below.

Which word processor fits which job

  • Free and widespread: LibreOffice with Writer is open source and runs on Windows, macOS and Linux.
  • Closest to the Word workflow: SoftMaker Office uses .docx as the native format of TextMaker and lists track changes, comments, mail merge and PDF export.
  • Several authors in the browser: ONLYOFFICE, Collabora Online and Nextcloud Office run on an own server or at a provider.
  • Confidential texts: CryptPad encrypts documents end to end.
  • Swiss cloud with editors: Infomaniak kSuite integrates ONLYOFFICE for Word-style files.
  • Phone and tablet: MobiOffice offers apps for mobile devices.

What to check with .docx files

Letters, reports and simple layouts usually survive the move. Complex layouts, fields, cross references, tracked changes and special fonts can shift, so open the most important templates in the new program before switching. Macros written in Visual Basic for Applications do not run unchanged in most alternatives.

Switching checklist

  1. Collect the templates and fonts that are really used.
  2. Test them with a real document, including comments and tracked changes.
  3. Save as .docx when sharing files with people who still use Word.