Productivity · head to head
Microsoft 365 vs WPS Office
Microsoft 365
Productivity
Subscription bundle of the Office applications with mail, storage, meetings and organisational identity
- From
- $7/month
- Rated
- -
WPS Office
Productivity
Office suite from Kingsoft with Microsoft file compatibility, including maintained Linux builds
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Only WPS Office has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
- Each has a real cost: Microsoft 365 business plans are capped at 300 seats, so an organisation that grows past that must move to Enterprise plans, which changes both the price per user and the feature mix at the moment it can least afford a migration project.; WPS Office the free tier is funded by advertising, and the adverts and upgrade prompts appear inside the editing window rather than on a website, so the cost of not paying is charged in interruptions while you work.
- They diverge on capability: Microsoft 365 covers Office applications, WPS Office covers One application.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Microsoft 365 and WPS Office actually diverge.
| Attribute | Microsoft 365 | WPS Office |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $7/month | Free |
| Pricing model | subscription | freemium |
| Free tier | No | Yes |
Identical on both: platforms (Web), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Productivity).
What each one covers
Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.
Only in Microsoft 365
- Office applications
- Hosted services
- Teams
- Microsoft Entra ID
- OneDrive storage
- Device management and endpoint protection
- Purview compliance
- Copilot
Only in WPS Office
- One application
- Microsoft format handling
- PDF tools
- Linux builds
- WPS AI
- Cloud storage
- Mobile apps
- Templates
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Microsoft 365
- Any organisation that wants mail, documents, meetings and identity from one supplier on one bill.not WPS Office
- A company standardising on single sign-on, where Entra ID becomes the account other services authenticate against.not WPS Office
- Regulated work that needs retention, legal hold and eDiscovery across mail and documents, provided the tier that includes them is actually bought.not WPS Office
- A household that needs installed Office applications on several machines rather than browser-only editing.not WPS Office
WPS Office
- A Linux desktop where the free alternatives keep breaking the layout of colleagues' DOCX and PPTX files.not Microsoft 365
- A small business that edits and converts PDFs regularly and does not want an Acrobat subscription for each person.not Microsoft 365
- Students and home users who need Microsoft-compatible documents without a Microsoft 365 subscription.not Microsoft 365
- Older or low-specification Windows machines where the full Microsoft suite is slow to install and slow to run.not Microsoft 365
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Microsoft 365
- Business plans are capped at 300 seats, so an organisation that grows past that must move to Enterprise plans, which changes both the price per user and the feature mix at the moment it can least afford a migration project.
- The compliance capabilities most organisations eventually need, including retention, data loss prevention, advanced eDiscovery and insider risk, sit at the top tier or in add-ons, so the real cost surfaces after an audit or a customer questionnaire rather than at purchase.
- Annual term subscriptions commit you for the year and month-to-month terms cost measurably more per seat, so the flexibility to reduce seats during a quiet period is bought at a permanently higher rate.
- Entra ID becomes the identity for everything else the organisation uses, which is the hardest kind of lock-in to put a number on, because leaving means re-federating every connected application rather than simply replacing a word processor.
- The licensing model is complicated enough that most organisations are either over-licensed or quietly non-compliant, and reconciling it usually requires a partner or a specialist, which is a recurring cost that never appears in the advertised per-user figure.
WPS Office
- The free tier is funded by advertising, and the adverts and upgrade prompts appear inside the editing window rather than on a website, so the cost of not paying is charged in interruptions while you work.
- Kingsoft is a Chinese company and cloud sync stores documents on its infrastructure by default, which is a procurement blocker for government, defence and many regulated buyers no matter how well the software performs.
- Complex Microsoft files still drift, so heavily formatted documents with tracked changes, PowerPoint animations and workbooks using recent functions or VBA macros can open with differences that only become visible when the file goes back to a Microsoft user.
- There is no tenant administration, so an organisation has no central console for licences, policy, retention or offboarding, and every installation has to be managed on the individual machine.
- Cloud storage stops at 1 GB free and 20 GB per user when paid, so it works as sync for documents and stops being viable for anyone handling media, scans or large PDF archives.
Pricing, plan by plan
Microsoft 365
$7/month- Microsoft 365 Business Basic$7/month
- Email and calendar with 50 GB mailbox
- Web and mobile versions of Office apps
- Microsoft Teams included
- Microsoft 365 Business Standard$14/month
- Desktop versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook
- Email and Teams
- 1 TB cloud storage per user
- Microsoft 365 E5$60/month
- Comprehensive security and compliance
- All productivity apps
- Advanced analytics
WPS Office
FreeNo published plan breakdown. See the WPS Office review.
Which should you pick?
Choose Microsoft 365 if
- You need office applications.
- You also want hosted services.
Choose WPS Office if
- You need one application.
- You want to start without paying.
- You also want microsoft format handling.
Questions people ask
- Is Microsoft 365 or WPS Office better?
- Neither clearly leads. Microsoft 365 starts at $7/month and WPS Office at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Microsoft 365 or WPS Office?
- WPS Office has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $7/month for Microsoft 365 and Free for WPS Office.
- Does Microsoft 365 or WPS Office run on more platforms?
- Both run on Web, so platform support will not decide this one for you.
- Can I use WPS Office for free?
- Yes. WPS Office has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Microsoft 365 starts at $7/month.
- What is Microsoft 365 best used for?
- Microsoft 365 is most often used for any organisation that wants mail, documents, meetings and identity from one supplier on one bill., a company standardising on single sign-on, where entra id becomes the account other services authenticate against., regulated work that needs retention, legal hold and ediscovery across mail and documents, provided the tier that includes them is actually bought., a household that needs installed office applications on several machines rather than browser-only editing.. Of those, any organisation that wants mail, documents, meetings and identity from one supplier on one bill. and a company standardising on single sign-on, where entra id becomes the account other services authenticate against. are not what WPS Office is typically brought in for.
- What can Microsoft 365 do that WPS Office cannot?
- Microsoft 365 covers Office applications, Hosted services, Teams, Microsoft Entra ID. WPS Office covers One application, Microsoft format handling, PDF tools, Linux builds.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Microsoft 365: What is the difference between Microsoft 365 and Office?
Office was a one-off licence for a specific version. Microsoft 365 is a subscription covering the applications and the hosted services together, and when payment stops the applications drop to a reduced state rather than continuing as they were.
WPS Office: Will it open and save Microsoft Office files properly?
It reads and writes DOCX, XLSX and PPTX natively and ordinary documents round-trip cleanly. Files with macros, tracked changes or complex animation can differ, so check anything going back to a Microsoft user.
Microsoft 365: Is Teams included?
Not automatically for newer customers. Microsoft unbundled Teams and now sells it alongside the suite, so check what a given quotation actually covers.
WPS Office: Is the free version genuinely free?
Yes, and it is not time-limited. It shows adverts, caps cloud storage at 1 GB, and holds back PDF editing and conversion, text recognition and electronic signature for the paid plan.
Microsoft 365: What happens to our files if we stop paying?
The documents remain yours and can be downloaded, but access to hosted mailboxes and sites ends after a retention window, so leaving requires a planned export rather than a cancellation.
WPS Office: Does it run on Linux?
Yes, with maintained desktop builds, which is unusual for a commercial office suite. The Linux version can trail Windows on newer features.
Microsoft 365: Is Copilot part of the subscription?
No. It is a per-user add-on on top of the base licence, generally with its own term commitment, and it is priced per seat regardless of how much any individual uses it.
WPS Office: Is it suitable for a regulated organisation?
Usually not without a review. The vendor is Chinese, cloud sync is on by default, and there is no administrative or compliance tooling of the kind a regulated buyer will be asked to evidence.
Related pages
More on Microsoft 365
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