LibreOfficevs
Microsoft 365
Microsoft 365: The commercial standard, far ahead on collaboration and mobile, at a per-seat cost
LibreOffice
Free and open-source office suite that runs entirely offline
As of 30 August 2026, LibreOffice is free to use. The open-source office suite. Softwr lists it under Productivity. LibreOffice is made by The Document Foundation, available on Windows, macOS, Linux.
Overview
What LibreOffice does
LibreOffice is a free and open-source office suite from The Document Foundation, covering documents, spreadsheets, presentations, drawing, databases and formula editing. It descends from OpenOffice and is the most widely deployed open-source alternative to Microsoft Office. Its native format is OpenDocument, an ISO standard implemented by more than one vendor, and it reads and writes Microsoft formats. The 26.8 release states plainly that it contains no generative AI features, that documents are not transmitted to remote services for processing, and that no component requires network access to function. That last property is why it persists in defence, government, healthcare and legal work past the point its feature set would justify. A suite that cannot transmit a document is easier to get approved than one that promises not to, because the first is a verifiable fact and the second is a policy that can change.
What people use it for
- Organisations where documents cannot leave the premises for policy or statutory reasons
- Replacing per-seat office licences at scale
- Long-term archives needing a format not defined by a single vendor
- Reviving older hardware that current commercial suites strain
Related searches
The honest half
Where it falls short
Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about LibreOffice.
- Real-time collaborative editing is far behind Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace, and for teams who co-edit this alone usually decides the question
- Mobile support is weak, which is disqualifying for a workforce that reviews documents on phones
- Complex Microsoft Office documents still lose formatting in transit, so exchange-heavy workflows need testing with real files
- Central policy management, conditional access and audit tooling are thin against the commercial suites
- Advanced spreadsheet work is where the gap with Excel is widest, and it affects exactly the users least willing to change
Cross-shopped
What people choose instead of LibreOffice
Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.
- LibreOfficevsGoogle Workspace
Google Workspace: Browser-first and strongest on real-time collaboration
- LibreOfficevsScribus
Scribus: For page layout and press-ready output rather than everyday documents
Pricing
What LibreOffice costs
Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.
LibreOffice
Free
- Full suite
- Commercial use permitted
- No per-seat licence
- Community support
Capabilities
Features
Full suite
Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw, Base and Math in one install
Works offline
No component requires network access to function
OpenDocument native
An ISO standard implemented by more than one vendor
Microsoft format support
Reads and writes OOXML, with chart round-trip improved in 26.8
No telemetry or AI
Documents are not sent anywhere for processing
Extensions and macros
Scripting and a third-party extension ecosystem
Answered, with sources
Questions people ask
Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
Is LibreOffice really free for business use?
Yes. It is open source with no per-seat licence and no restriction on commercial use. The Document Foundation is funded by donations and sponsors.
Does it have AI features?
No. The 26.8 release states it contains no generative AI, that documents are not transmitted to remote services, and that no component requires network access.
Can it open Microsoft Office files?
Yes, and save back to them. Round-tripping complex documents is imperfect between any two suites, so test with your own files before committing to an exchange-heavy workflow.
Why do governments use it?
Two reasons: no per-seat cost at scale, and OpenDocument is an ISO standard implemented by more than one vendor, which matters for archives that must stay readable after a vendor relationship ends.
What is the biggest reason not to use it?
Collaborative editing. If several people work on the same document simultaneously, Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace are substantially better and that gap is not closing.
Keep looking
Where to go from LibreOffice
- LibreOffice alternativesEvery product people weigh against it
- LibreOffice pricingPlans, floors and what the tiers exclude
- LibreOffice badgesWhich rules it meets, and the figure behind each
- All Productivity softwareThe full category
- Best Productivity softwareThe shortlist, and how it was cut
Best Productivity software for
Compare LibreOffice with
- Google Workspace
- Microsoft 365
- Fastmail
- DeskTime
- Gamma
- Reflect
- Habitica
- DocuSeal
- Sejda
- tldraw
- WPS Office
- Alfred
- SignWell
- Ulysses
- Anvil
- Xmind
- tldraw
- WPS Office
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Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for LibreOffice, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.
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