Free Online Word Processors as Microsoft Office Alternatives


I love Web apps that is software used inside of your browser with no download needed.

To be honest I suck at Microsoft Office! I also do not want to spend money!

Yet I even struggle with the free open source alternative Open Office or Libre Office.

Why? These highly complex and feature rich office tools are

  • bloated
  • cluttered
  • complicated

There are free online word processors on the other hand.

I tried almost all of them and I want to share with you the list of those web based word processors

Yet there are only two left I used or that I rather still use after many years.


Google Docs

Google Docs, the artist formerly known as Writely has been renamed Google Docs after the acquisition of the startup.

Google Docs is easy to use, supports different languages without the need of switching them and is very effective at spell-checking.

It’s fast and I use it in English, German and Polish. Some more sophisticated features are missing though.

Another drawback: Big Google watches you! In essence Google also even reserves the copyright to your documents.


Zoho Writer

Zoho offers the best web based word processor aka Zoho Writer among a plethora of other online applications.

I use Google Docs only because it’s quicker as I log in at other Google services anyway.

Zoho Write was my online word processing tool of choice for many years.

Most people use Google Docs by now so I had to switch back to it for the sake of simplicity.

Yet Zoho is of course better for your privacy and content ownership.

Google Docs has access to your data and the right to publish it!


Other Alternatives to Office

By now I mostly use Google Docs or the downloadable Softmaker Office.

It has a free version and it’s bloat-free. It’s called Free Office accordingly.

Which office Web app do you use for writing?

As a blogger I often simple write directly in WordPress by now!