Everyone needs reliable office software, and some of very best suites are completely free – whatever operating system you use.New Windows 10 PCs come with a trial of Microsoft Office installed, but this will soon expire, leaving you in need of a replacement.

Macs come with Apple's own office suite, but if most of your colleagues are PC users, you might be better off trying a cross-platform suite instead.Here, we've put very best free office software suites through their paces – both downloadable desktop software and browser-based applications – so you can pick one that's best for you.If you're used to Microsoft Office, you'll pick up LibreOffice in no time1.

LibreOfficeEverything you could want from an office suite, fully compatible with Microsoft formats and totally free to use – even commerciallyHuge software suiteFull MS Office compatibilityCompletely freeLibreOffice is so good, you'll wonder why you ever paid for office software.

It's compatible with all Microsoft document formats, and has almost every feature you'll find in latest versions of Word, PowerPoint and Excel.The suite contains six programs to cover every common office task: Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw, Math and Base.

The last three are tools you won't find in many other free office suites, and are designed for vector diagrams, mathematical functions and databases, respectively.

The latter is particularly useful; free alternatives to Microsoft Access are hard to find.LibreOffice is an open source project maintained by a huge and enthusiastic community of volunteers constantly working to improve stability and add new features.

There's a great selection of extensions and templates to make it even more flexible, and it's free for businesses as well as home users.LibreOffice is a fork of Apache OpenOffice, and two are extremely similar, but we’d opt for LibreOffice thanks to its more frequent update schedule and more modern interface.

The latest release (version 6) adds a huge array of new features and fixes, including more interface customization options, improved file import and export compatibility, and new online help pages.LibreOffice is available for Windows, Mac and Linux, but there are no official mobile versions available except for a document viewer for Android.

It has some editing features, but they're experimental and we wouldn't advise relying on them.Provided you have a stable internet connection, Google offers an excellent free office toolkit2.

Google Docs, Sheets and SlidesFor working across platforms and sharing documents, Google's excellent collection of online office apps is hard to beatCross-platformIntegrates with Google DriveMobile apps availableOpening older files is trickyIf you work collaboratively, or switch between a PC and a Mac, Google Docs, Sheets and Slides should be your first port of call.For anyone who's already deep into Android/Google ecosystem, this suite will be a natural choice.

The three key tools run happily in any web browser, and are available as mobile apps for Apple and Android devices.Google's free office suite doesn't offer advanced tools you'll find in desktop software like LibreOffice (there are no pivot tables, for example, and there's no database tool) but everything is laid out in a clear, logical way and all your files will be saved and synced automatically so you don't have to worry about transfers and backups.The chief disadvantage of Docs, Sheets and Slides is that opening files created using other office software is a cumbersome process and files aren't always converted perfectly.This is partly because Google's office tools use web fonts rather than ones stored locally on your device, and partly because Microsoft documents sometimes contain features not supported by Google.

If that's a dealbreaker for you, read onLike look of Google's suite, but need native support for Microsoft documents Office Online is for you3.

Microsoft Office OnlineMicrosoft is taking fight to Google with slimmed-down versions of all its usual applications, available to use free onlineFully compatible with desktop appsWorks with OneDriveLacks some advanced toolsMicrosoft's desktop software carries a subscription fee, but company has noticed threat posed by G Suite and created its own set of free online apps.Microsoft Office Online looks and works just like its desktop equivalent, and although advanced tools like pivot tables are out of reach, but aren’t offered by Google either. If you generally use Microsoft document formats, Office Online is a brilliant choice.

Unlike Google's free office suite, it doesn't need to convert your files before you can work on them, and you can share them easily through your Microsoft OneDrive account.

Just log in using your Microsoft account (same one you use to log into Windows 10) and you're ready to go.There's a version of Office Online for Chrome, plus mobile editions of Office for iOS and Android. Each application in WPS Office Free has a ribbon-based design very similar to Microsoft Office4.

WPS Office FreeA feature-packed free office suite for Windows, Linux and AndroidSupports Microsoft file formatsCross-platformContains some adsWPS Office Free is a slimmed down version of a premium office suite, but you'd hardly know it.

Each of its three programs looks just as slick as latest versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint, and is packed with just as many features.File format support is excellent, and you can save your work in native Microsoft formats for easy sharing with Office users.

There's no database software, but WPS Office comes with an excellent free PDF reader that's a great replacement for Windows' built-in app.There's occasional ad, but these are few and far between.

They certainly won't get in way of your work, and you'll easily forget that everything in this suite is completely free.There are versions of WPS Office Free for Windows and Linux systems, as well as apps for Android devices, but Apple device users will need to look elsewhere.Polaris Office lets you save your work to cloud and sync it across three devices, free of charge5.

Polaris OfficeA cross-platform office suite that keeps your work in cloudAvailable for desktop and mobileIncludes 1GB cloud storageBundled extra softwareIf you own a Samsung phone, you might already be familiar with mobile version of Polaris Office.

This cross-platform free office software is available for Windows, macOS, Android and iOS, and comes pre-installed on some Samsung handsets.

It’s compatible with all Microsoft document formats, and offers a slick ribbon-based interface with some basic customization options.Take care if you choose to install Windows version, you’ll see various additional pieces of bundled software, which could potentially include a browser extension from McAfee called WebAdvisor, a market research tool called PremierOpinion, and an antivirus suite.

You can decline all of these – just keep an eye out.

 You’ll then need to sign in with Facebook or Google, or create an account.

This is necessary because Polaris Office is a cloud-based service.

Your free Polaris account comes with 60MB monthly data transfer, 1GB cloud storage, and can be used across three devices (one desktop and two mobile).

If that’s not enough space, you can connect Polaris Office to Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, Microsoft OneDrive and Amazon Cloud Drive – or save work locally to your device.Upgrading to a premium Polaris account gives you access to extra features including a PDF editor, removes ads, and ability to search within a document.If you find Microsoft Office's ribbon interface awkward to navigate, you'll like SoftMaker FreeOffice's more straightforward approach6.

SoftMaker FreeOfficeA free version of a premium suite, with most pro features intactSupports Microsoft formatsIncludes PDF readerNo thesaurusLike WPS Office Free, SoftMaker FreeOffice provides analogs for Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint (TextMaker, PlanMaker and Presentations respectively).As with all free office suites in this roundup, there's support for Microsoft file formats from 1997 onwards.

It also offers effortless conversion to both PDF and Epub formats, which is a welcome addition.Unfortunately, some key features are exclusive to premium version of software.

Some of these (like tabbed browsing) are nice to have but non-essential, but lack of a thesaurus is a real drawback for anyone who writes on a regular basis. FreeOffice doesn't look quite as smart as WPS Office, but if you dislike Microsoft ribbon and find it unintuitive then you'll prefer slightly more old fashioned approach to navigation.7.

Open365More than just an office suite onlineComplete open source solutionDo it yourself approachOpen365 is more than just an office suite – it's a full cloud desktop thatdrags in a selection of great open source (usually desktop-based) software and puts it right in your browser.

It includes key components of LibreOffice suite (Writer, Calc and Impress) along with Photoshop-esque image editor GIMP, Linux email package Kontact, and cloud storage by Seafile.

Everything desktop versions of those packages do can be done here, and every format they support is supported.There's a desktop client to handle file transfers and mirroring your cloud storage to your hard drive, although you'll still need to run software itself in-browser.

Being full-on desktop software it's reasonably heavy both in terms of load times and stress it puts on your system.But get your whole team on board and its collaborative tools could make this an essential component of your workflow, particularly if you're hotdesking or using a variety of hardware.8.

Zoho WorkplaceA genuinely exciting alternative to Google DocsA complete solution for SMB and individuals alikeCan be daunting at timeWhile Google Docs is, thanks to strength of its brand, probably more widely used, Zoho's online office solution is very good in its own right.

It's certainly closer to a desktop office package, and it's strong enough to have attracted businesses like BBC and Nike as regular users.Zoho's new-look word processor (which ditches classic Word-style interface in favour of a formatting sidebar) is very well-presented and capable of producing professional-looking docs, and it has a sterling spreadsheet and reasonable presentation package alongside it.They're just tip of iceberg, however – Zoho Workplace includes a powerful site creation tool, a file management solution and many collaborative tools.

Some are on simplistic side, so they'll likely not replace anything you might already have in place, but if you're starting out as a small business Zoho is probably a good jumping-off point.Jpn59FfGQyrpNdFSn56MZ4.jpg#