OnlyOffice for Mac review: The free Microsoft 365 alternative you’re looking for

Best Prices Today: OnlyOffice for Mac

Microsoft 365 (formerly Office), Google Docs, and Apple’s free iWork (which includes Pages, Keynote and Numbers) are arguably the three most popular productivity suites for Mac users. Microsoft’s option is perceived as the industry standard by many, and educational institutions tend to rely on its services. Google Docs, albeit web-based, has similarly been adopted by the masses due to its free offering and ease of real-time collaboration. iWork, although not as practical, also provides free and reliable tools for those in the Apple bubble. But what if none of these suites suit you?

Fortunately, there are plenty of alternatives, including free and open-source software (FOSS) with solid reputations. OnlyOffice is one of them, replicating the Microsoft 365 experience—sans the subscription fees. Is it any good, though?

OnlyOffice first impressions

OnlyOffice is available for free on macOS, iPadOS, iOS, Windows, Android, and Linux. For this review, I installed version 8.3.2 of the app—the latest at the time of writing—on a MacBook Air M2 running macOS 15 Sequoia 15.4. While some App Store reviews suggest the iPhone and iPad clients suffer from irritating bugs, like random crashes, the Mac experience has generally been very stable on my end. In fact, I struggled to find a single issue with this app.

Upon launching OnlyOffice, you’ll be greeted by a clean, ad-free screen showcasing its main sections. You can create a document (.docx), spreadsheet (.xlsx), presentation (.pptx), or PDF file from scratch or pick from the existing templates. Some templates are available for offline use while the rest require an active internet connection to download when creating a new file. These let you quickly compose an invoice, calendar, checklist, proposal, etc.

Alternatively, you could launch an existing file stored locally on your computer or one of the supported cloud storage services, such as Nextcloud. Regardless of what you opt for, the app runs fluidly, and I’ve yet to encounter my first serious bug.

Documents

In terms of layout and functionality, OnlyOffice’s document editor resembles Microsoft Word. You can adjust the font, colors, formatting, alignment, and more in supported files. You similarly get to insert shapes, tables, equations, symbols, etc. Some of the compatible formats include DOCX, DOC, TXT, HTML, and EPUB.

It’s worth noting that you seemingly can’t export a file in Apple’s .pages format unless the original file was created in the Pages app. Nevertheless, you can import, edit, and save these proprietary files in OnlyOffice just fine.

Beyond the fundamentals, you can protect document files, encrypt them, add your signature, view their word count, set the author, and so on. And if you’ve connected a compatible cloud service, you can collaborate remotely with other users to make edits in real time.

One of my favorite features is the built-in plugin library that lets you rely on even more functionalities in a document. So, for example, you could add a third-party AI assistant to analyze your file and help you shape its content.

Spreadsheets

Likewise, OnlyOffice’s spreadsheet editor offers a Microsoft Excel-like experience. You can perform all of the actions you’d expect from such software, including solving formulas, building dynamic charts, analyzing data, and illustrating. You can import XLXS, XLTX, CSV, OTS, and Numbers files, while exporting, as mentioned above, excludes the .numbers format for non-Apple files.

Presentations

You guessed it, the presentation editor in OnlyOffice indeed mimics Microsoft PowerPoint. By default, you’ve got multiple slide layouts that let you easily arrange the desired content, be it text or media, on the screen. The app also offers a plethora of animation and transition styles, letting you bring your work to life.

Like the known alternatives, you can also set custom backgrounds, insert links, graphs, and photos, and preview the final result. Some of the formats you can import include PPTX, PPT, PPSX, ODP, and Keynote.

PDFs

Last but not least, OnlyOffice includes a basic PDF viewer and editor. Unlike Apple’s native Preview app, OnlyOffice lets you actually tweak the content in a PDF document, so you can tweak the text and add shapes, drop-down menus, and fields for viewers to fill in. That’s in addition to the regular annotation tools, such as highlighting and doodling.

It’s certainly not as advanced as a dedicated, premium PDF editor. However, since OnlyOffice primarily acts as a free alternative to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, it’s certainly a welcome bonus perk that is reliable for basic PDF manipulation.

Take a look to see hoe OnlyOffice compares to other PDF Editors in our round up of the Best PDF editors for Mac. We also evaluate some free PDF editors.

Should you switch to OnlyOffice?

As we’ve established, OnlyOffice is essentially a free Microsoft 365 clone. If you rely on Microsoft’s office suite and are tired of its recurring fees, then OnlyOffice could act as an excellent alternative.

The app typically maintains the document formatting, so the layout should persist even if others view your files using different software. Given that OnlyOffice is free to use, features no ads, supports the most popular document formats, and packs the commonly used editing features, there’s no harm in giving it a shot to check if it can successfully replace your existing productivity suite. Had my personal workflow extended beyond Apple devices, I would have certainly ditched iWork in favor of it.

Best Prices Today: OnlyOffice for Mac

Author: Mahmoud Itani, Contributor, Macworld