Office Suite 2.0 Reviews
Encore Office Suite 2.0. There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
Think business, and you think Microsoft Office, and Office 365 is now the preferred way that Microsoft would like you to buy its productivity suite, thank you very much – by paying them a monthly subscription fee.
Right now that subscription will set you back £7.90 + VAT per user per month (if you pay annually) or £9.50 + VAT per user per month (if you pay month-to-month). In the US those prices are $8.25 and $10 respectively, and if you want to try before you buy, there is a 30-day free trial available.
There is a Business Premium package too: that's £9.40 + VAT (or $12.50) per user per month (annual plan) or £11.30 + VAT ($15) per user per month (on the monthly plan). You get everything listed below, plus extra admin controls, booking and invoicing apps, intranet support and plenty more, plus the Slack competitor called Microsoft Teams.
You can still buy Office as a one-off package, in the form of Office 2019 – that might suit smaller businesses and individuals, but you don't get regular updates, and you don't benefit from some of the cloud extras. That will cost you $249.99 per user (UK pricing still to come).
Here we're going to focus on the Office 365 version of the software – click the links below to read more detailed reviews of each application, where available.
Looking for cheap Microsoft Office deals?
Office 365: what you get
Word – Not likely to need any introduction, Word takes care of your word processing needs across computers, the web, and mobile devices. It's not been blessed with a huge number of new features in recent years, but it remains rock solid and very capable. Check here for our full review of Word.
Excel – Again, a program most people will be familiar with, and the most powerful spreadsheet application on the planet. Beyond the collaboration features, which we'll discuss further later on, recent Excel improvements have typically been minor rather than major. Check here for our full review of Excel.
PowerPoint – Perhaps the Office app most under threat from newer, leaner rivals, PowerPoint remains very comprehensive and powerful, but can feel bloated. In terms of features for your next slideshow though, it remains the presentation application to beat. Check here for our full review of PowerPoint.
OneNote – Got notes to take? OneNote will do it for you, although the application included in the Office 365 suite is now being phased out in favor of the Windows 10 universal app version. It continues to do a very good job of enabling you to collect anything digital. Check here for our full review of OneNote.
Outlook – Much more comfortable across multiple platforms and the web thanks to recent upgrades, Outlook is still the ultimate in email, contact and calendar management. The only downside is that it's actually too powerful for what most people really need. Check here for our full review of Outlook.
OneDrive – The biggest innovation in Office 365, enabling you to sync your files across any device and, crucially, collaborate on documents in real-time inside desktop apps. OneDrive itself may not be that polished, but it's an essential part of keeping the other cogs turning. Check here for our full review of OneDrive.
Publisher – You may have forgotten about this, and at times Microsoft seems to have as well, but the entry-level desktop publishing tool is still around for those who need to put together layouts more advanced than those they can manage inside Word. Check here for our full review of Publisher.
Skype – Video calling, audio calling, instant messaging, file and screen sharing... it's fair to say Skype has just about everything you could need from a modern communications program, and as an Office 365 subscriber you get access to an improved business edition. Check here for our full review of Skype.
Access – Yes, Microsoft's database application is still going strong, and if your business has need for it, then the product is as solid as it ever was. There isn't the same support across mobile and the web as the other apps, but as far as the desktop program goes, you can fully rely on it.
Office 365: key features
In many ways the key features of Office 365 are the list of applications we've just mentioned – you get word processing, spreadsheet and presentation tools for all the users in your organization, and extra programs for tying everything together and managing communication across the company.
Recent upgrades have centered around extra artificial intelligence chops, whether that's to surface files you might need in OneDrive or to suggest people who may want a copy of your PowerPoint presentation (folks you've just shared a meeting with, for instance).
At the time of writing a new and simplified ribbon is being tested that should make Office 365 even more straightforward to use, and perhaps hide some of the legacy features inside each app that no one really bothers with any more. It should also create more of a unified interface across the web and mobile.
And speaking of the web and mobile, the look and functionality of the online and smartphone (or tablet) Office apps has improved significantly – together with AI, it's where you'll find most of the ongoing upgrades to Office are happening right now. It really is now possible to get some serious work done on the go.
In the early days of Office 365, it was fair to say that Microsoft was struggling to incorporate cloud features and modern day necessities (like collaboration) into its veteran apps, but most of those problems have been ironed out. Office 365 is now something of a no-brainer for small and large businesses, even if you do have to pay monthly for it.
Office 365: competition and verdict
Microsoft's big competitor in the space is of course G Suite, and if you're weighing up the pros and cons of each one for your own business, there's no easy answer. There's no doubt Microsoft has the more powerful and feature-packed suite of programs – Word, Excel and PowerPoint are hard to beat, after all.
What the online apps of G Suite offer, however, are slickness, speed, simplicity and access from just about anywhere. They work very well from inside any browser tab, and they're backed up by mobile apps that are getting more polished every year too. Add to that Google Drive, which is several steps ahead of OneDrive in most areas.
In many ways it's a battle between new and old, cloud and desktop, though Microsoft has been working hard to improve its online apps and cross-platform syncing services. Ultimately it comes down to the software and features your company needs.
Click through on the individual review links we've included above for a more detailed breakdown of the features of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and the rest, but overall Office is as strong as ever. Microsoft pushes out regular updates to Office 365 subscribers, and in recent years they've all been useful and well-judged, focused on AI, the cloud, and mobile – the areas that matter in today's computing age.
We'd certainly say the monthly fee you pay for Microsoft Office 365 is value for money and then some. As to whether you're going to use all the functionality and features on offer, or whether you'd be better off with Google and G Suite, that's a question only you can answer.
- We've also highlighted the best Microsoft Office alternatives
Everyone needs reliable office software, and some of the 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 the very best free office software suites through their paces – both downloadable desktop software and browser-based applications – so you can pick the one that's best for you.
Office Suite 2.0 Windows
When making your choice, it's worth bearing in mind which programs you're likely to be using most frequently, and which file types you'll need to be able to create, open and edit. All of the suites here include tools for word processing, spreadsheets and presentations, but only a few feature applications that can handle databases, for example.
1. LibreOffice
Everything you could want from an office suite, fully compatible with Microsoft formats and totally free to use – even commercially
LibreOffice 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 the 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 the 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.
2. Google Docs, Sheets and Slides
Softmaker Office Suite 2.0 Review
For working across platforms and sharing documents, Google's excellent collection of online office apps is hard to beat
If 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 the 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 the 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 on...
3. Microsoft Office Online
Microsoft is taking the fight to Google with slimmed-down versions of all its usual applications, available to use free online
Microsoft's desktop software carries a subscription fee, but the company has noticed the 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 (the 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.
4. WPS Office Free
A feature-packed free office suite for Windows, Linux and Android
WPS 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 the 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 the occasional ad, but these are few and far between. They certainly won't get in the 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.
5. Polaris Office
A cross-platform office suite that keeps your work in the cloud
If you own a Samsung phone, you might already be familiar with the 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 the ability to search within a document.
6. SoftMaker FreeOffice
A free version of a premium suite, with most pro features intact
Like WPS Office Free, SoftMaker FreeOffice provides analogs for Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint (TextMaker, PlanMaker and Presentations respectively).
As with all the 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 the premium version of the software. Some of these (like tabbed browsing) are nice to have but non-essential, but the 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 the Microsoft ribbon and find it unintuitive then you'll prefer the slightly more old fashioned approach to navigation.
7. Open365
More than just an office suite online
Open365 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 the key components of the LibreOffice suite (Writer, Calc and Impress) along with Photoshop-esque image editor GIMP, Linux email package Kontact, and cloud storage by Seafile. Everything the 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 the software itself in-browser. Being full-on desktop software it's reasonably heavy both in terms of load times and the 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 Workplace
While Google Docs is, thanks to the 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 the BBC and Nike as regular users.
Zoho's new-look word processor (which ditches the 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 the tip of the iceberg, however – Zoho Workplace includes a powerful site creation tool, a file management solution and many collaborative tools. Some are on the 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.