5 Best Open Source Alternatives to Word

1.ONLYOFFICE Docs

6.6kAGPL-3.0Shell Self-host

ONLYOFFICE Docs is a free collaborative online office suite with viewers and editors for text documents, spreadsheets, presentations, forms, PDFs, and diagrams. It is fully compatible with Office Open XML formats - .docx, .xlsx, and .pptx - and supports real-time collaborative editing.

• Editors for text documents, spreadsheets, presentations, forms, PDFs, and diagrams
• Real-time collaborative editing
• Office Open XML compatibility for .docx, .xlsx, and .pptx
• Reviewing, spell-checking, accessibility features, and dark mode

2.ghostwriter

4.9kGPL-3.0C++

ghostwriter is a text editor for Markdown on Windows and Linux. It is built for writing in plain text Markdown without distractions, whether the target is a blog post, school paper, or long-form draft. Files remain ordinary Markdown text, so the content is not tied to a proprietary document format.

• Distraction-free Markdown writing environment
• Built-in cmark-gfm Markdown processor
• Auto-detects Pandoc, MultiMarkdown, and cmark
• Live HTML preview and export options

3.LibreOffice

4kGPL-3.0C++

LibreOffice is an integrated office suite for personal productivity. It is compatible with most document formats and standards, and includes applications for writing documents, working with spreadsheets, creating drawings, and building presentations.

• Writer for word processing documents
• Calc for spreadsheets
• Draw and Impress for drawings and presentations
• Compatible with most document formats and standards

4.Carbone

2kOtherJavaScript Self-host

Carbone turns JSON data into finished documents. You design a template in LibreOffice, Google Docs, or Microsoft Office and drop in JSON-like markers such as {d.companyName}; Carbone fills the markers from your data and outputs PDF, DOCX, XLSX, ODT, PPTX, ODS, XML, or CSV. The data comes straight from your existing JSON APIs.

• Fills office templates from JSON data with markers
• Outputs PDF, DOCX, XLSX, ODT, PPTX, ODS, XML, CSV
• Designs templates in LibreOffice, Docs, or Office
• Drives headless LibreOffice for document conversion

5.Wraft

147AGPL-3.0Elixir Self-host

Wraft is an open-source document lifecycle management and content authoring platform for structured business content, from official letters to contracts. It aims to give teams control over their most important documents across drafting, collaboration, and distribution.

• Authoring of structured business documents
• Drafting, collaboration, and distribution workflow
• Content stored as Markdown and JSON
• Hosted cloud or self-hosted deployment