Yes, there are free competitors offering similar products to Microsoft Office for your Mac. While we also use Google Docs and Apple productivity apps like Pages, Numbers and Keyone; having access to your own lifetime license of Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook, and Teams can be very handy.
Especially handy when you receive a .doc, .xlxs or .ppt extension files from your colleagues or friends. How do you open such files in the best way? A Mac version of Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook, and Teams is many times the answer.
Have you tried to open .csv with Apple Numbers or Google Sheets? If the file is too large, Excel is the most tidy option to manipulate the data further without a doubt.
So while you can technically get away without using MS Office, it’s not always easy.
Our recommendation: Don’t pay monthly fees for MS Office products if you use them sporadically. What’s the catch with a perpetual, also called “life-time license”? Well, there are no other fees involved and there is no subscription you have to pay monthly. Incur the cost one time and use is as long as you want.
Here is the best offering we’ve seen on MS Office, which includes Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook, and Teams. In this case, you can get a lifetime licenses for around $40. See how you can redeem a license for yourself.
While you can verify here at Microsoft, here is the short description:
Operating system: macOS
Memory: Minimum 4 GB RAM
Storage: Minimum 10 GB Hard Disk Space
Please note that the Teams apps in this Office pack includes the basic version. However, even this basic version provides a better user experience than just joining a Teams call from a browser.