Word documents for free

Free Word Processors Alternatives to MS Word

Best Overall: Google Docs

Our Review of Google Docs

If you’re looking for a free online word processor that’s similar to a traditional word processor, such as Microsoft Word, check out the popular Google Docs.

Google Docs lets you create, edit, and collaborate on documents quickly and easily, knowing you’ll be able to access them anywhere you want, anytime you want. With robust editing options, you won’t miss Microsoft Word a bit.

You can use it to insert images, tables, comments, and special characters, as well as headers and footers, bookmarks, and a table of contents. You can even type with just your voice! Collaboration is amazing with Google Docs, too, and you can even track edits made by multiple editors.

In addition to creating your own documents online, Google’s word processor also lets you edit documents that exist on your computer (such as DOCX files) by simply uploading them to the site. This free site also serves as a functional PDF editor.

Google Docs is accessible through its mobile app and its website.

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Best for MS Word Fans: Microsoft Word Online

Our Review of Microsoft Office Online

Word Online is Microsoft’s online word processor and is a stripped-down version of the popular Word desktop app. You can open documents you have stored in your OneDrive account.

It auto-saves your files and there are plenty of editing options like adding tables, headers and footers, pictures, and basically anything else you can do with a common word processor.

You can also share a document with others rather easily, and download a copy of the file to your computer in DOCX, PDF, or ODT. Another option is to transform the document into a web page (it uses Sway) that you can share with anyone.

Visit Microsoft Word Online

Best for Collaborators: Zoho Writer

Zoho Writer is incredibly easy to use, while at the same time has all the bells and whistles of a traditional word processor.

You’ll be able to create and edit documents with ease. Documents auto-save, you can see past revisions that were made to the document, spelling errors are called out, there’s an autocorrect feature you can customize, and you can upload MS Word files as well as save Zoho Writer documents to your computer in popular formats like PDF and DOCX.

One unique feature is the ability to chat as you collaborate on a document. 

Logging on is super simple if you already have a Google or Facebook account. It works from a computer and mobile devices.

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Best Advanced Online Word Processor: ONLYOFFICE Personal

Sign in with your email, Google, LinkedIn, or Facebook account and get instant access to ONLYOFFICE Personal’s free online word processor. 

You can upload existing DOCX files from your computer as well as from websites like Google Drive, Zoho, Box, and OneDrive. Documents can then be saved back to your computer in a variety of formats, including DOCX, PDF, ODT, TXT, RTF, and HTML.

This word processor looks very nice, a lot like MS Word. It even shares the same ability to hide the ribbon menu. There are plenty of other useful features; you can import a variety of objects (charts, pictures, tables, shapes, etc.), it supports plugins, and it lets you co-edit and chat with others, even the public. That means they don’t need to be logged in to their own account to collaborate with you. A document can be shared with read-only or full access rights.

Some other things worth mentioning: you have the ability to restore to older versions of documents so that you can undo changes another user made, the compare feature lets you see what’s different between files, hyperlinks can be added to a place in the same document, and you can add a custom watermark.

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Best for Focused Writing: Calmly Writer Online

Calmly Writer Online is unique because it would appear to lack all the bells and whistles of a normal word processor, but it actually has a lot going on in the background. The simplicity of the program makes sure you’re concentrating on what really matters: your words.

At the top of the workspace is a menu button where you can make a new document, open an existing one (from your computer or Google Drive), save the document (to TXT, HTM, or DOCX), insert pictures, toggle fullscreen, print, and change preferences.

Some of the options you can play around with let you turn the workspace into a darker mode, adjust the text width and size, enable smart punctuation.

Visit Calmly Writer Online

Best Online Word Processor With No Login: Aspose.Words

This tool is a bit different from the others in this list because you can use it right now, without making a user account, so it’s built a bit more for quick edits.

One reason you’d use this site over the others is if you have a document, like a DOC or DOCX, but you don’t have a program on your computer that can edit it. Sure, you could use one of the editors listed above, but Aspose.Words is great in that you don’t have to wait around to make a user account; just upload the file, make the changes you need to, and then download it.

It accepts lots of file types, including DOCX, PDF, MD, RTF, HTML, DOC, DOTX, DOT, ODT, OTT, TXT, and others. When you’re ready to save, you can pick from DOCX, PDF, HTML, and JPG.

Visit Aspose.Words

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When it comes to word processing, most people—and most businesses—still think of Microsoft Word. Whether it’s a résumé or an essay, it’s most likely to come as a .docx file, the universally recognized default file format used by Word, and whomever you’re working with probably wants one in return.

There’s just one problem—you need to pay a one-time fee or a recurring subscription to use Microsoft Word as part of a Microsoft 365 subscription … or do you? 

Word on the Web

Word on the web offers plenty of features.

Microsoft via David Nield

Microsoft makes a free version of Microsoft Word available for anyone to use on the web. You have to register a Microsoft account, but that’s free too. As the app works entirely inside a web browser, you can access it from any computer, and your files are always synced and saved in the cloud. There are some limitations, but for a lot of users, Word on the web might be all they ever need.

Collaborating with other people on documents is very straightforward, as you would expect from a web app, and you get all of the basic formatting options offered by the desktop version of Word. It’s possible to put together some relatively complex layouts using Word on the web, and you can check out the free templates that Microsoft provides for some inspiration.

This online version of Word isn’t as powerful or as versatile as the desktop software for Windows and macOS. For example, you don’t get alignment guides or live layout options, you can’t create citations and a bibliography, and you don’t get any of the advanced proofing and reference tools. Plus, you need an active web connection to use the online version. These won’t be dealbreakers for everyone, and Word on the web is a perfectly capable application.

Word Apps on Mobile

Viewing a document on Word for Android.

Microsoft via David Nield

You can install Microsoft Word for Android and iOS, free of charge. As with the web version, you just need a Microsoft account and you’re good to go, but there is a caveat: If you want to use the mobile app version of Word on an Android device with a screen size of fewer than 10.1 inches or on an iPad, you need to pay for a Microsoft 365 subscription. With the free edition, you’re limited to cell phones.

That means you’re not exactly going to be hooking up a keyboard and bashing out several thousand words of a report—unless you type very fast on your phone’s keyboard (or you particularly love portable Bluetooth keyboards). As you would expect on mobile, these apps are also limited in other ways, both in terms of the smaller screen size and in terms of the formatting and layout options for the documents you create.

That said, they’re still great for quick edits and for viewing documents. If, for example, someone has sent you a Word document that you need to look at, and you don’t want to pay for the full version of the software, then you can easily get at it using your phone. Alternatively, if you just need something to create simple and short Word documents, with basic formatting, the mobile phone app will work just fine.

Get a Family Member to Pay

Family subscriptions can be shared with up to six people.

Microsoft via David Nield

You can get deals on family plans just about everywhere, from Apple to Spotify. The same is true for a Microsoft 365 subscription, so if you’re keen to get all of the benefits of Word (and Excel and PowerPoint) free of charge, then you might consider asking someone else in your family to pay for the software.

Check the Microsoft 365 plans page for the latest pricing. At the time of writing you could get an individual subscription for $69.99 per year or a family subscription for $99.99 per year. That family subscription covers up to six people, who can each install the Office apps on up to five devices.

You may have to use your powers of persuasion to the absolute maximum to get a relative to pay for you to access Microsoft Office without paying anything—but you might have a particularly generous family around you, or you may be able to return the favor in some other way. At the very least, it means you’re getting Microsoft Word for significantly less money if you split the $100-a-year fee six different ways.

Use an Alternative

Google Docs can save documents in Word format.

Google via David Nield

It may seem like cheating to tell you to use an alternative in a guide to how to use Microsoft Word for free, but bear in mind that a lot of these alternatives are now perfectly comfortable handling the same .docx file format that Word does, and anyone you’re sending to or getting files from doesn’t have to know you’re not using Word. That means you don’t miss out if the rest of your colleagues use Word and you don’t.

There is of course Google Docs, which is completely free to use and runs inside a web browser as well as on mobile in app form. While it doesn’t quite have the reach and range of features that Microsoft Word does—particularly when it comes to some layout formats and options for longer documents—you can access it from any computer, and sharing documents is very straightforward.

When it comes to desktop software, there’s the venerable OpenOffice, which includes a word processor as well as multiple other applications that you don’t have to pay for. The office suite is available for both Windows and macOS. If you’re on a Mac, there’s also Pages to consider, which is Apple’s free word processor.