5 Recommended Free and Paid Office Suites Software for Mac Devices

5 Recommended Free and Paid Office Suites Software for Mac Devices

Office Suites Software for Mac Devices.

Most users looking for a Mac office suite will probably have one option in mind. Yep, Microsoft Office. It’s still one of the best office suites out there, regardless of the platform, but there are other options available that you might not have considered (or even be aware of) for macOS.

Choosing the best office suite for Mac will depend on your budget, but there are plenty of free office suites for Mac that you can install with or without cost. To help you, here’s a look at five of the best free and paid Mac office suites available to install or use.

1. Microsoft Word 2016 - For Use on Your Mac

microsoft word for Mac

While Microsoft Word isn’t as dominant as it once was, it’s still used in millions of offices around the world. If you work in any big company, the odds are this is the app you have to use. It might not be anyone’s favorite writing app, but it can do pretty much everything. 

In fact, it’s deep feature set is almost a problem; for most people, there’s just too much going on. If you have to use Word, then there’s nothing you can do about it, although given the price and quality of some of the other options, I’d recommend at least looking elsewhere if the decision is up to you. 

  • Microsoft Word is available for $69.99 a year (or $6.99 a month) as part of an Office 365 Personal subscription.
  • It’s the most popular word processor in business so widely supported everywhere. 
  • There is also a companion iOS Word app so you can work on your documents from anywhere.

 

2. Google Docs - Accessible With Your Mac

google docs accessible with Mac

Google Docs is the leading competitor in reach, if not necessarily in quality or features, to Word. It’s an online, collaborative word processor. While its feature set is more limited, for most uses, it’s possible to use Docs over Word.

3. Apple Pages - Mac Word Processor App

pages mac word processor software

Pages is Apple’s Mac-native answer to Word. It takes full use of all the Mac’s native technologies and has a companion iOS app. It's a decent app with all the features you’d expect a professional word processor to have. You can even collaborate with PC users through Pages for iCloud.

  • Pages is free for macOS and iOS users. PC users can also use the iCloud version for free.
  • Pages is the best looking, and has the best looking templates, of all the full word processing suites available on Mac. 
  • Unfortunately, Pages just isn’t as popular as the other apps, so you might have a hard time convincing the people you want to collaborate with to use it as well.

4. Writer - Free Word Processor for Mac

libreoffice writer free word processor for Mac

Before Google Docs, the leading free competitor to Word was LibreOffice’s Writer. It’s still around, it’s still free, and, well, that’s about it. 

Writer is a decent open-source word processor that, for the most part, has been replaced by other options. While you can still use it for your own personal use if you’re familiar with it, it doesn’t really have anything going for it that makes it stand apart. 

5.  Ulysses - Pro Writing Software for Mac

ulysses writing software app for mac

I’m writing this article using Ulysses. It’s the app that, by far, best fits my needs. It’s great for writing long-form content as well as keeping dozens of shorter articles organized. I know quite a few other writers who use Ulysses as well, and that’s the key. Ulysses is perfect for writers. If you are banging out hundreds of words on a daily basis, it will make your life easier. If, however, you only need something for occasional report writing, it will be a poor fit.

  • Ulysses costs $44.99 for the Mac version and $24.99 for the fully-featured iOS version.
  • Ulysses has full Markdown support.
  • Ulysses is designed for writers so offers a lot of features to make it easy to outline, draft, write, edit, and rearrange longer works. 
  • You can also publish directly to your WordPress site or Medium account from Ulysses.