Open-Source Alternatives to Microsoft Office in New Zealand

Microsoft 365 Personal now costs NZ$179 a year in New Zealand and the Family plan NZ$229, and both renew automatically every year. For a lot of home offices that is hard to justify when free, open-source office suites open the same Word, Excel and PowerPoint files and run on the computer you already own. This guide compares the open-source alternatives to Microsoft Office worth using in 2026 — what each one does well, where file compatibility still trips people up, roughly what you would save at current New Zealand prices, and how to move across without losing a week of work.

An open-source office suite is software whose code is public and free to use, so there is no licence fee and no subscription. If you just want a free toolkit for a small business, our free business software guide goes wider than office apps, and if you are still running the original OpenOffice, read our Apache OpenOffice guide first.

What Microsoft Office costs in New Zealand

Microsoft sells Office two ways in New Zealand: as a Microsoft 365 subscription you pay for every year, or as a one-off Office Home 2024 licence. The table below lists the current retail prices from Microsoft’s NZ site so you can see exactly what a free suite would replace. The full line-up, along with what each plan includes, is on Microsoft 365 plans for individuals – Microsoft NZ, and the company plans sit on the Microsoft 365 business plans and pricing – Microsoft NZ page.

These prices were taken from Microsoft’s NZ website in September 2026. The business plans are quoted excluding GST and need an annual commitment, so add 15% for the real monthly cost. Office Home 2024, listed on Office Home 2024 – Microsoft Store NZ, is a licence you buy once rather than a subscription; NZ retailers such as PB Tech sometimes discount it below the NZ$259 list price, and it is licensed for non-commercial home or school use. When its support window closes on 9 October 2029 it keeps working but stops getting fixes, as Microsoft sets out in products reaching end of support in 2029 – Microsoft Learn.

The best open-source office suites

Four open-source options cover almost every home office. LibreOffice and ONLYOFFICE replace the desktop apps, while Nextcloud Office and CryptPad add the live, browser-based co-editing that a Microsoft 365 subscription usually provides. Each section below explains what the suite is, how it handles Microsoft files and who it suits.

LibreOffice: the complete desktop suite

LibreOffice is the most complete free replacement for desktop Office. It bundles Writer (word processor), Calc (spreadsheets), Impress (presentations), Draw (diagrams), Base (databases) and Math (formulae), and it runs on Windows, macOS and Linux. It saves in the open OpenDocument Format (ODF) by default but also opens and saves Microsoft’s .docx, .xlsx and .pptx files. The Document Foundation ships two major versions a year, numbered by year and month. LibreOffice 26.8, released on 26 August 2026 and covered in LibreOffice 26.8 released – Phoronix, added a Paragraph Composer for more evenly spaced justified text, pivot-table calculated fields, a Shuffle command in Calc and import/export for more of the newer Microsoft chart types. The project deliberately leaves out generative AI, so nothing in your documents is sent to a remote AI service.

ONLYOFFICE: the most Microsoft-like

ONLYOFFICE is the best fit if your documents constantly move between you and Microsoft users. The free ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors (version 9.4, released in May 2026) use a tabbed ribbon that looks a lot like Microsoft’s, and they store files in .docx, .xlsx and .pptx natively rather than converting them, which keeps layouts closer to the original. The editors are released under the AGPL-3.0 open-source licence and are developed by Ascensio System SIA, registered in Latvia. The desktop apps can connect to an ONLYOFFICE document server for real-time co-editing, and the running list of changes is in the ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors changelog – ONLYOFFICE.

Nextcloud Office: co-editing on your own server

Nextcloud Office adds browser-based editing of documents, spreadsheets and presentations to a Nextcloud server, which can be a NAS or a small home server. As explained on the official Nextcloud Office – Nextcloud page, it can run on Collabora Online (an engine built on LibreOffice) or, since 2026, on Euro-Office. Euro-Office is a fork of ONLYOFFICE’s code launched in March 2026 by Nextcloud, IONOS and Proton as a push for European digital sovereignty; ONLYOFFICE strongly disputed the move and suspended its long-running partnership with Nextcloud, arguing the rebrand breached the AGPL-3.0 licence terms on branding and attribution. Either way, the documents live on hardware you control. Our NAS and private cloud guide and home server guide cover how to host it.

CryptPad: encrypted collaboration in the browser

CryptPad is the pick when privacy matters most. It is an AGPL-3.0 suite from XWiki in Paris that covers rich text, spreadsheets, slides, forms, kanban boards and whiteboards, and it encrypts everything in the browser before it leaves your device — even the host cannot read your files. You can use a public instance such as cryptpad.fr, funded by subscriptions and donations, or self-host it; the project explains the model on the About CryptPad – CryptPad.org page. It handles shared notes, planning and simple documents well, but it is not built for complex Word layouts.

Apache OpenOffice and free suites that aren’t open source

Apache OpenOffice still ships the occasional security update — version 4.1.16 arrived in November 2025, as noted in announcing Apache OpenOffice 4.1.16 – Apache OpenOffice — but it has added few features in years and cannot save the modern .docx format, so most people are better served by LibreOffice. SoftMaker FreeOffice and WPS Office are free to download but proprietary rather than open source, so check their licence terms and privacy policies before using them for work. Microsoft’s own shift toward open technologies over the past decade, chronicled in this overview of Microsoft and open source on Wikipedia, is part of why swapping files between these suites is easier than it used to be.

How the suites compare at a glance

The table below sums up how each option handles Word and Excel files, whether it supports live co-editing, and the one thing to watch before you commit. Use it to shortlist one or two suites to trial, then confirm they handle your real documents.

Working out your savings and best fit

Your saving is simply whatever you would otherwise pay Microsoft over the period you care about, because the open-source suites cost nothing to license. A one-person home office on Microsoft 365 Personal spends NZ$179 a year, or NZ$537 over three years. A two-person household on two Personal subscriptions spends NZ$358 a year — about NZ$1,074 over three years — all of which a free suite removes. A Microsoft 365 Family plan covers up to six people for NZ$229 a year (NZ$687 over three years), so the per-person saving is smaller but still real for a busy household.

Match the suite to how you work rather than to price alone. If you rarely swap files with Microsoft users, LibreOffice is the most complete choice. If you exchange .docx and .xlsx files all day, ONLYOFFICE keeps layouts closest. If a family or small team needs to edit the same document at once, run Nextcloud Office on a NAS or home server, or reach for CryptPad if you would rather not run a server. The one case for keeping a single paid licence is spreadsheets driven by complex Excel macros written in VBA (Visual Basic for Applications, Excel’s built-in automation language): LibreOffice runs some VBA but not all, so keep one Microsoft licence for those workbooks and move everything else across. Our self-hosted software guide for small businesses covers the co-editing route in more depth.

Keeping files compatible with Microsoft users

Most migration headaches are about file exchange, not the software itself. A few habits keep documents looking right when they land on a Microsoft user’s screen.

• Save shared files in Microsoft formats. In LibreOffice, set .docx, .xlsx and .pptx as the default under Tools > Options > Load/Save > General, and keep ODF only for your own archive copies.
• Watch the fonts. If a document uses Calibri or Cambria, install those fonts or use the metric-compatible substitutes Carlito and Caladea so the page breaks stay where the author put them.
• Send a PDF for anything final. Every suite here exports PDF, and a PDF looks identical on every device, which removes conversion risk for quotes, invoices and reports.
• Test your templates and macros. Letterheads, invoice templates and macro-driven spreadsheets are where conversions break most often, so check them before you rely on them.
• Keep tracked changes simple. Comments and basic Track Changes carry across well, but deeply nested revisions are worth reviewing before you send a document back.

Common mistakes when switching from Microsoft Office

The switch usually goes wrong for predictable reasons, and each one is easy to avoid once you know it.

• Cancelling the subscription before testing real files. Trial the new suite on your actual templates and spreadsheets for a few weeks first — not a blank test document — so surprises surface while you still have Office installed.
• Leaving ODF as the default for shared files. If you email an .odt or .ods to a Microsoft user who cannot open it cleanly, switch your default save format to the Microsoft one rather than blaming the recipient.
• Assuming every Excel macro will run. Complex VBA is the single biggest compatibility gap. Flag macro-heavy workbooks early and keep one Microsoft licence for them instead of discovering the problem at month-end.
• Downloading from an unofficial mirror. Always install from the project’s own website; third-party download sites sometimes bundle unwanted extras. Actively maintained suites like LibreOffice and ONLYOFFICE push regular security updates, so keep them current.
• Forgetting your cloud storage. A Microsoft 365 plan also gives you OneDrive. Before you cancel, move your files to a NAS, Nextcloud or another cloud service and keep a backup, or you may lose access to documents you left in the cloud.

How to switch without disrupting work

Treat the move as a staged migration rather than a single flip, and the transition is almost invisible.

1. Audit your files. List the documents, templates and spreadsheets you rely on, and flag any that use macros.
2. Install the new suite alongside Office. Run both for two to four weeks before you cancel anything, so you always have a fallback.
3. Rebuild key templates natively. Recreate letterheads and invoices in the new suite instead of leaning on converted copies that may drift.
4. Move your storage. If you are leaving OneDrive, shift files to a NAS, Nextcloud or another cloud service, and keep a separate backup.
5. Cancel at renewal. Turn off auto-renew in your Microsoft account and download anything still sitting in OneDrive first.

Moving to Linux at the same time? Our Linux Mint guide is a gentle starting point, and there is more free software worth knowing in our open-source software guide. If you are choosing the hardware to run it all on, the mini PC vs laptop comparison for home offices helps.

Which alternative should you choose?

There is no single winner, only the right tool for how you work. For most home offices, LibreOffice is the answer, with shared files saved in Microsoft formats. If your day is constant back-and-forth with Microsoft users, ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors keep layouts closest. Families or small teams that co-edit should run Nextcloud Office on their own hardware, or use CryptPad if they would rather not manage a server. And if your spreadsheets depend on heavy Excel macros, keep one Microsoft licence for those and move everything else across — you still capture most of the saving.

Need Word only now and then? Microsoft’s web versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint are free with a Microsoft account and handle the rare file that will not convert cleanly, without paying for a subscription.

Prices and version details were checked in September 2026 and are in NZ$, including GST unless marked “+ GST”. Features and licences are as published by each project, and Nicegear has not independently tested file compatibility for every document type. Nicegear is independent and carries no paid placements.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best free alternative to Microsoft Office?

For most people it is LibreOffice, a complete open-source suite for Windows, macOS and Linux that opens and saves Word, Excel and PowerPoint files. If you mainly exchange .docx and .xlsx files with Microsoft users, ONLYOFFICE is a strong alternative because it stores files in Microsoft formats natively.

Can LibreOffice open Word and Excel files?

Yes. LibreOffice opens and saves .docx, .xlsx and .pptx files, as well as the older .doc, .xls and .ppt formats. Very complex layouts and some VBA macros may need checking after conversion, but everyday documents move across cleanly.

Is open-source office software safe to use?

Yes, provided you download it from the official project website and keep it updated. Actively maintained suites such as LibreOffice and ONLYOFFICE release regular updates, including security fixes, and their public code is open to review.

How much does Microsoft 365 cost in New Zealand?

In September 2026, Microsoft’s NZ website listed Microsoft 365 Personal at NZ$179 a year and Family at NZ$229 a year for up to six people, both renewing automatically. Office Home 2024 was a one-off NZ$259 licence supported until 9 October 2029.

Can I co-edit documents without Microsoft 365?

Yes. Nextcloud Office on your own server and CryptPad in the browser both support live co-editing, and ONLYOFFICE supports it when connected to a document server. Nextcloud and CryptPad also let you keep the files on hardware you control.