Online Word Processors as Web Based Microsoft Office Alternatives

I love Web apps that is software used inside of your browser with no download needed.

To be honest I suck at Microsoft Office and indeed I even struggle with the open source alternative Open Office. Why? Both are

• bloated
• cluttered
• complicated

There are free online word processors on the other hand.

I tried almost all of them and I want to share with you the list of those web based word processors I used or that I rather still use.

Google Docs, the artist formerly known as Writely has been renamed Google Docs after the acquisition of the startup.

Google Docs is easy to use, supports different languages without the need of switching them and is very effective at spell-checking.

It’s fast and I use it in English, German and Polish. Some more sophisticated features are missing though.

Another drawback: Big Google watches you! In essence Google also even reserves the copyright to your documents.

Zoho offers the best web based word processor aka Zoho Writer among a plethora of other online applications.

I use Google Docs only because it’s quicker as I log in at other Google services anyway.

Zoho Write was my online word processing tool of choice for many years.

Most people use Google Docs by now so I had to switch back to it for the sake of simplicity.

Hancom Online Office (formerly ThinkFree) is a full fledged online word processor based on Java with all its pros and cons.

For me here it loaded a while so it’s more for the longer texts not the quick mail or note. It’s rather made for the essays.

Sadly it doesn’t work on Firefox anymore. I get an error each time I try it.

By now I mostly use Google Docs or the downloadable Softmaker Office. It’s has a free version and it’s bloat-free.