Five alternatives to Microsoft Office 365

Microsoft has released Office 365 and for those that like the idea of having an on-line office suite, but don’t want to have to pay the cost of the Microsoft solution, where do you turn? Are they comparable alternatives? I am happy to answer with an emphatic ‘yes’. Some of the available alternatives offer a feature-for-feature alternative, whereas some go a few extra miles and offer additional features that make them superior to the Microsoft offering.

But what are these alternatives? Outside of Google Docs, most of the alternatives live on the fringes. That doesn’t mean they aren’t worth giving a try. In fact these alternatives should very easily fill all of your on-line office suite needs.

Let’s dig into the list of applications so you can see if one (or more) of them can serve as an alternative for you and/or your company.

1. Zoho
2. OX
3. Google Apps
4. Think Free Office
5. Live Documents


Read the full post

Related Articles

office-365-great-service-confusing-licensing

google-apps-v-office-365-head-to-head-comparison-of-features

10-ways-to-get-more-out-of-zoho

Google Apps v. Office 365 summary: Which is better?

In this post, the author Ian Hardenburgh, who over a period in a series of posts had compared Google Apps and Office 365 on a number of feature groups, such as basic productivity applications, e-mail and messaging, calendar, content and document management, and apps and professional services marketplace line of products has provided the wrap-up segment and presented a single consolidated comparison chart (see link to an Excel-based chart).

Read the full post

Face-Off: Google Apps vs. Office 365

Dozens of reviewers from around the world have compared Google Apps for Business to Microsoft Office 365. I read my fair share of these shootouts in preparation for this article.

But instead of having one person in a small lab set up and test the suites, I reached out to actual customers: you, the Redmond reader. Some 20 of you told us in detail about your Google and Microsoft online productivity experiences.

One thing became clear in all of my reader interviews: Google Apps can really stir emotions -- happy and hostile in seemingly equal measure.

"We've used it for more than two years and never had downtime. It has integrated chat and video -- with excellent real-time quality. Collaboration is so simple. We've had no problems setting up MX records like Microsoft Exchange, and there's generous storage space," says Redmondmag.com reader Zailano, who continues effusing praise. "Searching for e-mails is super fast and accurate; importing files and contact lists is a breeze, and it's spam-free without [the user] having to pay a premium for anti-spam tools," he says. The best part? "It's cheap -- practically free."

Read the full post