Microsoft 365 (Office)
The productivity suite that owns your documents
⚠️ Privacy case
Microsoft 365 processes your documents and emails on Microsoft servers. Microsoft uses data from Office 365 to improve its AI features. Microsoft Copilot, the AI assistant built into Microsoft 365, has access to all your documents and emails. Microsoft has also faced scrutiny for how Teams data is stored and who can access it. In European organizations, data sovereignty concerns have driven significant adoption of alternatives.
What it is
Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) is Microsoft's subscription productivity suite — Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, OneDrive, and OneNote — at $6.99–$9.99/month per person. It is the dominant office software globally, particularly in enterprise. Documents created in Microsoft formats (.docx, .xlsx, .pptx) are the de facto standard for business document exchange.
What you lose
- Dominant file format compatibility (.docx, .xlsx, .pptx are universal)
- Excel's advanced features (nothing fully matches Excel for complex spreadsheets)
- Outlook's integration with enterprise email systems
- Teams for workplace collaboration (in enterprise contexts)
- OneDrive storage included with subscription
Honest assessment
For personal use, the alternatives are excellent and free. For enterprise or professional use involving document exchange, the format compatibility issue is real — sending a LibreOffice document to a law firm or accounting firm will cause friction. The most pragmatic approach for most users is to keep documents in cross-platform formats (PDF, plain text, Markdown) and only use .docx/.xlsx when externally required.
Alternatives
- LibreOffice Free, open source — Full Office suite. Word, Excel, PowerPoint equivalents. Opens and saves Microsoft formats. Completely offline. No data collection. Best for users who need desktop Office without the subscription and surveillance. Minor compatibility quirks on complex documents.
- Google Docs / Sheets / Slides Free — Browser-based. Excellent real-time collaboration. Trades Microsoft's surveillance for Google's. Not a privacy win, but a vendor-independence win. Files stored in Google Drive.
- Proton Docs Included with Proton plans — End-to-end encrypted document editing. New and improving. Privacy-first alternative for users already in the Proton ecosystem.
- OnlyOffice — High Microsoft compatibility. Available desktop (free) and self-hosted server. Better format fidelity than LibreOffice for complex documents.
- Nextcloud + Collabora Office — Self-hosted cloud platform with integrated office suite. Full data sovereignty. For technically inclined users who want complete control.
Migration steps
- Install LibreOffice — it opens all your existing .docx/.xlsx files
- Use Proton Drive or Nextcloud as your OneDrive replacement
- Convert frequently used documents to open formats (ODT, ODS) or keep as PDFs
- Cancel Microsoft 365 subscription
- For email, see the Outlook/email section
- For cloud storage, set up LibreOffice with a cloud sync folder