Productivity & Business · Collaboration

LibreOffice

LibreOffice is a free, open-source office suite from The Document Foundation with Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw, Base and Math for Windows, macOS and Linux.

Our take: LibreOffice costs nothing, and the project documents its releases, platforms and security advisories openly.

Best forFree desktop office suite

ReviewedNov 2026Free

7.25 criteria · see breakdown

Try LibreOfficeFree; donations optional

LibreOffice is a free, open-source office suite of six apps (Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw, Base and Math) run as a project of the not-for-profit The Document Foundation. Its own release-notes page lists LibreOffice 26.8.2 dated October 29, 2026, and Apache OpenOffice's project site lists 4.1.17 dated 2026-10-14, so both projects show an October 2026 release as checked on 2 November 2026. The software is free of charge with optional donations, and The Document Foundation says it provides no technical support itself.

The bottom line

A free, well-documented office suite; plan to support yourself unless you buy through a partner.

Our score

Reviewed by the Conversion Gems editorial team. Hover a facet to focus it; click to pin.Tap a facet to focus it.

What it is, and why we rate it

One line each. Open a row for detail.

What it really isDesktop office software from the not-for-profit The Document Foundation, free of charge and open source, originally based on OpenOffice.org.

Our takeLibreOffice costs nothing, and the project documents its releases, platforms and security advisories openly.

The Document Foundation says it provides no technical support itself; teams that need a service agreement are pointed to an Enterprise version from a partner, at a price the project does not publish. Against OpenOffice, both projects' own sites list October 2026 releases, so the choice rests on features and release pace rather than on whether OpenOffice still ships.

Why we rate itFree, documented and cross-platform, but with no first-party technical support.

The catchThe Document Foundation provides no technical support, and business support comes from ecosystem partners at unpublished prices.

Best / not good for

Best for

Home and small-office users who want a no-cost suite on Windows, macOS or Linux
People who want an open-source licence and open file formats
Anyone comparing the two free suites, LibreOffice and Apache OpenOffice

Not good for

Organizations that need a vendor support contract without going through a partner
Teams that work mainly in a shared online editor
Users who need guaranteed Microsoft Office formatting, since the project publishes no fidelity guarantee

Trade-offs

Friction report

Trade-offs to know before signing up.

Time to value
A download and install; the system-requirements page lists 256 MB of RAM and up to 1.5 GB of disk space on Windows.
Scale breakpoint
The Document Foundation recommends Enterprise versions from ecosystem partners for schools, research institutions and large organizations that need service agreements.
Walled garden
None stated: the source code is open under the Mozilla Public License v2.0, and the suite uses OpenDocument formats alongside DOCX, XLSX and PPTX.

Still a fit?

If none of these block you, start on the free plan.

Try LibreOffice

LibreOffice vs Apache OpenOffice, as each site states it

Item	LibreOffice	Apache OpenOffice
Run by	The Document Foundation, a not-for-profit organization (Who are we page).	The Apache Software Foundation (project site).
Origin	Says it is originally based on OpenOffice.org and is the most actively developed OpenOffice.org successor project.	OpenOffice.org was donated to the Apache Software Foundation on June 1, 2011 and graduated from incubation to a top-level project on 2012-10-17.
Price	Made available free of charge; donations are purely optional (Donate page).	Described on its site as free.
License of the code	Mozilla Public License v2.0 for the source code (site footer).	Apache License, Version 2.0 (site footer).
Releases the site lists	26.8.2 (October 29, 2026, latest branch) and 26.2.7 (November 3, 2026, previous branch, recommended for enterprises) on the release-notes page.	4.1.17 (2026-10-14), 4.1.16 (2025-11-10) and 4.1.15 (2023-12-22) on the project home page.
Apps	Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw, Base and Math.	Six apps: word processor with web authoring, spreadsheet, presentation graphics, drawing, equation editor and database.
Platforms	Windows (x86-64 and ARM64 downloads), macOS 11 or newer on Intel or Apple silicon, and Linux (download and system-requirements pages).	Binaries for Windows, macOS and Linux, with Linux in 32-bit and 64-bit packages (4.1.17 release notes).
Microsoft file formats	Says it has improved Microsoft Office compatibility and exports .docx, .xlsx and .pptx.	The 4.1.17 notes list better Microsoft Excel XML compatibility, including SpreadsheetML formula conversion; no OOXML export statement was read.
Security wording	Publishes a security advisories page listing each fixed vulnerability by CVE number and fixed version.	Calls 4.1.17 a security and bugfix release, advises users of 4.1.16 or earlier to upgrade, and links a security bulletins archive.
Claims made only on LibreOffice's comparison page	18 minor updates in 2025 and 2026 for LibreOffice and 2 for OpenOffice; Windows 64-bit and Apple Silicon versions yes for LibreOffice and no for OpenOffice; OOXML export and OOXML and PDF signing yes against no; the last major OpenOffice update in 2014.	These are LibreOffice's claims and were not verified. OpenOffice's list matches 2 releases in that window (2025-11-10 and 2026-10-14) and shows 4.1.0 on 2014-04-29; its pages read do not address the other points.

From libreoffice.org (comparison, who-are-we, download, release-notes, donate, security and system-requirements pages) and openoffice.apache.org (home page, security page and AOO 4.1.17 release notes), read in a browser and checked 2 November 2026 (the release-notes page and the openoffice.apache.org home page were re-read on 4 November 2026). LibreOffice's own pages date the 26.8 line inconsistently: the comparison page gives October 29, 2026 for the 26.8 release while the release-notes page gives that date for 26.8.2, so this table uses 26.8.2. Cells that describe only one side say so.

Cost and support

Item	What the project says
Software price	Made available free of charge; a donation is purely optional (Donate page).
Technical support	The Document Foundation does not provide technical support for the software; users can get help from others on mailing lists and Ask LibreOffice (For business page).
Enterprise versions	The Document Foundation recommends LibreOffice Enterprise versions from ecosystem partners for schools, research institutions and large organizations, for service agreements, personalized assistance and support. It lists no prices.
Certified professionals	The Document Foundation runs a certification program for developers, migration consultants and trainers, and says it does not provide professional support itself.

From libreoffice.org (Donate and For business pages) and documentfoundation.org (Professional support page), checked 2 November 2026.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is LibreOffice?

LibreOffice is free, open-source office software made up of six apps: Writer for documents, Calc for spreadsheets, Impress for presentations, Draw for diagrams and drawings, Base for databases and Math for formulas. It is a project of the not-for-profit The Document Foundation, with its source code licensed under the Mozilla Public License v2.0, and the project says it was originally based on OpenOffice.org (checked 2 November 2026).

Is OpenOffice discontinued?

Not according to its own site. The Apache OpenOffice project site lists Apache OpenOffice 4.1.17 as released on 2026-10-14, 4.1.16 on 2025-11-10 and 4.1.15 on 2023-12-22, and the 4.1.17 release notes call it a security and bugfix release. LibreOffice's comparison page says OpenOffice had its last major update in 2014 and only occasional minor updates since; OpenOffice's list shows 4.1.0 on 2014-04-29 followed by 4.1.x releases, so the two descriptions are consistent with that list (checked 2 November 2026).

Is LibreOffice safe?

Conversion Gems cannot give a safety verdict, but the project documents its handling of security. It publishes a security advisories page listing each fixed vulnerability by CVE number and the version that fixed it, its release-notes page lists 26.8.2 (October 29, 2026) as the latest branch and 26.2.7 (November 3, 2026) as the previous branch recommended for enterprises, and its source code is open under the Mozilla Public License v2.0. The advisories page includes serious entries, for example CVE-2026-63277, listed as remote code execution via calcext:data-mappings, sql provider and jdbc connector and addressed in 26.2.5/26.8.0 (checked 2 November 2026).

Is LibreOffice completely free?

Yes for the software: the donate page says LibreOffice is made available free of charge and that a donation is purely optional. The Document Foundation does not provide technical support itself; its business page recommends LibreOffice Enterprise versions from ecosystem partners for service agreements and support, and it does not publish prices for them. libreoffice.org offers the installers directly, so any paid copy sold elsewhere is a third-party sale that Conversion Gems did not check (checked 2 November 2026).

Can LibreOffice open Microsoft Office files?

Yes, by the project's own account: its comparison page says it has improved Microsoft Office compatibility and can export .docx, .xlsx and .pptx files, and its technology page shows DOCX, XLSX and PPTX alongside the OpenDocument formats in its document engine. The pages read publish no fidelity guarantee, so test a copy of your own files before switching.

Does anyone still use LibreOffice?

The Document Foundation says tens of millions of people use LibreOffice every day and names examples such as the French inter-ministerial group MIMO on almost 500,000 PCs and the administration of Valencia on 120,000 PCs; these are the project's own figures and were not independently verified. The release-notes page also shows steady releases, with 26.8.2 dated October 29, 2026 and 26.2.7 dated November 3, 2026 (checked 4 November 2026).