Has anyone tried Softmaker Office?

Ympker · February 17

So, my university sub for MS apps will be ending soon and I am looking for an alternative for Word/Excel/Powerpoint, basically. Now, there's LibreOffice. Open Source, totally free, around for 20 years. That said, the last time I used Libre Office, I didn't get into it that well. It didn't feel that intuitive. Recently, on Mydealz, I grabbed a free license of Softmaker's Office 2021 (5 devices) and also gave their free software "Free Office" a try. I found it to resemble the workflow/looks from Word a bit more than Libre Office.
What's more, I keep finding posts stating that Softmaker Office (and Free Office) is more compatible with MS Docs than LibreOffice. That is to say, formatting doesn't break, when importing MS Office docs. Softmaker is actually an IT company founded in 1987 in Nuremberg (Germany), so it is a home bias for me, given that they're basically half an hour drive away from where I live. Softmaker is available for Windows, Linux and MacOS equally. They also have a sub version, which I understand is new (NX), but they still also sell the versions you can purchase (or just use their free one Free Office). Anyone tried them long term?

ItsFoss also tested them:
https://itsfoss.com/comparison/libreoffice-vs-freeoffice/

In case anyone wants the Softmaker Office 2021 suite for free (scroll down and you will see it for 0€, add to cart..), there's the deal link: https://shop.softmaker.com/?couponcode=officefree

A cheap upgrade to 2024 is possible, according to MyDealz

Their Free Office Suite (also has Linux support) that receives regular updates is: https://www.freeoffice.com/en/

MyDealz discussion for user feedback: https://www.mydealz.de/share-deal-from-app/2729882

Alternatively, I could opt for a cheap 5€ key (not license) from some store on Idealo and use original MS Office 2024. These keys are bound to one device (probably some volume licensing) and the sellers claim they're legit in Europe due to Erschöpfungslizenz or smth and it's some sort of grey area. Could also just use some kms activation.

bikegremlin · February 17

Have you tried OnlyOffice?

It is free to install on a computer, and it doesn't mess up MS-Office-formatted documments (Libre Office is a hit and miss in those terms).

Edit:
Yes, of course I wrote an article, what did you think?!?

https://io.bikegremlin.com/38706/my-application-software-stack/

Ympker · February 17

@bikegremlin said:
Have you tried OnlyOffice?

It is free to install on a computer, and it doesn't mess up MS-Office-formatted documments (Libre Office is a hit and miss in those terms).

Good point, I'll have a look! Who is behind it? I remember that Cryptpad uses it, which I planned to deploy to my Portainer

What do you use?

bikegremlin · February 17

@Ympker said:

@bikegremlin said:
Have you tried OnlyOffice?

It is free to install on a computer, and it doesn't mess up MS-Office-formatted documments (Libre Office is a hit and miss in those terms).

Good point, I'll have a look! Who is behind it? I remember that Cryptpad uses it, which I planned to deploy to my Portainer

What do you use?

Some Latvians - Ascensio System SIA.

So Slavic engineering for the win! LOL

Ympker · February 17

@bikegremlin said:

@Ympker said:

@bikegremlin said:
Have you tried OnlyOffice?

It is free to install on a computer, and it doesn't mess up MS-Office-formatted documments (Libre Office is a hit and miss in those terms).

Good point, I'll have a look! Who is behind it? I remember that Cryptpad uses it, which I planned to deploy to my Portainer

What do you use?

Some Latvians - Ascensio System SIA.

So Slavic engineering for the win! LOL

Haha nice
So you are using it as your daily driver then?

bikegremlin · February 17

@Ympker said:

@bikegremlin said:

@Ympker said:

@bikegremlin said:
Have you tried OnlyOffice?

It is free to install on a computer, and it doesn't mess up MS-Office-formatted documments (Libre Office is a hit and miss in those terms).

Good point, I'll have a look! Who is behind it? I remember that Cryptpad uses it, which I planned to deploy to my Portainer

What do you use?

Some Latvians - Ascensio System SIA.

So Slavic engineering for the win! LOL

Haha nice
So you are using it as your daily driver then?

For now (enshitification is prevalent and I'm always on my toes - hence the up-to-date article series).

vyas · February 17

Another +1 for onlyoffice. Had written about it a while back. We use zoho docs online (Chennai, IN datacenter yay!)
I moved off of Libreoffice last month and now quite happy with onlyoffice desktop app for debian

Blog/user feedback
https://arc.amarvyas.in/notes/a-long-term-users-review-of-onlyoffice/

(pardon the broken images, major revamp of the site under way)

bikegremlin · February 17

@vyas said:
Another +1 for onlyoffice. Had written about it a while back

https://arc.amarvyas.in/notes/a-long-term-users-review-of-onlyoffice/

(pardon the broken images, major revamp of the site under way)

Let me know when you fix it so I can link to it (and not have anyone cursing me for it LOL).

vyas · February 17

Other options to consider (or not)

wps office
collabora desktop (ie libreoffice)

On a separate note:
@bikegremlin

I made the (voluntary) decision to use ChatGPT for a complete website reboot/restructure, including cdn. Years of baggage. Literal rabbit hole. Painful. Lots of clean up needed.

Slow as molasses. But tremendous learning! Mrs is… not amused. Story for another day.

Ympker · February 17

@vyas said:
Other options to consider (or not)

wps office

collabora desktop (ie libreoffice)

On a separate note:
@bikegremlin

I made the (voluntary) decision to use ChatGPT for a complete website reboot/restructure, including cdn. Years of baggage. Literal rabbit hole. Painful. Lots of clean up needed.

Slow as molasses. But tremendous learning! Mrs is… not amused. Story for another day.

Can you link the website? Is that what's called Vibe Coding these days? Maybe I'll give it a try sometime, too.

AnthonySmith · February 17

Not tried that, to be honest I just stick with libre, it's not perfect but under the hood it's pretty capable.

I was flipping between libre and Google but given googles recent trajectory I am degoogling as much as possible/practical.

The do no evil days are dead and gone.

somik · February 17

Another vote for WPS office. It's the easiest one to use if you are used to using Microsoft Office.

Website: https://www.wps.com/
(download the offline installer for faster install)

I have been using since it's the most compatible with microsoft office and files created from here opens there without any format changes.

Here is a screenshot from my computer:

bikegremlin · February 17

@AnthonySmith said:
Not tried that, to be honest I just stick with libre, it's not perfect but under the hood it's pretty capable.

I was flipping between libre and Google but given googles recent trajectory I am degoogling as much as possible/practical.

The do no evil days are dead and gone.

Most people in Serbia are still using MS Windows and Office.
LibreOffice would break layout compared to the original document too often.
The breakage goes both ways (when opening what others made with MS Office, and when they open what I made in Libre Office).

OnlyOffice fixes that.
It also loads a bit faster, at least on my computers.

Having said all that, LibreOffice is quite good and has been my daily driver for years, until the start of this year, despite its downsides.

WSS · February 17

Depending on the job- if I start a new document, it's in LibreOffice, if I inherit one or need to have further collaboration, I have an ancient copy of Office 2013 that works well enough.

vyas · February 17

I miss Corel Office wordperfect. *
er… Staroffice
er… Gobe Productive

Okay.. Hancom Office

—-

corrected. see below. 👇

WSS · February 17

@vyas said:
I miss Corel Office
er… Staroffice
er… Gobe Productive

Okay.. Hancom Office

WordPerfect.

Not_Oles · February 17

troff

bikegremlin · February 17

@WSS said:

@vyas said:
I miss Corel Office
er… Staroffice
er… Gobe Productive

Okay.. Hancom Office

WordPerfect.

FordPrefect

WSS · February 17

@Not_Oles said:
troff

nroff

Not_Oles · February 17

roff

WSS · February 17

I tried to find V6 cat.c source but I gave up and went back to work instead.

Joseph · February 18

@vyas said:
I miss Corel Office wordperfect. *
er… Staroffice
er… Gobe Productive

Okay.. Hancom Office

—-

corrected. see below. 👇

You never used WordStar?

vyas · February 18

I thought @Ympker was looking for a GUI office suite.
And yes used wordstar…

I may or may not be a relic but I love exploring relics

hornet · February 18

Thank you for that free Softmaker link & coupon!
I use LibreOffice (and Linux). I wouldn't use Windows as a daily driver if you paid me.
For friends and family who want Microsoft Office (LTSC), Google the following: github massgravel
I learned to type on Wordstar. I used it to write a few BASIC programs as well.
I have used Corel's suite, and I have a retail box or two from them in the attic. It was fine software. I purchased Star Office years ago. I was on Open Office before it became Apache Open Office. It had some issues, so I changed to LibreOffice & never went back.

vyas · February 18

Wordtsar:

https://wordtsar.ca/

AGPL … hmmm

@Not_Oles san might nod in approval. Classic UI, terminal, and possibly license.

Not_Oles · February 18

Hi @vyas!

Haha, I don't think I ever tried Wordstar. I heard that it has dot commands somewhat like troff.

I pretty much skipped Windows, going from DOS WordPerfect to Linux, NetBSD, and Plan 9, all three of which have troff or groff. If I remember right, I used to have a single line shell command with pipes that translated the handwritten troff through a couple of other commands out of which a PDF mysteriously landed. Then there might have been another shell command that translated the PDF into a printer control language, the standard output of which was redirected to the printer.

Later, my daughter needed to collaborate with other students on school assignments. All of the other students and also their teacher used Microsoft!

I remember trying an open source program intended to replace Word. With help from my daughter's teacher and fellow students, we got several examples of their homework documents. Unfortunately, it didn't take much testing to confirm that the open source program had a lot of trouble reading the other students' files.

Next I went to the computer store, where I serendipitously found a new copy of Microsoft software which seemed to have been drastically underpriced. I showed it to the store manager and asked him whether they really would sell me the software for the marked price. He said, "Absolutely!" then took me over to the cash register, and rang up the sale himself!

My favorite resource for the tiny amount of troff that I learned was Richard Stevens' tutorials, which are still up. For example:

Here is my favorite article about Stevens:

https://www.salon.com/2000/09/01/rich_stevens/

I haven't actually used troff for many years. But I still love to keep it handy. An easy way to get troff today on Linux, MacOs, and the BSDs is to install plan9port.

tom@ultra:~ $ date
Wed Feb 18 04:41:37 UTC 2026
tom@ultra:~ $ which troff
/usr/local/plan9port/bin/troff
tom@ultra:~ $

lapua · February 18

@Ympker said: basically half an hour drive away from where I live

gott sein dank, a frank/g!

translation:
thanks god, he is from frankonia!

Ympker · February 18

@hornet said:
Thank you for that free Softmaker link & coupon!
I use LibreOffice (and Linux). I wouldn't use Windows as a daily driver if you paid me.
For friends and family who want Microsoft Office (LTSC), Google the following: github massgravel
I learned to type on Wordstar. I used it to write a few BASIC programs as well.
I have used Corel's suite, and I have a retail box or two from them in the attic. It was fine software. I purchased Star Office years ago. I was on Open Office before it became Apache Open Office. It had some issues, so I changed to LibreOffice & never went back.

You're welcome Hope you enjoy Softmaker. Pretty cool that it supports Windows, Linux and MacOS. Yeah, I know about grave. That's what I was referring to kms activation

vyas · February 18

The venerable Mr. Kernighan again !
Some of the references date back to the era when one was supposedly rather allegedly in (or without) diapers

@Not_Oles said:
Hi @vyas!

Haha, I don't think I ever tried Wordstar. I heard that it has dot commands somewhat like troff.

collapsed for readability

I pretty much skipped Windows, going from DOS WordPerfect to Linux, NetBSD, and Plan 9, all three of which have troff or groff. If I remember right, I used to have a single line shell command with pipes that translated the handwritten troff through a couple of other commands out of which a PDF mysteriously landed. Then there might have been another shell command that translated the PDF into a printer control language, the standard output of which was redirected to the printer.

Later, my daughter needed to collaborate with other students on school assignments. All of the other students and also their teacher used Microsoft!

I remember trying an open source program intended to replace Word. With help from my daughter's teacher and fellow students, we got several examples of their homework documents. Unfortunately, it didn't take much testing to confirm that the open source program had a lot of trouble reading the other students' files.

Next I went to the computer store, where I serendipitously found a new copy of Microsoft software which seemed to have been drastically underpriced. I showed it to the store manager and asked him whether they really would sell me the software for the marked price. He said, "Absolutely!" then took me over to the cash register, and rang up the sale himself!

My favorite resource for the tiny amount of troff that I learned was Richard Stevens' tutorials, which are still up. For example:

http://www.kohala.com/start/troff/troff.html

http://www.kohala.com/start/#typesetting

Here is my favorite article about Stevens:

https://www.salon.com/2000/09/01/rich_stevens/

I haven't actually used troff for many years. But I still love to keep it handy. An easy way to get troff today on Linux, MacOs, and the BSDs is to install plan9port.
tom@ultra:~ $ date
Wed Feb 18 04:41:37 UTC 2026
tom@ultra:~ $ which troff
/usr/local/plan9port/bin/troff
tom@ultra:~ $ 

hornet · February 18

@Ympker said: That's what I was referring to kms activation

No worries, no KMS involved.

Not_Oles · February 18

@vyas said:
Wordtsar:

https://wordtsar.ca/

AGPL … hmmm

@Not_Oles san might nod in approval. Classic UI, terminal, and possibly license.

Only now am I seeing Tsar instead of Star!

Last night I missed. I saw only stars! ⭐⭐

Thanks @vyas!

WSS · February 18

Norton's Textra was fun. I still miss FM.COM (From Simtel. Dated back to like 1986. 20k COM file. You wanted to change colors or buffers? You used it to hex edit itself.

vyas · February 20

lol.. saw this in my YT feed, viewed it at 1.5x.. and..posting here for old times' sake.

@vyas said:
I miss Corel Office wordperfect. *
er… Staroffice
er… Gobe Productive

Okay.. Hancom Office

—-

corrected. see below. 👇

davide · February 21

What old times' sake lol

kako1talk · February 27

If MS Office compatibility is your main goal, you should really look into OnlyOffice before settling on Softmaker.

Its entire core engine is built around OOXML (docx/xlsx), so the formatting retention is miles ahead of LibreOffice. The desktop editors are free and feel very modern. Plus, since this is LES, you can always self-host the OnlyOffice Document Server on one of your idle VPS nodes. 😉

But yeah, if you want absolutely zero friction, that €5 OEM key is hard to beat.

flips · February 27

I do like SoftMaker Office, bought mainly because their Excel competitor, PlanMaker, is the only one I've found that does dark mode in a sensible ways while also working well with Norwegian Locale (as in both number formatting and names of Weekdays etc.)

Joseph · March 25

Isn't WPS Office cluttered with ads?

somik · March 25

@Joseph said:
Isn't WPS Office cluttered with ads?

Zero ads, as you can see:

Joseph · March 25

@somik said:

@Joseph said:
Isn't WPS Office cluttered with ads?

Zero ads, as you can see:

Are you using the paid version of WPS Office or the free version of WPS Office?

kako1talk · March 25

Softmaker is okay, but as an OG, I’d suggest giving OnlyOffice a shot before committing.

Its engine is built specifically for OOXML compatibility, so formatting retention is miles ahead of LibreOffice or Softmaker. Plus, since we are all server nerds here, you can even self-host the document server on one of your idle VPS nodes for a private cloud experience.

Joseph · March 25

By the way, I registered for the free older Softmaker Office Standard 2021 that the OP in this thread linked to. A couple of weeks later Softmaker emailed me an offer to upgrade from that to Softmaker Office Professional 2024 for only $20.

Joseph · March 25

@kako1talk said:
Softmaker is okay, but as an OG, I’d suggest giving OnlyOffice a shot before committing.

Its engine is built specifically for OOXML compatibility, so formatting retention is miles ahead of LibreOffice or Softmaker.

I believe that Softmaker is also specifically built for OOXML. And for what I've read, Softmaker has a slight advantage over ONLYOFFICE in conforming to the OOXML standards.

somik · March 26

@Joseph said:

@somik said:

@Joseph said:
Isn't WPS Office cluttered with ads?

Zero ads, as you can see:

Are you using the paid version of WPS Office or the free version of WPS Office?

As you can see on the top right asking me to start "free trial", it's the free version

Joseph · March 27

@somik said:

@Joseph said:

@somik said:

@Joseph said:
Isn't WPS Office cluttered with ads?

Zero ads, as you can see:

Are you using the paid version of WPS Office or the free version of WPS Office?

As you can see on the top right asking me to start "free trial", it's the free version

Interesting. From the reviews I've seen users reported that the free version of WPS Office they place ads that keep nagging you to upgrade to the paid version.

somik · March 27

@Joseph said:

@somik said:
As you can see on the top right asking me to start "free trial", it's the free version

Interesting. From the reviews I've seen users reported that the free version of WPS Office they place ads that keep nagging you to upgrade to the paid version.

I use it on and off and have yet to see any annoying ads. That is one of the reasons i use WPS office. It's more compatible and does not have too many ads.

FYI, I hate ads and have a whole house ad blocker DNS setup. Not sure if that's blocking the ads from WPS office...

Joseph · March 27

@somik said:

@Joseph said:

@somik said:
As you can see on the top right asking me to start "free trial", it's the free version

Interesting. From the reviews I've seen users reported that the free version of WPS Office they place ads that keep nagging you to upgrade to the paid version.

I use it on and off and have yet to see any annoying ads. That is one of the reasons i use WPS office. It's more compatible and does not have too many ads.

FYI, I hate ads and have a whole house ad blocker DNS setup. Not sure if that's blocking the ads from WPS office...

What do you use for your whole house ad blocker DNS setup?

somik · March 28

@Joseph said:

@somik said:

@Joseph said:

@somik said:
As you can see on the top right asking me to start "free trial", it's the free version

Interesting. From the reviews I've seen users reported that the free version of WPS Office they place ads that keep nagging you to upgrade to the paid version.

I use it on and off and have yet to see any annoying ads. That is one of the reasons i use WPS office. It's more compatible and does not have too many ads.

FYI, I hate ads and have a whole house ad blocker DNS setup. Not sure if that's blocking the ads from WPS office...

What do you use for your whole house ad blocker DNS setup?

Unbound DNS with "Steven Black List" on OPNSense network router that I use.

I also had a lot of success using PiHole so you can consider that an option as well.

Or if you just want to give adblocking dns a try, https://adguard-dns.io/en/public-dns.html

Note that this will not work for youtube app which uses their own dns. Chrome on android also has the same issue (so i use firefox on chrome as that supports ublock origin). It works fine on the rest of my windows/linux devices with chrome/firefox and other apps.

terrorgen · March 28

@Joseph said:

@somik said:

@Joseph said:
Isn't WPS Office cluttered with ads?

Zero ads, as you can see:

Are you using the paid version of WPS Office or the free version of WPS Office?

Is this the Linux or windows version?

somik · March 29

@terrorgen said:

@Joseph said:

@somik said:

@Joseph said:
Isn't WPS Office cluttered with ads?

Zero ads, as you can see:

Are you using the paid version of WPS Office or the free version of WPS Office?

Is this the Linux or windows version?

I'm running it on windows.

ascicode · March 29

Its not fully usable. Some benefits are only listed after payment.

Joseph · March 29

@ascicode said:
Its not fully usable. Some benefits are only listed after payment.

Such as?

And are you referring to WPS or to Softmaker?

Has anyone tried Softmaker Office?

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