Editor Sebastiaan Smits ·
Published October 28, 2026 · Updated October 28, 2026
People look past Google Docs when files must stay off Google's servers, when clients send Word files and expect the layout back, or when per-user pricing grows with headcount. They move to ONLYOFFICE, Zoho, Proton or Microsoft 365, or to a self-hosted stack on Nextcloud with Collabora.
Short answer: The closest replacements for Google Docs in our office suites ranking are ONLYOFFICE, Zoho Workplace and Proton Docs. Choose ONLYOFFICE if most of your people only read and comment, and you want to pay for few seats. The other 10 entries come from our Best Office Suites in 2026 list as well, and every one is set against Google Docs specifically, with a note on the cases where Google Docs should stay.
Visibility in our rankings can be paid for. Payment moves a vendor's position within the shortlist; it never adds a vendor, and it never changes a word of the review or of this page. The first three alternatives go to challengers, vendors outside the best-known brands in a category, wherever the category has them; the established names follow in their ranked order. How it works: placement disclosure · editorial process.
Docs is a web editor and its files are stored in Google Drive. Buyers with rules on where documents may be kept, or who want a provider unable to read them, look at self-hosted editors or an end-to-end encrypted option like Proton Docs.
Google's help pages say a Word document can be converted into Docs format or edited directly without a copy. Teams that pass contracts back and forth in DOCX often prefer an editor where that format is the file itself.
Docs is free to anyone with a Google Account, but business use sits on Workspace at €6.80, €13.60 or €21.10 per user per month on the euro page. Some features, such as joining a Meet call from a document, are Workspace only.
Ordered by how well each fits a team leaving Google Docs; our own placement among 13 ranked products is in the last column.
| # | Alternative | Headquarters | Switch if | Our rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  ONLYOFFICE | Latvia | most of your people only read and comment, and you want to pay for few seats | #1 |
| 2 |  Zoho Workplace | India | you want mail, files and editors from one vendor that is not Google | #3 |
| 3 |  Proton Docs | Switzerland | the content of your documents should be unreadable to the provider | #9 |
| 4 |  Microsoft 365 | United States | your contacts and clients send Word files and expect exact layout back | #5 |
| 5 |  Nextcloud Office | Germany | documents must live on servers you or a partner operate | #7 |
| 6 |  Collabora Online | United Kingdom | you run a file platform and want an editing layer you can host under your own control | #8 |
| 7 |  LibreOffice | Germany | you want a no-cost desktop word processor with no account and no cloud | #2 |
| 8 |  SoftMaker Office | Germany | you work offline on several operating systems and want a subscription with small cost | #6 |
| 9 |  WPS Office | Singapore | you want a free desktop and mobile suite with a Word-like layout | #10 |
| 10 |  Polaris Office | South Korea | your correspondents use HWP files or you need a multi-device suite from outside the US and EU | #11 |
| 11 |  Apache OpenOffice | United States | you need a plain desktop writer with no subscription and rarely change tools | #12 |
Bills administrators only, $20 each per month on Business, while users and guests are unlimited. Documents sit in rooms with permissions, and a free Startup plan allows three admins and 2 GB. A self-hosted option has its own tab. Mail and calendar are not part of it.
Switch from Google Docs if most of your people only read and comment, and you want to pay for few seats.
Writer is one app inside Workplace, next to Sheet, Show, Mail and WorkDrive, so it replaces the whole bundle rather than a single editor. Writer has track changes and an AI helper called Zia, plus desktop apps with an offline mode. Workplace prices did not render server-side.
Switch from Google Docs if you want mail, files and editors from one vendor that is not Google.
Documents are end-to-end encrypted and edited together in real time inside Proton Drive. The free account has 5 GB, Drive Plus is $4.99 a month for 200 GB, and Drive Professional is $9.99 per user for 1 TB. A Sheets editor exists. We found no slide editor on its pages.
Switch from Google Docs if the content of your documents should be unreadable to the provider.
Word is a desktop application, so the Microsoft file formats are the formats it works in. Personal is $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year and includes 1 TB of cloud storage. Business plan prices were blocked on our fetch, so check them before budgeting a team.
Switch from Google Docs if your contacts and clients send Word files and expect exact layout back.
A self-hosted file platform where the editors are an add-on. Nextcloud Write opens DOCX, ODT, PDF and Markdown, with comments and tracked changes. Its page now says the editors are based on Euro-Office. Enterprise subscriptions are per user per year, with a 100-user minimum.
Switch from Google Docs if documents must live on servers you or a partner operate.
A browser editing engine built on LibreOffice, meant to be integrated into other platforms or hosted by one of its partners. The supported edition is quoted on request. A free development edition, CODE, exists for testing, and the vendor says it is not recommended for production.
Switch from Google Docs if you run a file platform and want an editing layer you can host under your own control.
A desktop suite with Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw, Base and Math, made available free of charge by The Document Foundation in Berlin. Donations are optional. The pages we read describe installed software, not a browser editor, so live co-authoring needs a separate component such as Collabora.
Switch from Google Docs if you want a no-cost desktop word processor with no account and no cloud.
TextMaker saves DOCX natively and runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS and Android. NX Universal costs 49.90 euros a year or 4.99 euros a month including VAT, for five household computers or one company computer. A 30-day trial is offered. Sharing is file based.
Switch from Google Docs if you work offline on several operating systems and want a subscription with small cost.
Writer sits beside Spreadsheet, Presentation and PDF tools in a suite with a free tier. The pricing page lists 1 GB of cloud storage for the free version and 20 GB for the paid one, and AI tools stop at a daily limit. The vendor is Kingsoft Office Software.
Switch from Google Docs if you want a free desktop and mobile suite with a Word-like layout.
A Korean suite with Docs, Sheets and Slides, a Web Office that is advertised as free, and support for HWP, the Korean word processor format. Subscription and one-time licences are listed, and the NOVA AI assistant is bundled. No price figures appeared on the page we fetched.
Switch from Google Docs if your correspondents use HWP files or you need a multi-device suite from outside the US and EU.
A free desktop suite that still ships releases: version 4.1.17 was announced on 14 October 2026, after 4.1.16 in November 2025 and 4.1.15 in December 2023. The cadence is slow compared with other open-source suites, and the pages we read mention no browser co-editing.
Switch from Google Docs if you need a plain desktop writer with no subscription and rarely change tools.
Stay on Google Docs if your team edits together in a browser all day, shares by link, and rarely needs an exact layout from a Word file. Live co-editing, comments, document tabs, a pageless mode and offline editing in Chrome or Edge are built in, and a personal Google Account is enough to start.
Docs can download a document as DOCX, ODT, RTF, PDF, plain text, HTML, EPUB or Markdown, according to Google's export list for the Drive API. Google Takeout can package all Google data in one archive. Run a test on your ten most complex documents first.
Comments, suggestions and version history live in Docs, so decide which record you keep before the files leave. Features such as smart chips, document tabs and pageless mode belong to Docs; check how the new editor treats them.
Shared links to Docs point at Google Drive files. Keep the old documents readable for a transition period, and update wiki pages, intranet pages and emails that point at them.
Google Docs exports to Microsoft Word (.docx), OpenDocument (.odt), Rich Text (.rtf), PDF, plain text, HTML (also zipped), EPUB and Markdown. These are the export types listed in Google's Drive API reference. Which of them keeps comments and suggestions depends on the editor that opens the file, so test one.
Yes, Google Takeout creates an archive of the data from the Google products you choose. Google's help page says you select the products, then request the download. Large accounts can take a while, so request it well ahead of a cutover date.
Yes, anyone with a Google Account can create in Docs, per Google's FAQ. Features like joining a Meet call from a document are only available on Workspace plans. Leaving a paid plan therefore does not remove the editor, but business storage and admin controls go.
Google's Drive help says a document can hold up to 1.02 million characters, and a text file converted to Docs format can be up to 50 MB. Long manuscripts that exceed this are usually split before import, which is another reason to test the largest files first.
Google Docs offline needs Chrome or Edge and the Google Docs Offline extension. Desktop suites such as LibreOffice, SoftMaker Office and Microsoft 365 apps work without a browser. If offline matters, confirm it in the replacement, as web-only editors differ.
No, a Docs link points to a file in Google Drive and is of no use once the file is deleted or moved out. Keep the originals readable for a notice period and send the new location to people who relied on the old link.
Every price, plan limit and product statement about Google Docs here was read on the vendors' own pages on October 28, 2026. Either can change at any time, so read the figures as of that day.
Sebastiaan Smits, Founder, wrote, edited and fact-checked this page.
Founder of The Interregnum and of 2 Steps Ahead, an AI search visibility agency. Editorially responsible for every page here; research and drafting are AI-assisted. Last reviewed October 28, 2026.
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