10 Microsoft Office Alternatives for Peripatetic iPad Users

By Don Reisinger

Apple’s iWork suite is a must-have for someone who wants to create and edit Office documents but doesn’t want to go with Microsoft’s alternative. Apple’s productivity suite includes a Word alternative in Pages, an Excel competitor in Numbers and more. The iWork suite is available for free when customers pick up a new iOS-based device.

Documents Unlimited Suite is one of the most popular Office alternatives on the iPad. The app, which costs $4.99 for a limited time (it usually costs $19.99), comes with a distinctly Office-like design, allowing users to create and edit everything from Word documents to PowerPoint presentations. The app also integrates with OpenOffice for those in the open-source community who create and edit documents with that suite.

Documents To Go Premium is also a wildly popular Office alternative. The suite has the same ability to create and edit Office documents, and it also supports cloud storage for those who want to share files over the Web. Documents To Go Premium is one of the more expensive apps in this roundup, however, going for $16.99.

OfficeSuite Professional is another popular app, so far tallying 120 million users across the world. The app allows for editing of Word and Excel documents, but only allows users to view PowerPoint and PDFs. All documents can be stored in the cloud or printed from the app. Best of all, it costs just $1.99.

Polaris Office 5, which was updated recently, includes all kinds of features for those who want to edit Office documents. The company claims to have over 500 editing options for Office documents, and it can handle 300 data-analysis inputs. All that means is that the app is capable of performing sophisticated functions Office users would expect. Be aware, though, that the app costs $12.99.

SmartOffice 2’s claim to fame is its ability to easily share documents with others. The $9.99 app allows users to create and edit Office documents and export those to PDF if necessary. It also has full cloud file access through Box, Dropbox and Google Docs and even allows for sharing across a wide array of services. The app is capable of printing to a multitude of printers too, including those from HP, Epson, Canon and Samsung.

Although its name might suggest that there’s no editing with OfficeReader Pro, that’s not the case. In fact, the $4.99 app allows users to view and edit Word and Excel files. It also includes support for PDF annotations. It’s not the most full-featured program in this roundup, but it comes with enough features to justify its price.

QuickOffice, which comes from Google, allows users to both create and edit Office documents, spreadsheets and presentations on their iPads. Unlike most of the other apps in this roundup, QuickOffice is free. Best of all, it works quite well. Consider it a worthy option, given how expensive its competitors are.

iDocs, another free app, comes with the fewest features in this roundup, as it only allows users to edit Word documents and make annotations on PDFs. There are some useful text-formatting features, such as underlining, italicizing and bold, but those seeking high-end features will need to look elsewhere.

Google Drive might seem like an odd inclusion in this roundup, but as soon as Office documents are shared with the cloud-based storage service, users can seamlessly edit them from within the platform. Those documents can then be saved in Google Drive and shared elsewhere. It might not be the best solution for everyone, but for Google fans, it’s a great alternative to Office for iPad.