LibreOffice

LibreOffice is a free and open source office suite from The Document Foundation, and its current positioning is unusually pointed: a free and private office suite with no forced AI.

That stance is a deliberate response to where the rest of the category has gone. Every major commercial suite now routes document content through cloud AI services by default, and for organisations handling confidential material the absence of that is a feature rather than a gap. It is also the only suite in this category where the claim can be verified rather than trusted, because the source is public.

The components cover the standard range. Writer handles everything from quick notes to full length books. Calc is a feature rich spreadsheet for analysing data and creating visuals. Base manages databases directly with tables, forms, queries and reports in one place. Math writes formulas through a visual editor or plain text, alongside Impress for presentations and Draw for diagrams.

The project is genuinely community built, with hundreds of contributors worldwide, and translation, documentation and maintenance encouraged in all of the world's languages, which is why LibreOffice reaches languages commercial vendors never localise for. Development is open to new contributors, with The Document Foundation offering an orienting interview before starting. The source is licensed under the Mozilla Public License version 2.0, and the software is free of charge with no licence to buy.