WPS Office: Alternative to Microsoft Office on Linux

WPS Office is an office suite that is 100% compatible with Microsoft Office. One reason why WPS Office is an alternative to Microsoft Office is that WPS Office can be obtained for free. Isn’t it better to use an alternative rather than using Microsoft Office illegally? And most importantly, WPS can be used on Linux.

Some time ago, I installed Ubuntu and replaced Windows 10. Initially, it was very good with changing the appearance as desired. However, I encountered problems when there were unfinished school assignments. I tried LibreOffice and the impression was quite good, but all my assignments became messy after I saved and opened them the next day, and even worse, my documents had errors starting from page numbers, images, etc. Until I reinstalled the laptop with Deepin OS which is said to have a very good appearance, and there I tried WPS which gave a quite surprising first impression.

I was interested in its appearance which looked more modern and easier to use than LibreOffice which seemed outdated, even though there were latest updates, WPS still looked more pleasing to the eye.

WPS Interface

Document Editing in WPS

Here are some reasons why I prefer WPS:

Can Be Used for Free

Yes, who doesn’t know that Microsoft Office is not free and its price can be said to be expensive. Maybe people prefer Microsoft Office and activate it illegally or pirate it. For me, it’s very unpleasant to use pirated software because I’m creating a program within myself not to use pirated software. WPS Office is free for individuals, but I read some articles that WPS Office will insert watermarks on every page after the 30-day trial period expires.

I read some articles that the latest free version of WPS Office no longer displays watermarks.

Smaller Size

With a size of no more than 300MB, isn’t it better than Microsoft Office which can reach several gigabytes? Because of its small size, it allows our storage space to be more spacious, and it’s also lighter to load. Is it very possible for WPS to be an alternative to Microsoft Office?

Compatible with Microsoft Office

WPS claims their product is 100% compatible with Microsoft Office. I haven’t tried it because my device uses Linux, not Windows. But their words can be trusted.

Multi Platform

WPS Office can be used on various devices, from Windows, Android, iOS, and Linux. This is why I use it. As a Linux user, I cannot use Microsoft Office even though I can use Wine, but I think it’s very complicated and I never bought Microsoft Office, wouldn’t that be the same as pirating it?

Maybe those are the things that made me use it, but of course there are disadvantages to WPS Office, one of which is as follows.

Contains Ads

According to my research from their official website, there is WPS Premium and the WPS Premium feature is no ads, which means for the free version I don’t find it on Linux operating systems. Maybe on Windows, Android, and iOS, ads are inserted.

Maybe that’s the only disadvantage I found from WPS Office, and there are very few features that exist in Microsoft Office that don’t exist in WPS Office. But I think WPS Office is sufficient for individuals.

It turns out that WPS Office for the Linux platform is different from other platform versions. For the Linux version, it’s developed as open source which makes it free to use. But for Windows, Android, and iOS, it’s very different. Hope this helps!