Compatibility and portability
Can the suite cope with standard office files?
To test the word processor modules, we moved the text of this article between the word processor modules of the suites in .docx format, and we encountered no major problems. LibreOffice, OnlyOffice and WPS Office imported some example Excel spreadsheets perfectly. Calligra and FreeOffice imported them, but both showed errors on some of the formulas.
When it came to testing the presentation module with some PowerPoint files, none of the suites performed perfectly, but WPS Office gave the most accurate renderings overall. LibreOffice did a reasonable job, but some multi-coloured text was mono-coloured. OnlyOffice did a relatively poor job and didn’t load the images at all in one case. Calligra can only load actual presentation files and couldn’t load template files at all, and in addition, the rendering typically looked nothing like it should. FreeOffice had the same limitation with file types, but the actual rendering was fairly good.
All of the suites can operate on local files, so file portability can be achieved through file synchronisation services that you already have set up such as Dropbox. Beyond that, it’s a baked-in part of the design of OnlyOffice that it works in the cloud, because it’s a JavaScript application. You can sign up for an OnlyOffice account and pay a subscription or – and this bit we particularly liked – you can host your own server on your own computer and access it remotely as everything’s open source. WPS Office also offers a web-served online version of the suite, but it’s not the same as the desktop version, and at time of writing, it’s still in beta.
OnlyOffice and WPS Office offer paid-for cloud storage that directly integrates into their suites. However, OnlyOffice also offers the option of interfacing with OwnCloud and NextCloud. WPS Office, FreeOffice and OnlyOffice offer Android and iPhone apps. Collaboration and sharing are the weakest areas of LibreOffice and Calligra, with no official app and no collaboration features built-in.