After years of avoiding Microsoft’s subscription for its office and productivity apps, in 2025 I finally decided to pay for Microsoft 365.
In the months following the upgrade, I regretted subscribing. So, when the time came to renew, I decided to cancel my subscription instead and replace the software suite with free, open-source solutions.
It has been a few months since making the switch, and I’m starting to wonder why I subscribed in the first place. Thanks to LibreOffice, I don’t miss much.
4 reasons why I’m not renewing my Microsoft 365 subscription
It’s time to stop giving Microsoft money
My Microsoft 365 subscription was extremely underutilized
The few perks weren’t worth the price
My main reason for subscribing to Microsoft 365 was to access a newer version of Excel, since the last version I had used was from 2013. However, while I got to play around with Python in Excel and appreciated the ability to set my sheets to dark mode, I didn’t find much use for it through the year.
I mainly use spreadsheets when filing my taxes and tracking certain expenses. But it didn’t feel like I gained much from using a paid version of the software. When I did try to streamline my tax filing by using Copilot to sort certain data, the AI tool wasn’t useful at all. I ended up using AI tools like Claude to examine any transactions I may have missed instead.
The only other app I really used was Word. But most of the time, I just fill out forms and view the occasional document. Most of my writing takes place in my note-taking apps or the CMS of the site I’m writing for. So there wasn’t anything in Word that really justified paying for an entire office suite.
The other apps included in Microsoft 365 went untouched during my entire subscription. I also didn’t bother using my 1TB of cloud storage, since I back up my most important files on my NAS.
Overall, I was paying for an entire office suite and cloud storage when I only occasionally used two apps. Even Copilot, one of the selling points of Microsoft’s subscription, remained mostly unused.
LibreOffice has easily filled the gap
It has all the features I need
After my Microsoft 365 subscription ended, I decided that I wanted to switch to an open-source solution. I ended up choosing LibreOffice, mainly due to its ease of use and compatibility with the file types I needed to use.
LibreOffice Calc acts as my Excel replacement. For me, the most important feature is the ability to filter data in tables, which makes it easier for me to sort through large lists of transactions. I also have access to all the formulas that I need for my taxes.
I use LibreOffice Writer as my Word replacement. There are a few differences between the two apps, but not enough to make me miss Word. For the simple word processing and formatting I need to do, Writer does the job well enough.
The main thing I missed when switching over is a consistent dark theme. While I set my view to render the document background as black and the text as white, LibreOffice’s apps can be inconsistent. Sometimes the text is still dark, which makes it difficult to read. However, it’s a quirk I’m willing to put up with.
LibreOffice also includes the presentation app Impress, the graphics app Draw, the databases app Base, and the formula editing app Math. I haven’t really used these since they don’t fit into my workflow. But the big difference is that, because the office suite is free, I don’t feel like I’m wasting money by not using all the included apps.
For online documents, there’s Proton Drive
I hope to fully utilize it one day
One drawback of LibreOffice is that it doesn’t have a hosted version that you can access online. For documents, I want to be able to access through the cloud, I’ve been using Proton Drive.
The free plan of Proton Drive has limited storage available, but it’s enough for the few documents I want to make accessible. I also appreciate Proton’s commitment to privacy, which is why I have been transitioning as much as I can to it to reduce my reliance on Google.
Proton’s apps are all open-source, which is another factor that puts it in my favor. However, Proton Sheets doesn’t have a dark mode available, and doesn’t react appropriately to my browser’s dark mode flags. As a result, I haven’t moved to Proton’s solutions as my primary office software. Since I have chronic migraines, dark mode is not something I can compromise on.
Overall, open-source tools were able to easily fill the gap left behind when my Microsoft 365 subscription expired.
7 features in LibreOffice that might make you switch from Microsoft Office
LibreOffice goodies that will make you rethink Microsoft Office
My Microsoft 365 subscription showed me that I didn’t need it
I subscribed to Microsoft 365 for work, but quickly realized that my workflow didn’t really justify the cost. Even when I tried to give Copilot a chance, the chatbot didn’t prove useful even with access to my files. The apps would also occasionally log me out of my account, adding more friction to the process of opening and viewing documents.
Now that I’ve been relying on LibreOffice for the past few months instead, I really don’t miss my subscription at all.
- Individual pricing
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Free
- Platforms
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Windows, macOS, Linux
LibreOffice is one of the most complete Microsoft Office alternatives, and it’s entirely free and open-source. It gives you various different tools for various use cases, including Math and Draw tools for advanced users.
