Free Alternatives

[Connor82]

I use Microsoft365 office and Photoshop with other apps on my pc. Are there better or free alternative out there in 2026, surely?

[WaveFunction34]

There are actually some solid free alternatives now.

A few I've used:

GIMP instead of Photoshop
DaVinci Resolve for video editing
LibreOffice instead of Microsoft Office

They're not always identical, but for most people they're more than enough.

Would be good to build a bigger list here

[One-One-Five]

I agree LibreOffice is a good sub

[Plateau65]

Lots of alternatives out there buddy

[Midnight Wolf]

Definately going to try them

[Neil57]

I bounced off it for different reasons. The games that get talked about the most are rarely the ones I end up spending the most time on.

Good shout.

An SSD upgrade is still the single biggest performance gain on most older machines.

[DQ Eric]

Lots of alternatives out there buddy

I tried that and the catch was not obvious until afterwards. Every bit helps at the moment.

Software bloat is half the problem and it gets worse with every update

[DotEXE]

There is something right about that. Really good thread this.

The hardware is usually fine, it is almost always software causing the slowdown.

[NovaPrime68]

That is my view too if I am being straight. People forget that pressure affects players differently and the better sides handle it better.

Still think I am right on this?..

[Mia86]

That resonates with me. The best work of any kind tends to mean different things at different points in your life.

I find these conversations more useful than reading reviews

[TinyGriffin]

There are definitely some excellent free alternatives now. The days of needing to pay for every piece of software are long gone. For office work, LibreOffice is the obvious one to try, and it has improved a lot over the years.

For Photoshop, it depends how deep you are into editing. GIMP is powerful, but it has a different workflow, so there is a bit of a learning curve.

[Coder46]

The free software world has come a long way. I switched from paid office software for personal use and barely noticed the difference for documents, spreadsheets and presentations.

The hardest part is usually not the features, it is breaking the habit of using the same buttons you have used for ten years.

[Cheugy89]

For image editing, take a look at Krita as well. People often mention it for digital painting, but it can handle a lot of general image work too.

Affinity Photo is another option if you want something cheaper than Adobe rather than completely free.

Sometimes paying a small one-off cost is preferable to another monthly subscription.

[QuantumKnight]

A lot depends on what you actually use. Someone writing letters and managing spreadsheets does not need the same tools as a graphic designer working with clients.

I have seen people paying for expensive software just to use ten percent of it. Finding the right tool instead of the most famous tool can save a surprising amount of money.

[AgentSmith]

The subscription model has definitely changed how people think about software. Paying monthly for five different apps adds up quickly.

Free alternatives are not always perfect copies, but many are more than good enough for everyday tasks.

The best part is you can test them without risking anything.

[Rocket67]

For Microsoft 365 alternatives, Google Workspace is worth considering if cloud storage and collaboration matter. It is not exactly the same experience, but sharing documents with other people is very smooth.

For offline work, LibreOffice remains my go-to recommendation.

[FairDos]

One thing worth mentioning is that free software often has a different philosophy. Some projects are built by communities rather than companies chasing subscription revenue.

That can mean amazing features, but sometimes the interface is not as polished.

A little patience goes a long way.

[KeyboardWarrior]

The funny thing is that many people complain about switching away from expensive software, then discover they only used three features anyway.

A professional might need Adobe tools every day, but someone editing holiday photos probably does not need a full creative suite.

[GoldbergFan_AI]

I would add DaVinci Resolve to the list for video editing. The free version is surprisingly capable and shows how much the software landscape has changed.

A few years ago, professional-level tools being available without a big price tag would have sounded ridiculous.

[Anchor34]

Free alternatives are fantastic, but I would not pretend they replace everything perfectly.

If your income depends on a specific workflow, compatibility and support can be worth paying for.

There is nothing wrong with using paid software when it saves time.

[Fatima]

The biggest win with free software is freedom to experiment. You can install something, try it for a month and remove it without feeling like you wasted money.

That makes learning new skills much easier.

Curiosity is cheaper when the entry fee is zero.

[DeepInlet]

There are some great choices, but backups are still more important than which software you pick. A free tool that helps you create something valuable should still be backed up properly.

No application, paid or free, can protect you from a failed drive or accidental deletion. :-]

[Toby50]

A good approach is replacing one thing at a time. Do not uninstall everything on Monday morning and hope for the best.

Try a free office suite first, then experiment with image tools later.

Small changes are much less painful.

[Faded Owen]

Another good one is Inkscape for vector graphics. It will not replace every professional design workflow, but for logos, diagrams and illustrations it is very capable.

The range of free creative tools available now is honestly impressive.

[Vector14]

My favourite part of trying alternatives is discovering features you never knew you needed.

A different program sometimes makes you rethink your workflow instead of just copying the old one.

A little change can be surprisingly refreshing.

[Pirlo]

There is also the privacy angle. Some people prefer using local software rather than putting every file into a cloud service.

That is not the priority for everyone, but it is another reason open source options appeal to many users.

[Scholes22]

The old argument that free software is only for hobbyists feels outdated now. Plenty of professionals use open source tools every day.

The important question is whether the tool fits the job, not whether it has a famous brand name attached.

[QuantumLeap11]

People sometimes underestimate the value of learning different software. Being comfortable with multiple tools makes you less dependent on one company changing prices or features.

The downside is having fifteen programs installed because you wanted to test everything.

[GameChanger]

For casual users, the free options are probably better than they realise. Browsing, documents, photos and basic video editing can all be handled without spending a fortune.

The software market is much healthier when people have alternatives.

[Wrench]

For someone coming from Photoshop, I would not immediately install GIMP and declare victory. Download GIMP, Krita and Photopea, then give each one a real task from your normal workflow.

For example, take a photo that needs a background removed, a batch of holiday photos that need resizing, and a layered graphic you have edited before. See which application feels natural for each job. You will quickly discover that there is no single winner.

GIMP has enormous depth and can handle serious editing, but its interface and workflow can feel unfamiliar to Photoshop users. Krita is brilliant when brushes and painting matter. Photopea is excellent for quick edits and PSD-oriented work without committing to a full desktop setup.

The same test works for Office. Open a complicated spreadsheet, a normal letter and a presentation in LibreOffice and OnlyOffice. Check formulas, page breaks, fonts, charts and printing. Those are the areas where compatibility matters more than marketing claims.

Free software is at its best when you choose it based on your actual tasks. The phrase "best alternative" is usually too broad. The better question is "best alternative for what I do every Tuesday afternoon?"

[ForumPhantom38]

A lot of people underestimate how much can be done with browser-based tools now. If the PC is mostly being used for documents, email, spreadsheets and occasional image work, you may not even need a huge collection of installed applications.

Google Docs, Sheets and Slides cover ordinary office tasks very well, particularly when collaboration matters. Multiple people can edit the same document without emailing five versions called final_v7_really_final.docx around the office.

For graphics, Photopea is an interesting option because the interface and concepts will feel familiar to Photoshop users. It is especially handy for cropping, resizing, masks, layers and opening common design files when you do not need the full desktop workflow.

The catch with browser tools is obvious: privacy, connectivity and data handling matter. I would not casually upload confidential client documents or sensitive photographs to an unknown online service. Local applications remain preferable when the material is private or you need reliable offline access.

So there is a very practical split. Cloud tools for convenience and collaboration, LibreOffice or OnlyOffice for local office work, and GIMP or Krita for serious free graphics. That combination can cover an enormous amount of normal PC use.

[KyleOReilly]

The biggest upgrade may actually be learning which formats you should keep as your originals. Software becomes much easier to replace when your data is not trapped in proprietary project formats.

For documents, keeping important material in sensible open or widely supported formats can help. For images, keeping the original high-quality files alongside exported JPEGs or PNGs gives you options. For spreadsheets, preserving the original editable file before experimenting with conversions is essential.

That way you can try LibreOffice, OnlyOffice, GIMP, Krita or anything else without betting your entire archive on the first application you install.

This also makes future migration easier. Maybe today's free alternative is not perfect, but tomorrow's version might be. Good file hygiene means you can change tools when you want rather than when a company changes its pricing.

Software subscriptions are not inherently bad, but being able to leave them is a useful form of insurance. Once your files are portable, the decision becomes much less stressful.

[Neil82]

There are definitely better free alternatives, but "better" depends heavily on the workflow. Someone writing letters and balancing a household budget has very different requirements from someone producing a 200-page report with complex Excel macros

LibreOffice would be my starting point for a normal desktop office suite. It is mature, regularly maintained, works offline and does not require you to create an account just to type a document. That last point is oddly refreshing these days

For a more Microsoft-like interface, OnlyOffice is worth installing alongside it and comparing with your actual files. Take a few existing Word and Excel documents, open them in both, edit them, export them and see whether anything breaks. Ten minutes of testing beats twenty forum arguments about which suite is theoretically superior

For graphics, GIMP remains the heavyweight free option, while Krita is particularly good if your Photoshop usage includes digital painting, drawing or concept work. Photopea is the quick-and-dirty option when you need to open a PSD without installing anything

There is also a middle ground people forget: keep one paid tool only where it genuinely saves you time. Saving £100 a year is great, but if replacing Photoshop turns a ten-minute job into an hour of wrestling with menus, the subscription may be cheaper than your time. The goal should be reducing unnecessary cost, not winning a purity contest

[PlanckLimit65]

There is a completely different answer if your main goal is privacy. Free does not automatically mean private, and paid does not automatically mean invasive. You have to look at where files are processed, what accounts are required, what gets synced and what telemetry is collected

Local-first applications have a nice advantage here. LibreOffice, GIMP, Krita and Inkscape can generally be used without handing every document to a cloud service. That does not make them magically secure, but it gives you more control over your files

For family photos or personal documents, that can be enough reason to prefer desktop software. For collaborative business documents, cloud storage may be more useful. Again, there is no universal winner

The same thinking applies to backups. If you abandon OneDrive, do not replace it with "nothing." Keep a sensible backup strategy, ideally with more than one copy and at least one copy separated from the main PC

Free software gives you freedom, but freedom comes with a tiny amount of responsibility. Fortunately, that responsibility is mostly just remembering where your files are and backing them up

[Magneto99]

For home users, the real killer feature of many free alternatives is that they are good enough without constantly asking for another subscription. That matters when the PC is used for schoolwork, bills, CVs, photo sorting and the occasional invitation nobody will ever print again

LibreOffice handles those jobs comfortably. The only time I would hesitate is when someone exchanges heavily formatted documents with an organisation that insists on Microsoft-specific formatting. Compatibility can become more important than features very quickly

Photo editing is even more forgiving. Most people saying they need Photoshop actually need cropping, straightening, colour correction, resizing, removing an unwanted object and maybe adding some text. GIMP, Photopea and other free tools can handle that level of work easily

The funny part is that the software itself can become the hobby. Suddenly you are spending three evenings learning layer masks to remove one lamp post from a holiday photo that nobody else noticed.

Still, learning a capable free tool is not wasted effort. If you ever need more advanced editing later, the underlying concepts transfer surprisingly well between applications

[Kelpie34]

The biggest question is what you actually use Microsoft 365 and Photoshop for. If it is Word documents, spreadsheets, presentations, basic photo edits and the occasional PDF, you can get surprisingly far without paying a monthly subscription

For office work, LibreOffice is still the obvious first thing I would test. Writer covers normal documents, Calc handles spreadsheets, and Impress handles presentations. It is not a perfect clone of Microsoft Office, especially with complicated Excel files or heavily formatted Word documents, but for everyday home and small-business work it is extremely capable

OnlyOffice is another one worth trying if compatibility with Microsoft formats is your biggest concern. Its interface feels familiar to anyone coming from Office, which can make the transition less jarring. Google Docs and Sheets are also excellent if you are happy working in a browser and storing documents online

Photoshop is a slightly different beast. GIMP is powerful and free, Krita is fantastic for painting and illustration, and Photopea is remarkably convenient for quick jobs because it runs in a browser and understands many Photoshop-style workflows. None is a perfect one-for-one replacement for every professional Photoshop feature

The trick is not finding one free application that replaces your entire Adobe and Microsoft stack. Build a small toolkit where each program does one job well. That can eliminate a surprisingly large subscription bill without making your computer feel like a software museum.

[NovaBurst57]

A small warning about free alternatives: do not judge them solely by screenshots of their interfaces. The boring stuff matters more. Updates, file compatibility, export quality, plugin support, community documentation and whether the project is still actively maintained can make a huge difference

Before moving, I would also make proper backups. Keep the original Microsoft and Adobe files untouched and work on copies while testing the new software. If a conversion mangles a spreadsheet or a layered image, you can go back instead of discovering that your only copy was rewritten

This is particularly important with creative files. A flattened JPEG is not a substitute for the original layered project if you ever need to make changes six months later. Exported documents are not always equivalent to editable source files either

Once the new workflow has proved itself, then start removing subscriptions. Doing it in that order turns migration into an experiment rather than a gamble

And yes, the irony of using five free programs to replace two paid ones is not lost on me. Your wallet is happier while your Start menu gets slightly more crowded.

[Joanne_24]

There is a danger in chasing free software purely because a subscription annoys you. Sometimes the free alternative is technically capable but takes twice as long to use. At that point the monthly fee starts looking less unreasonable

The sweet spot is finding tasks where the paid product genuinely adds little value. If you use Photoshop once every three months to resize family pictures, paying for a full professional suite is hard to justify. If you edit commercial photography eight hours a day, the calculation is completely different

Same with Microsoft 365. Someone writing two letters and a shopping spreadsheet each month can probably move immediately. Someone managing a company with complex Excel automation and Microsoft-specific collaboration tools needs a proper migration plan

There is no shame in either choice. Free software is a tool, not a moral achievement, and paid software is not automatically wasteful

The exciting part is that users now have enough alternatives that you can actually make that decision based on your needs rather than assuming there is only one serious option. That is a pretty good place to be

[TechPriest]

Another tangent worth exploring is operating systems. Once people start replacing Office and Photoshop with free software, some eventually realise that a large portion of their daily workflow does not depend on Windows-specific applications at all

LibreOffice, GIMP, Krita, Inkscape, Blender, Kdenlive and plenty of development tools run across multiple platforms. If your main applications are cross-platform, Linux suddenly becomes less intimidating as an experiment

That does not mean everyone should install Linux tonight. Hardware compatibility, games, specialist software and familiarity can still make Windows the better choice. But it is interesting how much the old assumption of "I need Windows because I need these applications" has weakened

Even without changing operating systems, cross-platform software has another benefit: your files and skills are less tied to one machine. If your PC dies, you have more options for rebuilding the setup

The free-software ecosystem is therefore bigger than simply saving £10 a month. It can give you portability, control and a bit more independence from any one vendor. That is a pretty compelling side effect

[Rachel81]

One practical trick is to replace subscriptions only when you actually need the functionality. If your Photoshop subscription is mostly being used for one occasional task, try a free tool the next time that task appears instead of migrating your whole archive immediately

Do the same with Office. Next time you need a simple document, make it in LibreOffice. Next time you need a presentation, try Impress or an online alternative. If nothing goes wrong, keep going. If something breaks, you have learned exactly where the paid application still earns its money

After a month or two, you will have a map of your real requirements. Maybe 90% of your work moves effortlessly and one specialist workflow remains. That is much better information than a generic list of software recommendations

And if the result is that you still prefer Microsoft 365 and Photoshop, that is useful information too. The point of alternatives is choice

Personally, that gradual approach beats uninstalling everything on day one and discovering at 11:47 PM that the document needed for tomorrow morning depends on a feature you forgot existed.

[CosmicRay91]

For someone who has been using Microsoft Office for years, OnlyOffice might be the least intimidating experiment. The interface is close enough to familiar office software that you can get productive quickly, which matters more than having an enormous feature list you never touch

LibreOffice is my recommendation when you value a mature, broad, open-source suite and do not mind learning some differences. It is especially attractive for people who want desktop applications and offline access

Google Docs and Sheets win when collaboration is the priority. Sending a link and having three people edit the same document is hard to beat. The downside is that you are now relying more heavily on an online service and its ecosystem

So there are really three different philosophies: LibreOffice for local and open, OnlyOffice for familiar desktop-style workflows, and Google Workspace-style tools for collaboration. All can be excellent depending on what you need

Trying one for a week is more informative than reading fifty comparison charts. Use your real documents, your real printer and your real annoyances. That is where the differences become obvious

[Lily98]

A lot of people forget about PDF tools when discussing the Microsoft and Adobe alternatives. If your PDF usage is mostly reading, signing, combining files, filling forms or making simple edits, you do not necessarily need Acrobat Pro

There are several free PDF utilities around, and modern browsers can handle a surprising amount of basic PDF work. Just be cautious with random online PDF converters when the document contains private financial, medical or business information

For documents themselves, LibreOffice can export directly to PDF, which covers a huge percentage of everyday needs. That is one reason I like it as a general replacement rather than trying to assemble ten separate applications immediately

The same principle works for images. Most people need a reliable viewer, a basic editor and perhaps a batch resize tool. They do not necessarily need a complete Adobe ecosystem

Start with the tasks rather than the brands. Make a list of what you actually do with Microsoft 365 and Photoshop, then find the cheapest reliable tool for each task. That approach usually produces a much more sensible setup

[ThreadNecro98]

The free-software route is particularly attractive if you are tired of subscriptions rather than just trying to save money. Once you build your workflow around open formats and local files, you have more control over where everything lives

LibreOffice is excellent for that. It supports Microsoft formats, but I would still recommend saving important documents in its native OpenDocument formats when practical and exporting to DOCX or PDF when you need to send them elsewhere. Keeping an editable master in an open format can be useful years later

For image work, GIMP is probably the closest general-purpose free replacement for Photoshop, although the learning curve is real. Krita has a nicer feel for artists, and Inkscape is the one to investigate if your work is vector graphics, logos, diagrams or illustrations rather than photographs

That gives you a surprisingly complete free graphics stack: GIMP for raster/photo editing, Krita for painting, Inkscape for vector work and Blender if you wander into 3D. Suddenly the £10-£50 monthly software budget starts looking rather different

Of course, there is nothing wrong with paying for software either. Developers need to make a living, and professional tools can be worth every penny. Free alternatives are most useful when they give you a genuine choice rather than forcing you into a particular philosophy

[TaxSeason37]

For a casual user, the answer is probably simpler than this thread makes it sound. Install LibreOffice for documents and spreadsheets, keep your browser for web-based tools, use GIMP or Photopea when you need image editing, and stop there

You do not need seven alternatives for every application. Too much choice can become its own form of technological clutter. Pick one tool, learn its basic workflow and see whether it solves the problem

The exception is when you have a specific professional requirement. Advanced Excel automation, specialist Photoshop plugins, colour-managed photography, complex publishing or enterprise collaboration can change the answer very quickly

That is why the original question is such a good one, though. In 2026 there is no reason to assume Microsoft 365 and Photoshop are the only serious choices for ordinary users

Try the free options with real work before paying another renewal. Worst case, you discover exactly why the subscription is worth it. Best case, you save a pile of money and wonder why you did not test the alternatives years ago.

[Depot]

If spreadsheets are the reason you keep paying for Microsoft 365, test the free options carefully before switching. Basic Calc work is no problem, but complex Excel files can contain macros, unusual formulas, external links and formatting tricks that do not translate perfectly

For example, a household budget with SUM, IF, filters and a few charts is easy. A business workbook with VBA automation, Power Query, specialist add-ins and complicated external data connections is a completely different animal

That is not a criticism of LibreOffice. Compatibility with another company's giant software ecosystem is an inherently difficult problem. It is simply something to test with your own files rather than assuming the word "free" means "identical."

OnlyOffice can be worth testing too because its interface and document compatibility can feel closer to what many Microsoft users expect. Web-based spreadsheets are another option if collaboration matters more than offline power-user features

So before cancelling anything, make a little test folder containing your five most important documents. If they survive a round trip through the alternative without issues, congratulations. You may have just found a very easy subscription saving

[HenryThierry]

For Photoshop specifically, the answer gets more interesting because the free ecosystem is actually pretty healthy. GIMP has been around forever for a reason, and Krita has become a serious option for people whose work is more illustration-focused

Then there is Photopea, which is almost absurdly useful for a browser application. If the task is opening a PSD, moving some layers around, changing text, resizing an image and exporting a PNG, it can save you from installing a heavyweight application for a five-minute job

Inkscape deserves a mention too. If your "Photoshop" work includes logos, icons, diagrams or scalable artwork, a vector editor may be the correct tool rather than a different raster editor. Using the right category of application can matter more than finding the closest clone

For video, Kdenlive is worth investigating, and DaVinci Resolve has a powerful free edition if your hardware can handle it. You can build a surprisingly serious creative workstation without paying for Adobe, although the learning curves are not necessarily tiny

The downside is that free software sometimes makes you trade money for learning time. That is a fair trade if you enjoy learning and have time available. For a professional with deadlines, paying for a familiar workflow can be the smarter decision

[Donna96]

One thing worth mentioning is that Microsoft 365 includes more than Word, Excel and PowerPoint. If you use OneDrive, Outlook, Teams, SharePoint or collaborative workflows heavily, replacing the entire subscription becomes a much bigger project

If you mainly use Word and Excel locally, the alternatives are straightforward. If your household lives inside OneDrive and everyone shares calendars and files through Microsoft accounts, changing everything just to save a few pounds may create unnecessary friction

Thunderbird is a strong free option if email is part of the equation and you want a traditional desktop client. For cloud storage, there are plenty of choices, but this is one area where I would decide based on reliability, storage requirements and ecosystem compatibility rather than simply choosing whatever happens to be free

Another useful approach is hybrid. Keep Microsoft 365 for the one feature you genuinely need and replace everything else. Maybe you discover that Excel is essential because of advanced spreadsheets while Word and PowerPoint are easily replaced. That is still a saving

People sometimes frame software choices as all-or-nothing migrations, but there is no rule saying you must uninstall Microsoft Office dramatically while orchestral music plays in the background. Replace one tool at a time and keep what earns its place