Why I Stick with Microsoft 365 Despite the Rise of Open-Source Alternatives

Published May 1, 2026, 8:00 AM EDT

Tony Phillips is an experienced Microsoft Office user with a dual-honors degree in Linguistics and Hispanic Studies. Prior to starting with How-to Geek in January 2024, he worked as a document producer, data manager, and content creator for over ten years, and loves making spreadsheets and documents in his spare time.

Tony is also an academic proofreader, experienced in reading, editing, and formatting over 3 million words of personal statements, resumes, reference letters, research proposals, and dissertations. Before joining How-To Geek, Tony formatted and wrote documents for legal firms, including contracts, Wills, and Powers of Attorney.

Tony is obsessed with Microsoft Office! He will find any reason to create a spreadsheet, exploring ways to add complex formulas and discover new ways to make data tick. He also takes pride in producing Word documents that look the part. He has worked as a data manager in a secondary school in the UK and has years of experience in the classroom with Microsoft PowerPoint. He loves to encounter problems in Microsoft Office and use his expertise and legal-level training to find solutions.

Outside of the Microsoft world, Tony is a keen dog owner and lover, football fan, astrophotographer, gardener, and golfer.

The "open-source is better" argument for everyday users is usually convincing on paper: free software, full control, no subscriptions. But I've spent long enough in both worlds to know that what looks simple in theory often behaves very differently in practice. There's a gap between how these tools are described and how they feel day to day, and that's why I still choose Microsoft 365.

Subscription value goes beyond the simple price tag

The ecosystem is the real product

The "Microsoft 365 vs. open-source" debate usually centers on price. Critics argue that you shouldn't pay for a subscription when you can get the same functionality for free with LibreOffice or similar open-source office suites like Apache OpenOffice. In some contexts, that's fair. If all you do is type a grocery list once a week, a fee can feel unnecessary.

Let's take LibreOffice as an example. It covers the basics: Writer handles long-form documents, Calc covers structured spreadsheets with pivot tables and formula-based analysis, and Impress handles transitions and basic animation tools for presentations.

But treating Microsoft 365 as just a bundle of apps misses the point. The real product is the ecosystem. Most of us move between devices constantly, so a unified environment quickly becomes essential. Your recent files, preferences, and even small details like custom dictionaries follow you wherever you go.

I've had this play out in real use more than once. I'll start a document on a desktop PC, then open it later on my phone and find it exactly where I left off, fully synced, without thinking where the file lives. With many self-hosted open-source setups, even when sync works, there's sometimes a moment where I have to consider which machine has the latest version. Microsoft 365 removes that mental load.

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Avoid falling into the trap of "good enough" software

Everyday use often requires professional features

A common argument for open-source tools is that they're "good enough" for everyday tasks. And often, they are—until they aren't. Small projects have a habit of growing. A simple document turns into a formatted report, and a basic spreadsheet becomes something that needs to track patterns or clean up messy data.

LibreOffice Writer handles standard formatting well, but more complex documents can sometimes behave differently across systems—margins shifting or layout inconsistencies depending on where the file is opened. None of it is catastrophic, but it introduces extra overhead when you just want consistency.

With Microsoft 365, those capabilities are already there. You may not need them often, but when you do, you're not scrambling to find workarounds. Whether it's running a mail merge for a local group or cleaning up a bank report, having those tools available without extra setup saves hours of frustration.

Power Query and dynamic arrays change the game

If there's one app that justifies the subscription on its own, it's Microsoft Excel. The gap between Excel and open-source alternatives has shifted again in recent years, thanks to features like dynamic arrays, which simplify tasks that used to require complex, fragile formulas.

Then there's Power Query, which automates the process of importing, cleaning, and transforming data. What would normally take copy-pasting and manual cleanup becomes a repeatable process: set it up once, then just refresh it when new data arrives. Open-source spreadsheets often rely on macros or external scripts for anything approaching that level of automation.

Microsoft 365 Personal

Microsoft 365 includes access to Office apps like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint on up to five devices, 1 TB of OneDrive storage, and more.

Evaluating Microsoft 365's privacy trade-offs

Telemetry, trust, and what you're actually agreeing to

Privacy is the biggest and most valid criticism of Microsoft 365. For many, the issue isn't data collection—it's trust. You're relying on a closed-source system run by a single company, and that alone can be enough to opt out.

Microsoft does collect telemetry data, but that's mostly in the form of diagnostics and usage data like crash reports, performance metrics, and feature interaction patterns—not the contents of your documents. Microsoft outlines this in its Trust Center, which explains how different types of data are handled across its services.

That still doesn't address the core concern: you don't control the code, the infrastructure, or the long-term direction of the platform.

Alternatives exist depending on how far you want to go. A perpetual Microsoft Office 2024 license reduces cloud reliance and ongoing telemetry exposure, but it means fewer updates and weaker cross-device integration. Open-source suites offer full transparency and local control, but shift responsibility for syncing, backups, and consistency entirely onto the user.

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For me, this becomes a trade-off rather than a deal-breaker. The convenience, integration, and reliability of Microsoft 365 outweigh the privacy concerns. At the same time, that's a personal threshold, not a universal one. The right choice depends on where you draw the line between control and convenience.

Cloud integration allows for syncing without the usual struggle

Collaboration that actually works in real time

Collaboration is no longer just for workplaces. Whether you're planning a trip or co-editing schoolwork, real-time editing matters. Microsoft 365 handles this seamlessly—you share a file, and multiple people can work on it instantly without worrying about versions.

Open-source solutions have improved, particularly with tools like Nextcloud and Collabora Online, but they still feel inconsistent depending on setup. Conflicts, duplicate files, or sync delays can still happen.

I've seen this in shared folders where one person edits a locally cached file while another is working from a synced copy, and the differences only surface later as conflicting versions. With Microsoft 365, collaboration is built in—and more importantly, it's reliable.

Retraining and workflow rebuilds are expensive

Free software isn't truly free if it costs you time. Switching tools means relearning workflows and rebuilding habits. If you've spent years using Word or Excel, moving to LibreOffice or another suite is a real adjustment.

Even small differences—menu layouts, formatting behavior, keyboard shortcuts, or print output quirks—add up. LibreOffice does a solid job covering core Office-style workflows, but it isn't identical, and those differences become noticeable when you use it regularly. For me, the $9.99 monthly fee for Microsoft 365 Personal is less about features and more about avoiding that friction. It's a predictable, stable environment that works with the systems I already use.

Ecosystem lock-in can be a functional benefit

Deep integration beats unnecessary complexity

Microsoft is often criticized for locking users into its ecosystem, but in practice, that "lock-in" often translates to convenience. The tools work together without effort—notes sync across devices, calendars integrate with documents, and files move seamlessly between apps.

Yes, open-source ecosystems can approximate this with tools like Nextcloud and various plugins, but they usually require more configuration and ongoing maintenance. For users who enjoy tinkering, that flexibility is a feature. But for everyone else, it's overhead. When everything works together reliably, the experience feels less like a restriction and more like a service.

Microsoft 365 still wins for me

Open-source tools are capable, but they still introduce friction in everyday use that I'd rather avoid. Microsoft 365 isn't perfect, but it removes just enough of those rough edges that I don't have to think about the software—only the work. For me, that's where the trade-off becomes unavoidable.