LibreOffice vs ONLYOFFICE vs Microsoft 365 for UAE offices: an honest comparison, Arabic documents included

LibreOffice vs ONLYOFFICE comes down to file format: LibreOffice is a desktop suite built on ODF that converts Microsoft files, while ONLYOFFICE edits .docx, .xlsx and .pptx natively and co-edits in the browser, as Collabora Online does for LibreOffice. Neither editor replaces Microsoft 365's email, Teams and device management. VBA macros, complex layouts and missing Arabic fonts are what break.

Written for UAE offices that work in Arabic and English, this comparison relies on vendor documentation and licence files, and ends with a pilot you can run on your own documents.

LibreOffice vs ONLYOFFICE vs Microsoft 365 at a glance

Four products matter for a business decision: Microsoft 365, LibreOffice on the desktop, ONLYOFFICE Docs in the browser, and Collabora Online, which runs LibreOffice's engine on a server.

LibreOffice offers Windows, macOS and Linux builds on its download page, and Microsoft describes several people editing one file at once in Word for the web.

Licences: free to use is not the same as open source

All three open-source suites can be used inside a company without a licence fee. They differ in what they ask once you modify or host the software, and in who supports it.

• LibreOffice is "made available subject to the terms of the Mozilla Public License v2.0" (LibreOffice licences). The MPL 2.0 FAQ treats use inside an organisation as private, with no obligation. The Document Foundation does not provide technical support itself; it calls LibreOffice great for home and small office users and, for schools, educational and research institutions, and large organisations, "strongly" recommends LibreOffice Enterprise versions from its ecosystem partners (LibreOffice for business).
• ONLYOFFICE Docs Community Edition is AGPLv3; the Enterprise and Developer editions are proprietary (project page). Its licence file adds terms under section 7: keep the notices, label modified versions as based on ONLYOFFICE, show that in the interface, and no trademark rights. Under section 13 of the AGPLv3, if you modify the server and people use it over a network, you must offer them your modified source.
• Collabora Online is "primarily under the MPLv2" (project page). Its free CODE edition is "not recommended for production environments" (CODE); for production, Collabora sells subscriptions with SLAs and signed security updates (Collabora Online).
• Microsoft 365 is a proprietary subscription. Microsoft announced on 4 December 2025 that list prices for its commercial Microsoft 365 suites would change on 1 July 2026, globally, with local market adjustments (pricing update). Ask your reseller for current AED prices rather than converting US list prices.

Is WPS Office open source?

No. Some Arabic search answers list WPS Office as an open-source alternative, but its licence agreement (WPS Software Pte. Ltd., 8 May 2023) says the copy "is only licensed for use and is not sold" and forbids decompiling or reverse engineering it. Whatever it costs, WPS Office is proprietary.

LibreOffice vs ONLYOFFICE: the real difference is the native file format

The native format decides whether your Word and Excel files are converted every time they are opened. Microsoft 365 saves Office Open XML, standardised as ECMA-376 (5th edition, 2021) and ISO/IEC 29500. LibreOffice "loads and saves files in the OpenDocument file format" by default (XML File Formats). ODF is an OASIS standard, also published as ISO/IEC 26300 (OpenDocument TC); OASIS announced the approval of version 1.4 on 3 December 2025 (OASIS).

So LibreOffice imports a .docx into its own model and exports it again on save. Its own guide says more complex Microsoft documents "require some degree of manual reformatting", and lists AutoShapes, revision marks, form fields, tables and frames in Word, and pivot tables, conditional formatting and some formulas in Excel (About Converting Microsoft Office Documents). Collabora Online is built on LibreOffice and follows the same path.

ONLYOFFICE chose DOCX, XLSX and PPTX as its core formats in 2011, and since 2013 has used "native OOXML editing without any intermediate conversion" (ONLYOFFICE, 2026). That removes the conversion step, but it is a vendor statement: test your own files. The problem also runs the other way; Microsoft lists Word features that are only partly kept, or lost, in .odt (Microsoft Support).

If your documents travel as .docx and .xlsx to clients, consultants and government portals, native OOXML editing avoids a conversion on every save. If you are standardising on ODF for your own records, LibreOffice is native and converts only at the boundary.

VBA macros: which suites run Excel macros?

Of the products compared here, only the Microsoft 365 desktop apps run Excel VBA as written. Microsoft itself says "you can't create, run, or edit VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) macros in Excel for the web" (Microsoft Support).

• LibreOffice runs LibreOffice Basic. With VBA support enabled it runs part of Excel VBA: support "is not complete, but it covers a large portion of the common usage patterns", and some code needs editing (Support for VBA Macros).
• ONLYOFFICE macros "use the JavaScript syntax" (macros guide). Since 9.0 its AI plugin can convert VBA to JavaScript, and ONLYOFFICE warns the result is "not always perfect" and must be tested (Converting VBA macros). The plugin can use a local model through Ollama (ONLYOFFICE, 2025), which keeps business logic on a private on-premises model.
• Collabora Online can run Basic and Python macros, and VBA-compatible macros through the LibreOffice engine it is built on, but enable_macros_execution is false by default in its server configuration, so an administrator must switch it on. Collabora adds that the VBA APIs were not designed for collaboration, so VBA is best kept to documents one person edits at a time (Collabora, 2021).

Count your macro files before you compare suites: search the shares for .xlsm, .xlsb, .docm and .dotm, name an owner for each, and decide per file whether it stays on Microsoft 365 desktop, is converted, or is replaced by a proper application.

Arabic documents: right to left, fonts and numerals

All four products handle Arabic right-to-left text; they differ in maturity, and fonts are the bigger practical risk.

• Microsoft 365 supports languages "that require contextual shaping, such as Arabic", with right-to-left menus when Arabic is the display language (Microsoft Support).
• LibreOffice treats Arabic as a complex text layout (CTL) language, with shortcuts to switch text direction (Languages Using Complex Text Layout).
• ONLYOFFICE added bidirectional text in 8.0 (January 2024) as "partially available (however, with some limitations)" (8.0), right-to-left sheets as a beta in 8.2 (8.2), better right-to-left editing, an Arabic spellcheck dictionary and Hindi numerals in 9.0 (9.0), and per-cell text direction in 9.1, October 2025 (9.1).
• Collabora Online has supported right-to-left input "within all modules" since 21.11 and mirrors its interface (Collabora, 2022).

If your templates use Arabic typefaces that ship with Windows, check them first. Microsoft's page for Sakkal Majalla, a core Arabic typeface in Windows, says it is "exclusively included with Microsoft products and services" (Microsoft Learn). Where the font is missing, the suite substitutes another (LibreOffice manages this in its font replacement table). Different letter widths re-wrap the lines, and a table or signature block can move to the next page.

The clean fix is to standardise templates on Arabic fonts with an open licence that any platform can install, such as Noto Arabic or Amiri (both SIL Open Font License 1.1), or to keep templates that need Microsoft fonts on machines licensed for them. Do not copy fonts out of Windows without checking their licence.

Co-editing, hosting and where the files live

Microsoft 365 is a cloud service; the open-source browser suites are servers you run. Microsoft lists the UAE as a data residency geography with data centres in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, and offers data location commitments there for Exchange Online, SharePoint, OneDrive and Teams to tenants whose default country is the UAE (Microsoft 365 data residency).

ONLYOFFICE Docs and Collabora Online run on your server and plug into a file platform such as Nextcloud, ownCloud or Seafile, which holds users, sharing and storage. You choose where the data sits, and you own patching, backups and monitoring. ONLYOFFICE Docs 9.4 (19 May 2026) removed the 20 simultaneous connection limit from the Community version (9.4 release), although its project page still describes Community as "up to 20 recommended" users.

Who controls the code: the Euro-Office fork

On 27 March 2026 IONOS, Nextcloud and other European organisations launched Euro-Office (Nextcloud), which Nextcloud describes as "built on ONLYOFFICE" and distributes under AGPLv3 (Nextcloud, 2026). On 31 March ONLYOFFICE suspended its Nextcloud partnership, calling the project a reuse of its technology (ONLYOFFICE, 2026). ONLYOFFICE updated its licence terms in Docs 9.4 on 19 May 2026 (9.4 release), and Euro-Office's first stable release followed on 9 June 2026 (releases).

The buyer's lesson: name the exact product, edition and version in the contract, keep its licence file, and agree in writing who supplies security updates.

Where Microsoft 365 is still the right tool

Business Premium, for up to 300 users, includes Teams and "Microsoft Intune Plan 1, a comprehensive device management solution" (Microsoft Learn, Business Premium). Roles built around Teams meetings, shared Exchange mailboxes, macro workbooks or files exchanged with Microsoft-based clients stay simpler there.

The desktop apps also set the platform: Microsoft lists Windows 11, Windows Server 2025 or 2022, and the three most recent macOS versions (system requirements). On a Linux desktop that leaves Microsoft 365 in the browser, without VBA. A mixed estate is a valid outcome: Microsoft 365 for the roles that need it, an open-source suite for roles that mostly read, write and print.

How to test a switch with your own documents

1. Pick 20 to 30 real files per department: letterhead, contracts with tracked changes, workbooks with pivot tables, forms sent to government portals. Include Arabic, English and mixed files.
2. List every macro file and template, with an owner.
3. Open and save each file in the candidate suite, then reopen it in Microsoft Word or Excel. Compare page count, line breaks, tables, headers, numbering and digits (Western or Arabic-Indic).
4. Check the fonts your templates name, and replace any that will not be installed.
5. Export the same files to PDF from both suites and compare them.
6. Run a pilot group through at least one month-end before changing the rest of the estate.

How UBM handles it

UBM manages Microsoft 365 tenancy, licensing and identity, and deploys open platforms where they fit better than a licence tier. For an office suite decision we start from roles: we inventory macro files, templates and fonts, then pilot with a real group of users on the organisation's own Arabic and English documents before anything changes for everyone else. Where an open-source editor suits a role, we deploy it on infrastructure the client controls, connect it to the existing directory and file platform, and include it in backups and updates. The scope is on our software solutions page.

UBM is a Microsoft and Adobe partner that also deploys open-source platforms; recommendations are made per role, not per brand. To have your documents and macros assessed before a renewal, talk to a UBM engineer.

Questions people ask

Is LibreOffice fully compatible with Microsoft Office?

Not fully. LibreOffice converts .docx and .xlsx on open and save, and its own help says more complex documents need some manual reformatting. Test text boxes, form fields, tracked changes, pivot tables and macros with your own files.

Is ONLYOFFICE free for business use?

The Community Edition of ONLYOFFICE Docs is free under AGPLv3, and version 9.4 removed its 20 connection limit. Support comes from GitHub and the community forum; the Enterprise Edition, with vendor support, is a paid proprietary licence.

What is the difference between ONLYOFFICE and Collabora Online?

Both are browser editors you host yourself. ONLYOFFICE edits Microsoft formats natively and uses JavaScript for macros; Collabora Online runs the LibreOffice engine, whose native format is ODF, and runs Basic and Python macros once enabled.

Do Excel VBA macros work in LibreOffice or ONLYOFFICE?

Partly in LibreOffice, with VBA support enabled; complex macros need editing. ONLYOFFICE does not run VBA: macros are rewritten in JavaScript, by hand or with its AI plugin, then tested.

Can these suites handle Arabic documents?

Yes, all four support right-to-left Arabic. Most layout problems come from missing fonts, so standardise templates on fonts every machine has, and test mixed Arabic and English pages before you switch.

Sources

• Licenses, LibreOffice for business and Download LibreOffice (The Document Foundation, checked October 2026)
• LibreOffice Help: XML File Formats, About Converting Microsoft Office Documents, Support for VBA Macros, Languages Using Complex Text Layout, Fonts (The Document Foundation, 2026)
• MPL 2.0 FAQ (Mozilla, checked October 2026)
• GNU Affero General Public License, version 3 (Free Software Foundation, 2007)
• ONLYOFFICE Docs project page and licence with additional terms (Ascensio System SIA, 2026)
• ONLYOFFICE Docs release notes: 8.0 (2024), 8.2 (2024), 9.0 (2025), 9.1 (2025), 9.4 (2026)
• The moment we chose compatibility over isolation and Partnership with Nextcloud suspended (ONLYOFFICE, 2026)
• Macros: getting started and Converting VBA macros (ONLYOFFICE API documentation, 2026); How to use Ollama AI models offline in ONLYOFFICE (ONLYOFFICE, 2025)
• Collabora Online Development Edition and Collabora Online (Collabora Productivity, checked October 2026); Collabora Online project page and coolwsd.xml.in (2026)
• Collabora Online 21.11 delivers new features and interoperability improvements (Collabora Productivity, 2022) and CODE 6.4.7 enables Macros and provides Draw online (Collabora Productivity, 2021)
• Industry initiative launches Euro-Office as true sovereign office suite and Euro-Office: license compliance and what open source means (Nextcloud, 2026); Euro-Office DocumentServer releases (2026)
• ECMA-376, Office Open XML file formats, 5th edition (Ecma International, 2021)
• OASIS approves Open Document Format (ODF) V1.4 (OASIS Open, 2025) and OpenDocument Technical Committee (OASIS Open, checked October 2026)
• Microsoft Support: Work with VBA macros in Excel for the web, Work together on a document in Word for the web, Using right-to-left languages in Office, Differences between the OpenDocument Text (.odt) format and the Word (.docx) format, System requirements for Microsoft 365 for business (Microsoft, checked October 2026)
• Advancing Microsoft 365: new capabilities and pricing update (Microsoft, 2025)
• Microsoft Learn: Microsoft Intune in Microsoft 365 Business Premium, Why choose Microsoft 365 Business Premium?, Data residency overview and definitions (Microsoft, 2026) and Sakkal Majalla font family (Microsoft, 2025)
• Noto Arabic and Amiri, SIL Open Font License 1.1 (checked October 2026)
• End User License Agreement for WPS Office (WPS Software Pte. Ltd., 2023)