No cost, no subscription
Word is part of a paid Microsoft 365 plan or a one-time Office purchase. WordCraft costs nothing, on every device, forever.
WordCraft / Microsoft Word
WordCraft vs Microsoft Word
Both open and save .docx and share the same ribbon layout. The differences are price, openness and platforms, and how mature each one is.
At a glance
| WordCraft | Microsoft Word | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free forever | Microsoft 365 subscription or one-time Office purchase; limited free web version |
| Source code | Open source (MIT or Apache-2.0) | Proprietary |
| Account required | No | Microsoft account to activate and to use the web app |
| Platforms | Windows, macOS, Linux, FreeBSD, browser | Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, browser. No Linux app |
| Opens & saves .docx | Yes (alpha: test important files) | Yes, it defines the format |
| Works offline, incl. spelling | Yes, everything runs locally | Desktop app yes; some features need the cloud |
| AI & automation | Agent-ready: CLI + MCP server, 422 scriptable commands | Copilot (paid add-on in many plans), VBA macros |
| Real-time co-authoring | Not yet | Yes, via OneDrive / SharePoint |
| Maturity | Alpha. About 60% of the way to replacing Word for real work | 40 years of production use |
Where WordCraft wins
Open source you can audit
MIT or Apache-2.0. Anyone can read the code, fix bugs, self-host the web build or ship it inside their own product.
A real Linux and BSD app
Word has no Linux version. WordCraft runs natively on Linux (x86_64, ARM64, RISC-V) and FreeBSD.
Private and offline
No account, no cloud sign-in. Spelling and grammar run on your machine.
Light and fast
Native Rust on the GPU, with no Electron. Re-layout of a 188-page document takes about 1.4 ms per keystroke.
Made for automation
A CLI, a JSON control channel and an MCP server expose all 422 commands to scripts and AI agents. No VBA required.
Where Word is still better
- Maturity: decades of polish, and pagination that is the reference every other app is measured against.
- Real-time co-authoring and sharing through OneDrive, SharePoint and Teams.
- Microsoft Copilot for drafting and rewriting inside the document.
- Charts, SmartArt and complex documents survive every round trip.
- Mobile apps for iOS and Android, and enterprise support and administration.
Who should use which?
Choose WordCraft if you
- write essays, reports, letters, CVs or books and don't want to pay for a subscription
- use Linux, or a mix of operating systems
- care about privacy and open source
- want to automate documents with scripts or AI agents
Stay with Word if you
- co-author documents live with a team in Microsoft 365
- depend on VBA macros, complex templates or SmartArt
- need guaranteed pixel-perfect fidelity for legal or print work
Switching from Word: three tips
- 1Try WordCraft online first with a copy of a real document you work on.
- 2Keep using .docx. It is WordCraft's native format, so you can move back and forth.
- 3Rely on Styles rather than manual formatting; styled documents convert most cleanly.
Facts are from the WordCraft README and roadmap (October 2026) and Microsoft's Word product page. WordCraft changes fast, so check the official pages for the latest. getartcraft.com · microsoft.com