A European Word? Alternatives to Microsoft Word in Europe

There is no single “European Word”, but several European programs that open and write Word files. Here they are, what they replace, and what Paginel brings (or does not).

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In short Which one should you choose?

Replace the whole Office suite

LibreOffice on desktops, Collabora Online, ONLYOFFICE or Euro-Office online, often in Nextcloud. Open source, self-hostable, with spreadsheet and slides.

A French public body

La Suite numérique (Docs) for state employees: free, open source, hosted under SecNumCloud.

Write .docx files together, simply

Paginel: one program, compatible with Word, hosted in France, with guests who join with a code. Proprietary, no spreadsheet, and in beta.

In detail What really changes

Why look beyond Microsoft

Microsoft keeps its European customers’ data in the Union (EU Data Boundary, completed in February 2025), but remains a US company, subject to the CLOUD Act. On 10 June 2025, before the French Senate, Microsoft France said under oath that it could not guarantee French citizens’ data would never be handed to US authorities without France’s consent. Microsoft 365 offered by Bleu (Orange and Capgemini) is working towards SecNumCloud qualification; as of 2 October 2026, we found no record that it has been obtained.

Sovereign: what it means for us

The company: Paginel is published in France.
Hosting: our servers are in France.
Subprocessors: emails are sent by Resend, a US company, from its server in Ireland; signing in with Microsoft or Google is optional (the email link and passkeys work without them). Full list: Data management.
On your servers: the Enterprise plan will install Paginel on your servers, with no call to us at all.
What is missing: Paginel is not open source, and has no qualification (SecNumCloud) or certification (ISO 27001, HDS).

The open-source suites, briefly

LibreOffice remains the most complete replacement for Word on a desktop, free and open source. To write together online, Collabora Online and ONLYOFFICE install on your servers, often with Nextcloud. In 2026, IONOS, Nextcloud and other European companies launched Euro-Office, a European version of ONLYOFFICE. Details: ONLYOFFICE, Collabora, LibreOffice or Paginel.

Honestly What Paginel does not do (yet)

Paginel is in beta, open to everyone and free. It is a young product.
Paginel is not open source: its code is not published.
No qualification or certification yet: no SecNumCloud, no ISO 27001, no HDS. Encryption of every file on the document server is in preparation.
Installing Paginel on your own servers (Enterprise plan) is planned after the beta: it is not available yet.
Tables cannot be edited yet: tables in a .docx show as plain lines (cells separated by tabs), on screen and in the PDF. Saving into the original file keeps them intact. A document full of tables is not for Paginel yet.
No track changes and no suggestion mode. Comments exist in Paginel, but are not yet written into the .docx.
A word processor, nothing else: no spreadsheet, no slides, no email.

The table European alternatives to Word

European alternatives to Word
	Paginel	LibreOffice / Collabora	ONLYOFFICE / Euro-Office	La Suite Docs
Company, country	France.	German foundation; Collabora in the United Kingdom.	Latvia; Euro-Office: IONOS, Nextcloud (Germany) and others.	DINUM (French state), with Germany.
Open source	No	Yes Yes (MPL 2.0).	Yes Yes (AGPL).	Yes Yes (MIT).
.docx fidelity	Partly Good; tables not editable yet.	Partly Good, known differences.	Yes (lead) Built around Word’s format.	Partly Import and export.
Co-editing	Yes	Partly Collabora Online: yes; LibreOffice desktop: no.	Yes	Yes
Offline	Yes Desktop app, merges on reconnection.	Yes LibreOffice.	Yes Desktop apps.	Partly Announced by the project.
Spreadsheet, slides	No	Yes	Yes	No Docs only; other tools in La Suite.
Hosted or self-hosted	Hosted in France; self-hosted: planned.	Self-hosted or through a provider.	Vendor cloud, or self-hosted.	Hosted by the state; or self-hosted.

Yes : the highlighted word marks the lead on that point.

Updated 2 October 2026. Our rule: say when another tool will suit you better, and what Paginel does not do yet. Spotted a mistake? Write to us and we will fix it.

Frequently asked questions

Is there a European version of Word?

Not Word itself. European options include LibreOffice, Collabora Online, ONLYOFFICE, Euro-Office, La Suite Docs (for the French state) and Paginel, compatible with Word, in beta.

What is the European alternative to Microsoft Office?

For a full suite: LibreOffice on desktops, and Collabora Online, ONLYOFFICE or Euro-Office online. Paginel only replaces Word, not Excel or PowerPoint.

Is Paginel sovereign?

Partly: French company and hosting in France, self-hosting planned. But it is not open source, has no SecNumCloud qualification, and emails go through a US company (from Ireland).

Try Paginel

The beta is open and free: create your account in a minute.

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Other comparisons

Word alternatives Free, online, offline: six ways to work without a Word subscription.
Google Docs alternatives European, French or open source: who does what, and for whom.
Word vs Google Docs The classic match-up, with Paginel as a third column.
Word vs Paginel The same .docx file, two ways of working.
Google Docs vs Paginel Google Docs-style co-editing, on real Word files.
A sovereign Google Docs Writing together online, with data in France or Europe.
ONLYOFFICE, Collabora, LibreOffice The open-source suites against Paginel: complete on one side, simple on the other.

Sources

Prices and features of other products checked on the date above, on their official pages. They change often: check before you decide.