4 Free Alternatives to Chrome, Microsoft 365 and Google Apps: Features and Limits

The short version​

Brave instead of Chrome​

Ellis says Chrome had been her main browser for more than a decade. She tried Brave first on Android, drawn by dark mode on websites and by ad blocking without an extension. She then moved to it on her PC and switched her default search to Brave Search. She still uses Firefox for some viewing, and she says Brave works with her favorite extensions because it is Chromium-based.

Some points worth knowing:

• Shields are on by default. Brave says its Shields need no setup. They block third-party ads and trackers, cross-site cookies and fingerprinting attempts, and they warn about phishing. You can switch Shields off per site if a page breaks. Brave also warns that disabling them reduces your protection on that site, and that "Aggressive" mode raises the risk of breakage compared with the default Standard mode.
• Dark mode on web pages is experimental. Brave's Android help page separates the dark browser theme from an experimental "Night Mode" that tries to force page content dark. Brave says it can make some pages display badly. One example it gives is a white page with gray text turning into dark gray text on black.
• Brave Search is configurable. It has settings for AI answers, region, and "Google fallback mixing." With that last option, queries Brave can't answer well are anonymously checked against Google. Anyone switching for privacy reasons should look at that toggle.

LibreOffice instead of Microsoft 365​

Ellis chose not to renew her Microsoft 365 subscription because she only used Word and Excel. She says Writer and Calc covered her needs, including templates, formatting, images, formulas, filtering and charts. Her one real complaint is that dark mode doesn't always render documents correctly. That matters to her because white documents trigger migraines. That is her own experience, and she offers no clinical claim.

LibreOffice's help documentation covers the compatibility questions Windows users will have:

• File formats. LibreOffice opens and saves Word files (.doc, .docx) in Writer and Excel files (.xls, .xlsx) in Calc. It also handles PowerPoint formats in Impress.
• Saving in Office formats by default. You can set the default file type under Tools > Options > Load/Save > General. You can still pick another type in the Save As dialog.
• Bulk conversion. The Document Converter wizard under File > Wizards converts a whole folder of Office files to OpenDocument format.
• Macros are the catch. Microsoft Office uses VBA and LibreOffice uses its own Basic dialect, so the two generally can't run the same macro code. LibreOffice can run some Excel VBA if you enable that under VBA Properties. If you edit only the normal contents of an Office file and save it in an Office format, the original VBA macros are preserved and run again in Office.

Practical advice (my own, based on the compatibility notes above): open your most complex documents and workbooks before you cancel. Check anything with macros, heavy formatting or advanced spreadsheet features. Also check how exported files look in whatever software your recipients use. Ellis's use is personal. Collaboration features and other Microsoft 365 services are a separate question that her article doesn't address.

Proton Pass instead of Google Password Manager​

Ellis was wary of a standalone password manager but found the move smoother than expected. She credits Android's support for third-party autofill services and Proton's browser extension. She mentions payment storage, email aliases and custom, searchable names for saved credentials. She says she uses the free plan and misses only dark web monitoring.

Proton's pricing page backs that up and shows where the limits are:

• Free plan. It includes unlimited logins, notes and credit cards, unlimited devices, a password generator, passkey support and 10 hide-my-email aliases.
• Paid Pass Plus. It adds unlimited aliases, a built-in 2FA authenticator, vault and link sharing, Dark Web Monitoring, file attachments, and custom-domain aliases.
• Price. XDA lists $4.99 a month. Proton's page showed that as a monthly price with a discounted figure of $2.99 a month on a 12-month plan. Treat prices as variable and check at checkout.

Proton describes a hide-my-email alias as a generated address that forwards mail to your inbox. It says the service doesn't store the emails, and that you can deactivate an alias if it gets leaked. Proton's support page says Dark Web Monitoring is a paid feature. It alerts you when addresses and aliases appear in third-party breaches, so you can change passwords and take other steps. It doesn't prevent a breach, which is why Ellis's habit of running another monitoring tool alongside makes sense.

Notesnook instead of Google Keep and Docs​

Ellis kept her notes split across Google Keep and Docs and found that disorganized across devices. She now uses Notesnook for checklists, tables, longer writing with images, PIN-locked notes and personal records. She says she remapped her phone's AI button to open it. That depends on her phone, and the app doesn't offer it as a general feature.

Notesnook's own pricing page says the free plan gives you unlimited notes on unlimited devices, end-to-end encrypted by default, with 50MB of attachment storage per month. A comparison page on the same site puts the per-file limit on the free plan at 10MB. Paid plans from US$1.67/month add attachment storage. Notesnook's own site also states that the free plan has no time limit at all. If you attach PDFs or scans regularly, that attachment cap is the limit most likely to push you to a paid tier.

Notesnook's sync documentation says notes are encrypted on your device before they reach its servers, so the servers can't read them. The trade-off is that if you lose both your password and your recovery key, Notesnook can't restore your notes. Store the recovery key somewhere safe before you move over anything important.

What the article gets right, and what it leaves out​

Ellis's core argument is that open-source apps can deliver privacy benefits, niche features and a more consumer-friendly approach, often for free. The documentation supports the free-tier claims for all four tools. Her framing deserves some caution:

• "Free" has limits. Proton Pass caps free aliases at 10, Notesnook caps attachments, and LibreOffice has no cloud collaboration suite built around it. Brave's free browser leans on optional paid extras like VPN.
• Experience varies. One writer's workflow is a data point, not a benchmark. Her Microsoft 365 use was limited to Word and Excel. Heavy Excel, Teams or SharePoint users would face a different decision.
• Open source varies by product. The article's framing blurs this a little. Proton Pass and Notesnook describe themselves as open source, while Brave's and LibreOffice's licensing and funding models are separate matters. The piece doesn't detail any of them.

A sensible way to try it​

1. Install the replacement alongside your current tool rather than removing the old one.
2. Move a small slice of real work over: one project's documents, one browser profile, a handful of notes.
3. Test the awkward cases: macro-heavy workbooks, sites that break under tracker blocking, large attachments.
4. Export or back up your data (passwords, notes, documents) before you cancel anything.
5. Cancel subscriptions only after a few weeks without reaching back for the old tool.

For Windows users, the useful takeaway isn't that open source always wins. Each of these four swaps is easy to trial for free. The limits are documented, and you can find out in an afternoon whether they matter to you.