Free Alternatives to Microsoft 365, Acrobat, Photoshop and LastPass: What to Test Before Cancelling

The pitch: subscription fatigue meets "good enough"​

Bamisile lists the monthly prices he was paying: $9.99 for Microsoft 365, $22.99 for Photoshop and $19.99 for Acrobat Pro. He adds a $3 monthly LastPass fee. He says these are his own local prices, and he expects them to rise. Treat them as one person's bills, not current list prices, and check your own plan before doing the math.

His conclusion is modest. None of the free apps is a perfect clone of what it replaced, and he still pays for other services. The point is that a famous brand isn't worth paying for if you only use a fraction of it. That is reasonable. It also means the real question is fit, not price.

LibreOffice instead of Microsoft 365​

What the author says: He pays for Microsoft 365 mainly for Word, Excel and the occasional PowerPoint. LibreOffice's Writer, Calc and Impress cover most of that. He admits the interface differs and that complex spreadsheets or heavily formatted Word files can cause compatibility trouble.

What LibreOffice's help documentation confirms:

• LibreOffice opens and saves Microsoft formats. Word files (.doc, .docx) open in Writer, Excel files (.xls, .xlsx) in Calc, and PowerPoint files (.ppt, .pps, .pptx) in Impress. The documentation lists these under File → Open.
• To save in a Microsoft format, use File → Save As and pick the format in the file type box.
• To make Microsoft formats the default, go to Tools → Options → Load/Save → General. Choose a document type, then the file type to save as. Menu labels can differ by operating system and release.
• There is a Document Converter Wizard under File → Wizards. It bulk-converts Microsoft Office files in a folder to OpenDocument format.

The macro catch: this matters for anyone with Excel automation. With a few exceptions, Microsoft Office and LibreOffice can't run the same macro code. Office uses VBA, while LibreOffice uses Basic built on its own API. The documentation says recent LibreOffice versions can run some Excel VBA scripts if you enable that under the VBA Properties page in Options. If you rely on macros, expect to edit them.

A practical way to test:

1. Pick a few representative files: a long formatted Word document, your most complicated spreadsheet and a presentation with charts.
2. Open copies, never the originals.
3. Check fonts, layout, formulas, charts and print preview.
4. Save back to a Microsoft format and reopen in Word or Excel if you still have access.
5. Cancel only after those files survive the round trip.

Microsoft 365 also includes cloud storage, collaboration and other services. LibreOffice doesn't replace those. If your workplace requires co-authoring in Microsoft 365, this swap probably isn't for you.

PDFgear instead of Acrobat Pro​

What the author says: PDFgear covers the editing, annotation, conversion, merging and splitting he used to pay Adobe for. He concedes that Acrobat Pro has more advanced features and suits people deep in Adobe's document ecosystem.

What PDFgear's own documentation says. These are vendor claims, not independent tests:

• The Windows guide lists viewing, editing, annotating, page management, conversion, OCR, form filling and protection. It also describes an AI "Copilot" chat feature.
• The Windows product page says desktop PDFgear can change existing text and convert scanned PDFs into editable formats. It also says the app is free and works on Windows 10 and 11.

Online versus desktop is the key distinction. PDFgear's online editor says it processes files locally in the browser. It handles PDFs up to 100 MB and exports without a watermark. It can add text boxes, images, comments, shapes and signatures, and it can reorder, rotate, copy and delete pages. Its own comparison table says it doesn't support direct text editing or adding bookmarks. To change or replace existing text, PDFgear says you need the desktop software. The desktop software also works without an internet connection and has no file-size limit.

So "I use PDFgear" can mean two quite different feature sets. A quick page shuffle or form fill works in a browser. Rewriting a paragraph in a contract, or OCR on a scan, needs the desktop app.

Cautions:

• Test on copies. Editing a PDF can shift layout, and conversion and OCR output should be proofread.
• PDFgear says its free status reflects its current vision. Its own FAQ says it is free "for the moment," so don't assume that is permanent.
• If you need certain advanced Acrobat features, test those specifically before you cancel.

GIMP instead of Photoshop​

What the author says: His work is resizing, cropping, background removal, color adjustments, text and thumbnails. He says GIMP handles all of that without a fee. He explicitly doesn't call it a one-to-one Photoshop replacement.

What GIMP's project page confirms: GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is freely distributed and aimed at photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It is developed as community free software under the GNU General Public License, and it runs on Windows, macOS and Linux.

The sources don't show that every workflow he lists is equally easy in GIMP. If your work depends on Photoshop documents, specific plug-ins or team production pipelines, test those tasks directly before canceling. For simple edits, you can usually find out within an afternoon.

KeePassXC instead of LastPass​

This is the swap with the biggest trade-off, and the story's security context needs correcting.

What the author says: LastPass had another security incident in June 2026, after its major 2022 breach. He moved to KeePassXC, which keeps credentials in an encrypted database he controls. He accepts managing synchronization himself.

What the June 2026 incident actually was. This was a third-party supply-chain incident, not a repeat of 2022. LastPass said it learned on June 12 of an incident at Klue, a market intelligence platform its go-to-market teams use, which integrates with its Salesforce and Gong systems. Attackers used stolen OAuth tokens to reach CRM data in LastPass' Salesforce instance, bypassing normal login controls. The exposed information may include customer names, email addresses, telephone numbers, physical addresses, support case details and other sales-related records.

Several outlets, including BleepingComputer and Help Net Security, report LastPass saying its products, services and infrastructure were not affected and that customer vaults remained secure. Help Net Security reports that an extortion group called "Icarus" claimed responsibility for the attack. Other companies affected by the Klue breach include HackerOne, Recorded Future, Tanium, Gong, Jamf, Snyk, OneTrust, Sprout Social and Huntress.

Switching because of the 2026 incident is a legitimate choice, since trust in a vendor is a judgment call. But the reporting doesn't say vaults were exposed in 2026. The 2022 breach was different. That event, per LastPass's December 2022 notice, involved attackers copying customer account information and a backup of customer vault data. LastPass said vault fields such as usernames and passwords stayed encrypted, while some data, like website URLs, was not. Those are LastPass's own statements, not independent audit findings.

What KeePassXC's documentation confirms:

• It stores passwords in an encrypted database file. The documentation says the database is encrypted with AES-256 or Twofish, with a configurable number of key transformations to harden the master password against brute-force attacks.
• Its native formats are KDBX 3.1 and KDBX 4.
• It has no built-in cloud sync. The project says you can store the database in a folder synced by Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, Nextcloud or similar, and let that service do the work. The project prefers this because it is simple and not tied to one provider.
• There is no official mobile app. The documentation recommends KeePassDX for Android.
• It has browser integration through an extension, and its Windows setup may need the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable. Its FAQ says a missing VCRUNTIME140_1.dll error points to that.
• The documentation says an independent audit was completed on January 19, 2023. It also cautions that an audit covers a snapshot of the code and isn't proof of safety.

Key files and backups matter. The FAQ warns that if a key file changes or is lost, it is as if you forgot your password, and you lose access to the database. If you use a key file, sync only the KDBX file and distribute the key file separately, for example on a thumb drive. The FAQ adds that a hardware token such as a YubiKey is a better option if you can afford one.

A careful migration path:

1. Create a strong, long master password.
2. Make a verified backup of the database, and of any key file, in a separate location.
3. Install the browser extension only from your browser's official store.
4. Confirm that logins work on every device before deleting your old vault.
5. Treat any exported password file as dangerous. The user guide cautions that exports can store passwords unencrypted. Delete them securely.

You're trading a company's operational security for your own. That is a fair trade for some people and a poor one for others. If you won't maintain backups or untangle sync conflicts, a hosted manager may still protect you better.

Who should and shouldn't switch​

The bottom line​

The article's strength is the "good enough" test. The savings claim of "hundreds of dollars a year" is the author's own and depends on his plans. Your numbers will differ.

Before you cancel anything, run copies of your real files through the free app. Keep the original subscription active until they pass. For a password vault, do the same with backups. If the free tool handles your actual tasks, the switch is a real saving. If it doesn't, you've lost an afternoon rather than a project.