Both these apps are free to use and offer almost all the features that you’d need. But if you’ve been wondering which one should you choose, then you’ve come to the right place. In this article, I’ll be comparing both these apps to help you decide which one deserves a place on your phone.
Common Features
Let’s first take a look at the features both of the apps have to offer. Both WPS and Polaris Office are complete all-in-one office suites that will help you create documents, presentations, and spreadsheets. They also include most of the tools you would need while working on a project. Both are fully compatible with Microsoft Office. You can rest assured that you won’t face any compatibility issues while sharing your projects with your peers and others. With both apps, you also get access to a variety of different templates that you can use to kick-start your project. However, the number of free templates on offer is significantly higher in WPS Office. The apps also include support for pen input, which is great if you plan to use them with a stylus on tablet.
Distinguishing Features
While most of the basic features are the same, each app offers some distinguishing features that might make it easier for you to choose between the two. With WPS Office, you get an additional mode for taking notes or memos, a built-in document scanner, and even a PDF viewer/editor. On top of that, the app also includes support for a multi-window mode, which will allow you to tackle multiple projects at the same time. On the other hand, Polaris Office includes a handy collaboration tool which will let you directly share your documents with peers. With that, other users will be able to edit the document, leave comments, and even discuss any revisions before finalizing the project.
User Interface
Now, let’s take a look at the user interface of both the app. As you’d expect, both the apps have a pretty similar user interface. But I prefer WPS Office over Polaris because of a couple of reasons. Instead of a traditional menu button to help you switch between modes, WPS Office has easy to access tabs at the bottom. That makes navigation a whole lot easier. Even when you’re working on a project, the user interface for the WPS Office feels much more intuitive. For example, to access the tools in Polaris Office, you’ll need to tap on the menu button in the bottom toolbar. Then you need to select an option from the drop-down menu and then scroll through the available tools. In WPS Office, you get tabs to easily switch between the menus. And even the toolbar is a bit larger, which makes it easy for you to select the tools you want to use. That makes the WPS Office slightly more intuitive than the Polaris Office. Other than that, most of the UI elements in both apps are almost identical.
Cross-Platform Capability
As far as cross-platform capabilities are concerned, both the apps are also available on iOS and Windows. But if you’re using a Mac then you’ll need to stick with Polaris Office, as it’ll allow you to easily sync your projects between your phone and Mac. In contrast, WPS Office isn’t available on macOS, and you’ll have to manually transfer your documents to your system before you can access them. However, the tables are turned when it comes to Linux, as Polaris doesn’t offer a client for the platform while WPS does. Both the apps offer cloud storage solutions to help you access your projects on any device as long as you’re logged in with the same account. With Polaris Office, you also get the option to connect to your favorite cloud storage service like Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive among others. WPS Office includes support for Dropbox only.
Premium Subscription
Even though both the apps are available for free on the Play Store, they offer paid subscription plans that unlock a couple of additional features. The premium version of WPS Office will set you back $29.99 or more for a year. That will get you access to features like page adjustments, PDF extraction, custom watermarks, support for Open Office documents, PDF annotations, and a lot more. The premium version of Polaris Office is priced starting at $39.99 per year. That includes additional features like the ability to synchronize 15 devices at any given time, unlimited monthly editing, and support for editing PDF files. It goes without saying that if you choose to purchase the premium version of either app, it will also remove all the ads from the apps. However, if you decide to continue with the ad-supported free version, then you should know that the ads in Polaris Office are way too frequent and annoying.
Which Office Suite Should You Choose?
So now that you know pretty much everything there is to both the apps I’m sure it’ll be easy for you to decide which one you should pick. I prefer using WPS Office on my phone, and I would recommend that you try it out first. Unless you’re a Mac user, then you should stick with Polaris Office as it’ll help you easily sync all your files between your devices. Next up: If you do decide to stick with WPS Office, then you should definitely check out the next article to see how you can easily change the language in WPS Office for Android and iOS.
