What word processing program is similar to Pages in 2021

There are a ton of word processing applications available in the Mac App Store that unless the developer has chosen otherwise, do not force an operating system upgrade from Catalina to support their current version product. Most of these vendors in the Mac App Store also have free trials from their website, so you have ample time to assess the product before paying for it. Here are a few:

1. Nisus Writer Express 4, macOS 10.11 or later, $25.99
2. Nisus Writer Pro 3, macOS 10.11 or later, $64.99
3. Mellel 5, macOS 10.9 or later, $35.99

There are others that you can search in the Mac App Store using the term: Word processing for Mac. Once you select an entry, cilck on its website link to get to their home page and trial downloads.

It will depend on what kind of word processing you do, if you need advanced features, and whether you don't want a subscription-based product, or one that uses markdown syntax. None of these third-party word processing applications can open native Pages documents and you should verify that they can open Word documents (or RTF) exported from Pages.

I didn't mention the free LibreOffice Suite as the interface and learning curve are atrocious, despite solid Microsoft 365 document compatibility.

Ah, I'd forgotten about Nisus! Yes, absolutely, Nisus Writer Express is an excellent, no-regret, all-round word processor at a bargain price. It's especially good for interacting with the wider world of Word users.

Cheers Viking

Hi Leslie,

If you can tolerate a stripped-down word processor with minimal documentation and no official developer support (though it still works fine), you might take a look at Bean (www.bean-osx.com). My son has written two novels with this thing.

If you're willing to spend some money, check out Scrivener. A lot of serious writers love this (though I do not) and I'm fairly sure there are versions available for whatever version of Mac OS or OSX you're running. (I'm not going to double-check because everything about this software annoys me except the name of the developer, Literature & Latte.)

There's Microsoft Word, of course.

If none of those appeals to you, then you just need to trawl around the App Store. I wish I could be of more help, but I've been using Pages so long I've lost touch with the rest of the software universe.