SoftwareNov 10, 2026, 6:37 PM UTC·1 min read

ArtCraft Developer Releases Open-Source Word, Excel Clones

Brandon Thomas, known for free Adobe alternatives, has published WordCraft, GridCraft and DeckCraft on GitHub as open-source stand-ins for Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

Laptop screen showing a word processor, a spreadsheet and a presentation editor side by side, representing open-source Office alternatives. — Image: genbeta.com

Brandon Thomas, the developer behind free Adobe-style tools, has expanded his ArtCraft project with open-source alternatives to Microsoft Office. The new apps are called WordCraft, GridCraft and DeckCraft, and they are already available on GitHub.

The goal is to give anyone programs they can use without paying a subscription. They are still at an early stage, though, and need many more features before they can compete with Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

A veteran engineer using Claude

Thomas had already drawn attention in recent weeks for building free alternatives to Photoshop, Illustrator and Premiere Pro, with the Claude AI model writing a large share of the code. He has faced criticism for that approach. On X, he answered that he does know how to program: he has about 15 years of experience as a software engineer, and these models let him take on an amount of work that would normally require a whole team.

One aim of ArtCraft is to run on Windows, macOS and Linux, which would cover a niche Adobe has neglected. Because the code of the three new apps is public, other developers can review it and contribute improvements, a core principle of open-source projects.

Autodesk may be next

The project has also attracted users who want free replacements for other paid software. Within its community, people are already discussing computer-aided design tools that could compete with Autodesk, following the same idea of free versions of programs that require licences or subscriptions.

Expectations should stay modest for now. The repositories describe the applications as alpha versions, so bugs and significant limitations are likely. What Thomas has delivered so far is a collection of open alternatives to well-known programs, and considerable work remains before they could serve as full replacements.

Apps worth a look

SUMO: the number puzzle

Tap the right tiles, add them up, hit the target. Easy to learn, hard to master. Free, for all ages.

Dialo: learn languages by speaking

Talk to an AI conversation partner; every sentence comes back corrected and explained in your language. 9 languages, A1 to C2.

ediviewer: read EDI files like documents

Open EDIFACT and X12 messages, see every segment explained, convert to JSON/XML, export PDF and Excel. Runs locally, no upload.

giftdetect: the right gift in minutes

Pick who it is for, the occasion and their personality. The search engine reads product descriptions from local shops and ranks what fits. Free, no sign-up.

Tags:artcraftopen sourcemicrosoft officeadobeclaudegithub