Apple’s productivity suite, (previously grouped together as iWork) has always been a popular alternative to Microsoft Office. Pages, Keynote and Numbers are each available on iOS for $9.95. And, of course, they are compatible with Microsoft Office — you can open, edit and save in .doc, .xls and .ppt formats.

The details: Each app is $9.95 on the App Store and they require iOS 5.1 or later. They are universal for the iPhone (3GS and higher), iPod Touch (4th generation or higher) and iPad. Even if you’ve purchased the suite for your computer, the iOS purchase is separate, but you will only need to buy it once for all of your devices.

Why we recommend them: As with most Apple products, our appreciation for the iWork suite is due to where it goes above and beyond. Pages isn’t just a word processing program, it’s a design tool for professional looking newsletters, flyers and reports. Keynote takes basic, dry presentations and gives them life with sleek templates and animation options. And Numbers goes beyond your basic spreadsheet with easy to manipulate charts and graphs. 

All three apps are Cloud capable, giving you the option to store your documents in the cloud — on an iCloud capable computer with iWork, you can sync your documents automatically. On other computers, you are able to download the files as .pdf or .doc/.ppt/.xls formatted files.

Do you use iWorks or one of the alternatives? Let us know!