For collaboration the best is to use an office application built for simultaneous, concurrent updates, like nextcloud's office (open source), overleaf (payment) and google docs (spyware). Passing DOCX or ODP documents by email slows everyone down, and while it has its uses (both formats supported by LibreOffice), I wouldn't recommend it.

Personally I very much prefer plain text with markup, like LateX or Markdown, under version control with git using our own git servers (all that's need is SSH access to any computer; no other setup). But most of my lab members end up using overleaf.

#academia

LibreOffice is really good. It isn't quite bug-for-bug compatible with MS Office but it's pretty close, so unless you rely on a really obscure bug, you probably won't notice.

LibreOffice can open all the formats MS Office can, and then some. It can also track changes (Edit > Track Changes).

Because it's free, perhaps the simplest option is to download it and try it for yourself, see if it fits your needs that way? You can always uninstall it. :)

honestly, either libreoffice or onlyoffice. I think onlyoffice may work better with Microsoft formats but both work great

libreoffice.org/

onlyoffice.com/

My writer pals overwhelmingly recommend LibreOffice over OpenOffice.

(Also, the obligatory comment: keep your files local, don't hand them to cloud-based editors.)