Open-source alternatives to Google Docs
4 alternatives, ranked by a published maintenance score computed from live GitHub signals (fetched 2026-09-04). We flag unmaintained projects on both sides — including Google Docs itself when the data says so.
About Google Docs: Free but proprietary SaaS; documents live in Google's cloud under Google's terms. It is closed-source, so the same public maintenance signals do not exist for it — we score only the alternatives below.
The alternatives
CryptPad
End-to-end encrypted collaborative documents; the server can't read them.
How this 87/100 was computed
| Last commit | today | 40/40 |
|---|---|---|
| Latest release | 31 days ago | 25/25 |
| Community size | GitHub stars | 12/15 |
| Open-issue trend | not enough history yet — needs snapshots 21+ days apart; neutral 10/20 awarded meanwhile | 10/20 |
| Total | 87/100 |
Etherpad
The classic real-time collaborative text pad.
How this 87/100 was computed
| Last commit | yesterday | 40/40 |
|---|---|---|
| Latest release | 37 days ago | 25/25 |
| Community size | GitHub stars | 12/15 |
| Open-issue trend | not enough history yet — needs snapshots 21+ days apart; neutral 10/20 awarded meanwhile | 10/20 |
| Total | 87/100 |
Collabora Online
LibreOffice in the browser with collaborative editing.
How this 84/100 was computed
| Last commit | today | 40/40 |
|---|---|---|
| Latest release | 4 days ago | 25/25 |
| Community size | GitHub stars | 9/15 |
| Open-issue trend | not enough history yet — needs snapshots 21+ days apart; neutral 10/20 awarded meanwhile | 10/20 |
| Total | 84/100 |
ONLYOFFICE
Self-hostable office suite with real-time co-editing, MS-format compatible.
How this 73/100 was computed
| Last commit | 44 days ago | 32/40 |
|---|---|---|
| Latest release | 3 months ago | 19/25 |
| Community size | GitHub stars | 12/15 |
| Open-issue trend | not enough history yet — needs snapshots 21+ days apart; neutral 10/20 awarded meanwhile | 10/20 |
| Total | 73/100 |