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Open source alternatives to Google Docs

We track 6 open-source Google Docs alternatives, of which 3 currently score 70 or above on Repoly's GitHub health scale and 4 ship a Docker image. Etherpad leads on health at 97/100 with 205 commits in the last 90 days; across all 6 projects you are choosing between AGPL-3.0, Apache-2.0, MIT and 1 other licences.

6
Alternatives
58k
Combined stars
534
Commits / 90 days
4
With Docker
Licence family Licence

Showing 6 of 6 tools

All 6 Google Docs alternatives, ranked by health

  • Top pick · highest health

    Etherpad

    97 GOOD

    Highly customizable online editor providing collaborative editing in real-time.

    ★ 19k · ⟳ today · v3.3.3 · Apache-2.0

    DockerNodejs
    Website ↗ Source ↗

  • HedgeDoc

    95 GOOD

    Realtime collaborative markdown notes on all platforms, formerly known as CodiMD and HackMD CE.

    ★ 7.4k · ⟳ 2 days ago · 1.12.0 · AGPL-3.0

    DockerNodejs
    Website ↗ Source ↗

  • Docs

    87 GOOD

    Collaborative note taking, wiki and documentation platform that scales.

    ★ 17k · ⟳ today · v5.6.1 · MIT

    K8S
    Website ↗ Source ↗

  • ONLYOFFICE

    63 SLOWING

    Office suite that enables you to manage documents, projects, team and customer relations in one place.

    ★ 6.9k · ⟳ 2 months ago · v9.4.0 · AGPL-3.0

    DockerNodejs
    Website ↗ Source ↗

  • CryptPad

    61 SLOWING

    Collaboration suite built to enable collaboration, synchronizing changes to documents in real time.

    ★ 7.9k · ⟳ 3 days ago · 2026.5.1 · AGPL-3.0

    DockerNodejs
    Website ↗ Source ↗

  • Collabora Online Development Edition

    10 STALE

    Collabora Online Development Edition (CODE) is a powerful LibreOffice-based online office that supports all major document, spreadsheet and presentation file formats, which you can integrate in your own infrastructure.

    MPL-2.0

    C++
    Website ↗ Source ↗

Google Docs alternatives: common questions

What is the most maintained open source alternative to Google Docs?

Etherpad scores highest at 97/100, with 205 commits in the last 90 days, 19k GitHub stars and its latest release (v3.3.3) published 2 months ago. It is also the most active by raw commit count.

Which Google Docs alternatives use a permissive licence?

3 of 6 are permissively licensed (MIT, Apache, BSD or similar): Etherpad (Apache-2.0), Docs (MIT), Collabora Online Development Edition (MPL-2.0). 3 use copyleft licences such as GPL or AGPL, which require you to publish changes if you distribute a modified version.

Which Google Docs alternatives run in Docker?

4 of 6 publish a Docker image or Compose file: Etherpad, HedgeDoc, ONLYOFFICE, CryptPad. Docker support contributes 10 of the 100 available health points, because it is the clearest signal that self-hosting is a supported path rather than an afterthought.