My journey to minimize by use of big tech tools, find alternatives or just do without, elevated the question, “what about office documents; Doc writing, spreadsheets, slides, etc?” I’ve been hooked on Google Office for well over a decade, mostly because its free. But, are there options that provide similar capabilities and a reasonable cost… or even free?
Yes. Yes there are.
Not surprisingly, most of the alternatives originate outside the U.S.. One source of comparison is https://europealternative.com/alternative-to/google-docs/.
These alternatives range from free (Open Source – community supported), freemium, and premium options. I focused on the free options.
What is interesting to me is that, because these are Open Source, a foundation of capabilities is available to whoever wants to build with it. Similar to how Chromium is the foundation of Chrome, as well as Brave, and DuckDuckGo browsers. In the case of Office Applications, I jumped into CryptPad, a France-based initiative.
How did I land on Cryptpad Collaborative Office Suite?
I had some criteria:
- Security & Privacy. Up to this point, I accepted the Google will access all my docs, gather data about me and use this as part of the mega data profile it builds on all users and sells. But why should I just accept that? Oh, yeah… inertia.
- Browser-based access and usage. I didn’t want to download an app (we used to call these ‘programs’). It has to function 100% in a browser.
- Cloud storage. I don’t need much, but being able to store the documents and access from anywhere is important to me.
- Decent user interface. I am not looking for a Google Business Suite clone. But, it has to be easy to navigate and at least somewhat intuitive.
- Ability to share/collaborate.
Cryptpad Office Collaboration Suite has all of the above. It is not perfect, but then neither is Google. Also, because it is open source, you can go direct or use other organizations that implement CryptPad. I started with U.S. based https://unredacted.org. Then I switched to cryptpad.fr.
Office App Security & Privacy
As the name of the suite indicates, CryptPad is end-to-end encrypted. Wherever you decided to join, the data stored in the server – your documents – is encrypted. The host cannot read your documents. Your data is yours.
Like other online apps, your access is granted via user name and password. What is different is that CryptPad does NOT collect other information from you. No email, no phone number, no birth date, not even your name. Since they are not using the app to gather personal information for marketing or to sell like other organizations, they simply don’t collect it.
With Personally Identifiable Information (PII) being hacked across websites and platforms, CryptPad can’t be targeted in this way. Even if a hacker managed to breach the server, there is nothing to tell them who the users are or even be used to connect them to other data sources.
The downside? If you lose your user name or password, you’re screwed. There is no account recovery mechanism to which you can have a text or an email sent. CryptPad is very clear about this when you set up an account. It is the ultimate in personal accountability. A bit like a Swiss bank account only accessible if you have the number. Lose the number and lose the content.
Storage Space
The free version of Cryptpad provide one GB of online storage. Online docs don’t take much space, so for me 1GB is fine. You can also subscribe for more space of needed.
A feature I appreciate: When you create a new document, you can set trash-date. If you want, the document can be deleted automatically after 1, 2, 3 or more months. For me it is not so much a space issue as an organization issue. I work through ideas by writing and can pile up a lot of documents that are just working through a topic, or figuring out how i want to word something. I don’t need these; but I don’t actively delete them either. So, I tend to have a lot of junk. This auto-trash feature is perfect for a wondering mind.
Connecting with others
Connecting to other users is done by sending them your profile link, or getting thier profile link. Once you have it, you can send or accept a profile connection request. When both users agree to a connection, file can be share directly without using a share link.
File sharing with non-CryptPad users
You can use a share link to give someone else read or edit access. A neat feature is that you can provide a “view once.” If you want to get some feedback but not actually do a full collaboration.
By connecting with other people using CryptPad, you can share documents with their profile.
There are some known bugs in CryptPad. One us that spellcheck is does not always function. Fortunately, with the Rich Text Editor, the browsers built-in spell check will highlight spelling issues.
Our information is currency. It is used by large tech firms to monetize our activity, feed us a never-ending stream of influences, and create time-sucks that they can further use for monetization. Moving away from some of the big-tech solutions helps us mitigate the influence these companies have. So, where we can, we should find and support alternatives.