ONLYOFFICE vs Zoho Writer

ONLYOFFICE

• Organizations that want to host their own office suite
• Teams on Nextcloud, Box, Moodle or Odoo that need document editing there
• Sharing files with clients in separate rooms with their own permissions
• People who want free desktop editors that work offline

Zoho Writer

• Individuals who want a free word processor on every device
• Businesses generating contracts, letters and forms from CRM data
• Teams already using Zoho WorkDrive or Zoho Workplace

ONLYOFFICE

• The free DocSpace Startup plan stops at 3 admins, 12 rooms and 2 GB, and lacks SAML SSO, LDAP, branding, a custom domain and the audit trail.
• DocSpace Business costs $20 per admin a month; the pricing page shows it as reduced from $30 and gives no end date for that price.
• Docs Enterprise is licensed by simultaneous connections, from $1,500 for a 1-year, 50-connection, on-premises license with Basic support.
• A 1-year Docs Enterprise license stops working when it ends; a lifetime license keeps running but loses free updates after its support period.

Zoho Writer

• There is no standalone paid Writer plan; the pricing page sends businesses to a Zoho WorkDrive subscription for the paid edition.
• Document automation is metered: 200 free credits a month per organization (1,000 on the paid edition), then $0.05 a credit, falling to $0.01 at high volume.
• WorkDrive plans start at 3 users; buying 1 or 2 seats means contacting Zoho's sales team.
• Zia's grammar, spelling and style checks cover English, French, Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese.

ONLYOFFICE

Document, sheet and slide editors

Online editors for text documents, spreadsheets and presentations, which the vendor describes as highly compatible with Microsoft Office and OpenDocument formats.

PDF editor and fillable forms

Build fillable PDF forms and have them filled in online, read and edit PDFs, and convert documents to Markdown, HTML or e-books.

Real-time co-editing

Co-edit in character-level or paragraph-level mode, track changes, compare documents, leave comments and mentions, and chat or call from inside the editor.

DocSpace rooms

DocSpace sorts files into rooms with their own access rights: collaboration, public, form-filling and custom rooms, and virtual data rooms.

AI assistants and agents

AI tools generate documents, sheets, slides and forms, rewrite and translate text, and extract text from scanned PDFs. Any AI model can be connected, including a fully local one.

Connectors and self-hosting

More than 40 ready-made connectors add the editors to platforms such as Nextcloud, Box, Moodle, Odoo and WordPress, and the server can run on your own infrastructure.

Zoho Writer

Real-time collaboration and review

Documents are shared with set permissions and edited together in real time, with tracked changes to accept or reject, comments with @mentions and document versions.

Zia writing assistant

Zia generates, rewrites, shortens and summarizes text, checks grammar and spelling in English, French, Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese, and translates into more than 70 languages.

Document automation

Merge, fillable and sign templates generate personalized documents, PDFs and web forms from business data, with a visual flow builder. Generating documents uses credits.

Word and Google Docs compatibility

Writer imports, edits and saves DOCX and Google Docs files along with RTF, ODT, TXT, HTML and PDF. Imports are limited to 50 MB for DOCX and 10 MB for other formats.

Offline mode and apps

Desktop apps for Windows, macOS and Linux have a full offline mode, and there are iOS and Android apps. Changes made offline sync when you are back online.

Plagiarism check and publishing

An in-document plagiarism checker reports the degree of overlap with links to matching sources, and documents can be published to WordPress, Medium or Blogger from Writer.

ONLYOFFICE

• Community and free appsFree

  Docs Community and DocSpace Community builds for self-hosting, desktop editors for Windows, Linux and macOS, and iOS and Android apps.

• DocSpace Startup$0

  Cloud plan with up to 3 admins, 12 rooms and 2 GB of storage, and unlimited users and guests. The page labels it a limited-time offer.

• DocSpace Business$20

  per admin / month

  Cloud plan with unlimited rooms, 250 GB per admin, SSO, branding, automatic backups and audit trail. Shown reduced from a crossed-out $30.

• Docs EnterpriseFrom $1,500

  1-year license, 50 connections, on-premises, Basic support

  Self-hosted editors to connect to another platform, licensed by simultaneous connections for 1 year or for life, with three support levels.

• DocSpace EnterpriseCustom

  On-premises DocSpace paid per connection, with unlimited admins and rooms, multi-space management and support under an SLA.

Zoho Writer

• Free$0

  The full word processor on web, desktop and mobile, with unlimited documents and 200 free automation credits a month per organization.

• WorkDrive Starter$2.50

  per user / month, billed annually ($3 monthly); min. 3 users

  Zoho WorkDrive with the Zoho Office Suite, including Writer, 1 TB of team storage for 3 to 10 users and 1,000 free automation credits a month.

• Workplace Standard$3

  per user / month, billed annually ($4 billed monthly)

  Zoho Workplace: Writer, Sheet and Show alongside Mail with 30 GB per user, WorkDrive, Cliq and Meeting.

• WorkDrive Team$4.50

  per user / month, billed annually ($6 monthly); min. 3 users

  3 TB of team storage for 3 to 10 users, a 50 GB upload limit per file and data recovery for up to 120 days.

• Workplace Professional$6

  per user / month, billed annually ($7 billed monthly)

  100 GB of mail storage per user, 1 TB of team file storage for 3 to 10 users and the Connect intranet.

• WorkDrive Business$9

  per user / month, billed annually ($11 monthly); min. 3 users

  5 TB of team storage for 3 to 10 users, custom workflows, data loss prevention policies and an admin audit trail.

ONLYOFFICE

• Nonprofit

  Free DocSpace cloud for nonprofits and schools

  Nonprofits and schools can request a free DocSpace cloud with 2 GB of storage and up to 20 admins. It requires an ONLYOFFICE banner on their website or a post about the partnership.

• Education

  Discounted rate for educational institutions

  The DocSpace pricing FAQ says educational institutions other than schools can get a discounted rate. No figure is published.

• Lifetime license

  Lifetime license for Docs Enterprise

  Docs Enterprise can be bought with a lifetime license instead of a 1-year one. The version bought keeps working, but free updates end with the support period chosen, 1 or 3 years.

Zoho Writer

• Annual discount

  Lower WorkDrive rates with annual billing

  WorkDrive Starter is $2.50 per user a month billed annually against $3 billed monthly. Team is $4.50 against $6 and Business $9 against $11.

• Annual discount

  Lower Workplace rates with annual billing

  Workplace Standard is $3 per user a month billed annually against $4 billed monthly, and Workplace Professional is $6 against $7.