ONLYOFFICE, the free office suite for Windows and macOS | Tips and Tricks

ONLYOFFICE is a complete suite of office and productivity applications. It is an open source software, produced by the Latvian company Ascensio Systems SIA. It consists of a client and an optional server, two elements that make it installable on a computer on the one hand and connectable to a company server on the other.

In fact, ONLYOFFICE presents itself as a valid alternative to Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace, namely the two most famous suites at the moment.

If the premise intrigued you, below you will find our full review of the product.

How ONLYOFFICE works

The ONLYOFFICE suite, allows you to work on text documents, spreadsheets e presentations on Windows, macOS and Linux. To try the desktop client connected to this page of the official website of ONLYOFFICE, then select the version according to the operating system in use and start the download.

ONLYOFFICE works on Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7, Vista and XP, on macOS 10.12 or higher, on macOS 10.11 x86, and on Linux-based operating systems Debian (version 7, 8 or higher) Ubuntu (version 12.04, 14.04 or above) CentOS and RHEL.

At the end of the download follow the installation wizard, after which you are ready to use ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editor. The main screen offers a first overview: from here you can decide whether to create a new document, spreadsheet or presentation, view a recent file, open one saved in the internal memory of the computer, or connect to a server.

Activate the mode cloud allows you to have additional features compared to the simple offline client. For example, you can collaborate in real time with other colleagues or superiors in a project, as happens in the most famous solutions offered by Microsoft and Google. Furthermore, the connection to a server allows you to take advantage of the “private rooms“, Where the author can encrypt files using the AES-256 encryption, one of the safest standards to date.

Regarding this, the software itself offers a number of options that make it extremely secure. Among these there is also the document protection via password or digital signature, in order to guarantee secure authentication. To activate it you just have to open the desired document, select the “File“At the top left, then from the menu that opens choose the item”Protect“. From here then select the protection mode you prefer, with password or digital signature.

ONLYOFFICE Groups

One of the most interesting products in the suite is ONLYOFFICE Groups, the free and open source collaborative platform designed for a team. It has six different modules:

• Documents: Organize and archive business documents
• Mail: keep an inbox organized at best
• CRM: you have a complete platform for sales managers
• Projects: plan every team activity and increase productivity
• Calendar: Develop a personal or collaborator agenda
• Community: improve the communication aspect by interacting on blogs, forums and chats

ONLYOFFICE Documents

Another flagship product within the suite is ONLYOFFICE Documents, which includes applications for Android and iOS devices:

With ONLYOFFICE Documents you have an editor for documents, spreadsheets and presentations in one app. In addition to that, it also works as a PDF viewer and media player (only on Android). You can also decide whether to work on your mobile device (even offline on iPhone and iPad), in the ONLYOFFICE cloud by connecting services such as Google Drive, Dropbox, or in the cloud of your choice, as long as it works via WebDAV. Finally, the iOS version offers an additional feature: importing documents from other apps such as Files and iTunes.

The advantages of ONLYOFFICE

Let’s now briefly summarize the strengths of ONLYOFFICE:

• Safety: the ability to password protect documents or digital signature for secure authentication. In “secret rooms”256-bit AES encryption is available
• Cloud: the connection with popular cloud services. NextCloud, ownCloud, Seafile allow you to collaborate with your team in real time
• Complete work: various formatting tools and plugins already included such as Mendeley, Google Translate, YouTube, WordPress to offer a complete job
• Ease of use: the interface of each editor is intuitive, familiar
• Data control: the suite can be installed on your own servers
• Compatibility: guarantee of total compatibility with Microsoft Office formats
• Open source: the source code is always available, the developers therefore have the opportunity to check any software vulnerabilities 24 hours a day, every day of the year
• Backup– You can create backups to many cloud services, including Google Cloud, AWS, and WebDAV
• Interoperability: works on Windows PC, Mac, Linux environments, Android smartphones, iPhones and iPads

How much

ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors, ONLYOFFICE Documents for Adroid and iOS, ONLYOFFICE Groups, ONLYOFFICE Docs Community Edition for home use are free and while the cloud service version of ONLYOFFICE Workspace is free for startups.

I paid products they are instead:

• ONLYOFFICE Enterprise Edition: 139 euro one-off for the Home Server plan, 1,020 euro one-off for the Single Server plan, on request for the Cluster plan
• ONLYOFFICE Developer Edition: lifetime license at 1,275 euros for the Development Server plan, 1-year subscription at 5,875 euros for the Single Server plan, on request for the Cluster plan
• ONLYOFFICE Workspace Cloud Service: free for the Startup plan with 5 users, 4.2 euros per user per month in the Business plan (minimum 3 users), 6.8 euros per user per month in the Vip plan (minimum 100 users)
• ONLYOFFICE Workspace Server Enterprise: lifetime license at 1,650 euros for the Enterprise plan, lifetime license at 2,500 euros for the Enterprise Plus plan, lifetime license at 3,500 euros for the Enterprise Premium plan

Useful resources

If you need more details on ONLYOFFICE we suggest you connect to service center, where you can find complete guides on installation and use.

Do you want to ask for help at support team to solve a problem? Then go to the “Contact form for assistance” page and fill in the required fields.

Also you can use the forum, the chat on the site or for direct contact by voice, call the phone number +371 633 998 67.