3.4/5
iOS App Store rating
19 ratings
Report
Should I Use Collabora Online and Collabora Office?
Collaborative Open-Source Document Editing Controlled by You
Depends
DependsBuy if you need self-hosted, sovereign document collaboration and have IT staff to run and patch it.
Solid self-hosted Office alternative with real co-editing — only worth it if you can run the servers yourself.
Confidence: Medium
Yes
Free tier
CODE demo edition
Per user
Pricing model
Monthly/annual, quote-based
Self-host
Deployment
Or via trusted hosting partners
Value for money
4
Open-source core; you pay mainly for support
Ease of use
3
Deploy praised as easy, but self-hosting is required
Feature depth
4
Full suite: co-editing, track changes, mobile apps
Support quality
4
Testimonial praises responsive support and helpful docs
Security posture
4
Sovereign by design; one CVE patched in 23.05
Pros
Cons
Gotchas
- highFree CODE is dev-only: 10 docs, 20 connections; production needs a paid subscription⁷
- mediumPricing is quote-only; expect a sales process before knowing your cost¹
- mediumOpen-core model: without a subscription you carry maintenance and testing yourself⁸
- mediumDesktop-first product; mobile app ratings are weak³
Best for
- Regulated orgs needing data sovereignty
- Education and public sector
- Nextcloud/ownCloud users
- Teams with existing IT infrastructure
Not for
- Small teams wanting instant Google Docs — self-hosting is real work
- Non-technical buyers with no server admin capacity
- iOS-heavy teams — app rated just 3.4/5
- Anyone wanting published prices and instant signup
Companies that use it
- OpenText (Filr)
- SURF
- Antecedent
Pricing
CODE
Free
- Development/testing edition
- Limited: 10 docs, 20 connections
Collabora Online/Office
Quote-based per user
- Billed monthly or annually
- Discounts for NGOs and education
Security
Self-hosted for full data control; CVE-2024-6472 (macro signature validation) was fixed in the 23.05 release.
- CVE-2024-6472 — macro signature validationAbility to trust non-validated macro signatures; fixed in Collabora Online 23.05 release notes.⁵
What users say
Deployers praise easy setup and responsive support, while mobile app ratings sit at a mediocre 3.4/5.
“Collabora Online was very easy to deploy, and came with helpful documentation, and Collabora's support is very r…”
“Collabora Online is an obvious choice for us because it is based entirely on free software”
“Collabora Online and Collabora Office cost a huge amount to maintain, test and support. So the model is: the software is open source”
Alternatives
Compare Collabora Online and Collabora Office with each alternative.
Google Workspace
Zero-infrastructure collaboration; easiest, but data lives with Google.
Collabora Online and Collabora Office vs Google WorkspaceMicrosoft 365
Best Office file fidelity and ecosystem if sovereignty isn't required.
OnlyOffice
Closest self-hosted rival; Collabora dedicates a comparison page to it.
LibreOffice
Free desktop suite, same engine; no browser collaboration.
Collabora Online and Collabora Office vs LibreOfficeFull analysis
Based on 20 public sources; independent review data is thin (19 iOS ratings, one third-party hands-on review).
Sources
- Collabora Online home pagecollaboraonline.comofficial
review
- Collabora Office — App Store ratingsapps.apple.comreview
- Collabora Online/Office Subscriptions (reseller pricing)linuxfabrik.chofficial
- Collabora Online 23.05 Release Notes (CVE-2024-6472)collaboraonline.comsecurity
- Collabora product security pagecollaboraonline.comsecurity
- Nextcloud forum: CODE document/connection limitshelp.nextcloud.comreview
review
- It's FOSS: Collabora CODE 26.04 free demoitsfoss.comnews
- Collabora Online testimonialscollaboraonline.comofficial
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