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Productivity & Knowledge

An open-source alternative to Google Docs

Docs is the one project in our catalog listed as a replacement for Google Docs. It is documents software with 17K GitHub stars. Below is how it measures against the questions people usually ask first.

Docs

Documents

Write and organise documents together in real time on your own server.

Docs is a shared editor where a team can write, organise and discuss documents in real time. It began as a joint project of the French and German governments, for organisations that want to keep control of their data. Organisations can run it on their own servers and connect it to their existing login system.

  • Real-time editing with live cursors, presence and comments.
  • Nested sub-documents and search for organising team knowledge.
  • Optional AI helpers that work with any OpenAI-compatible provider.

What people use it for

Write a document with colleagues at the same time

Create a document and build it from blocks using slash commands, in rich text or Markdown. Share it with colleagues or external guests at the access level each one needs, and see their cursors and comments as they work. Version history lets you roll back to an earlier state.

Turn notes into a simple presentation

Split a document into slides with the --- delimiter, then start the presentation from any block. Present full screen and move between slides with the keyboard. A presentation link lets others open the same slides.

Bring existing documents into a shared space

Import existing .docx and Markdown files into Docs. Arrange them as sub-documents under a parent page so related material sits together. Pin the pages you use most and find the rest with search.

17K starsMITPythonLatest release 5 days agoWebsite ↗Full profile →

Fact checklist

The same questions the pages with more alternatives let you sort by, answered for Docs.

  • Permissive licence (MIT, Apache, BSD)Licence: MIT (permissive)
  • Open-source licence (copyleft or permissive)Licence: MIT (permissive)
  • Released in the last 90 daysLatest GitHub release Oct 26, 2026 (5 days ago)
  • Does not meet: Gaining stars this weekNot enough star history yet to tell
  • Written in PythonMain language on GitHub
  • Does not meet: Recommended in a stackNot in any of our stacks yet

Data from GitHub and our catalog. Every listing is hand-approved. List prices are what the vendor publishes, not a quote, and self-hosting has its own running costs.