head to head · open source
CryptPad vs ONLYOFFICE Docs
CryptPad has 7,920 GitHub stars, 849 forks, 401 open issues and last shipped yesterday. ONLYOFFICE Docs has 6,910 stars, 1,308 forks, 1,135 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. CryptPad leads on adoption by 15% (7,920 vs 6,910 stars). CryptPad is written in JavaScript under AGPL-3.0; ONLYOFFICE Docs is written in Shell under AGPL-3.0. CryptPad has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, ONLYOFFICE Docs 19%. CryptPad was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (collaboration), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| CryptPad | ONLYOFFICE Docs | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 7.9K | ★ 6.9K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | Shell |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-07-22 |
| Forks | ⑂ 849 | ⑂ 1.3K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick CryptPad if
- You weight community size — 7.9K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick ONLYOFFICE Docs if
- You want the ONLYOFFICE Docs feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Shell
- You evaluated both and ONLYOFFICE Docs fits your workflow better
About CryptPad
CryptPad is an open source collaboration suite built around end to end encryption, written in JavaScript and released under the AGPL 3.0. It lives in the JavaScript and real time collaboration ecosystem, using ChainPad to synchronize changes to documents in real time. The suite covers documents, sheets, presentations, forms, kanban boards, code, rich text, and whiteboards, all reachable from a single CryptDrive, and it is positioned as an open alternative to Google Docs.
read the full CryptPad overview →
About ONLYOFFICE Docs
ONLYOFFICE Docs is a free collaborative online office suite of viewers and editors for text documents, spreadsheets, presentations, forms, PDFs and diagrams, intended for teams and organisations that need real time document collaboration either inside their own infrastructure or embedded in a third party file sharing platform.
read the full ONLYOFFICE Docs overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is CryptPad or ONLYOFFICE Docs more popular?
CryptPad has 7,920 GitHub stars and ONLYOFFICE Docs has 6,910. CryptPad has the larger community by that measure.
Are CryptPad and ONLYOFFICE Docs free?
Both are open source. CryptPad is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and ONLYOFFICE Docs under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between CryptPad and ONLYOFFICE Docs?
CryptPad is written in JavaScript and ONLYOFFICE Docs in Shell. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, CryptPad or ONLYOFFICE Docs?
Choose CryptPad if you want the larger community (7,920 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose ONLYOFFICE Docs if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.