What it is

CommunityServer, now distributed as ONLYOFFICE Groups from version 11.0, is a free open-source collaborative platform written in C# and licensed under Apache 2.0. It lives in the ONLYOFFICE Workspace ecosystem and acts as a central hub for documents, projects, clients, and email accounts.

The problem it addresses is the fragmentation of business productivity tools across separate systems for file sharing, project tracking, customer records, internal communication, and email aggregation. By combining document management, project management, CRM, blogs, forums, wiki, calendar, People, and Mail, it gives teams a shared workspace that can integrate with Docs, Mail Server, Talk, and Control Panel.

Key capabilities

• Document management organizes and shares files with flexible access permissions, embeds documents into websites or applications, and integrates with Google Drive, Box, Dropbox, OneDrive, and ownCloud.
• Project management creates projects with milestones, tasks, and subtasks, visualizes workflows with Gantt charts, and tracks task time with automated reports.
• CRM manages a customer database, tracks contacts, logs interactions, generates invoices, tracks payments, and creates web-to-lead forms.
• Collaboration tools include blogs, forums, an internal wiki, a shared calendar, a People directory, and a Mail client that aggregates multiple email accounts.
• The platform can integrate with ONLYOFFICE Docs for online editing of documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and PDF files, while Mail Server, Talk, Control Panel, custom modules, and the API extend its administration and development options.

Who uses it and how

• Teams that need one internal hub for files, projects, customers, and email use it to reduce movement between disconnected productivity tools.
• Project managers define milestones, assign tasks and subtasks, view Gantt charts, record time, and produce automated reports. Sales and support staff use CRM to maintain contacts, log interactions, generate invoices, track payments, and capture leads through web-to-lead forms.
• Self-hosting administrators deploy the official Docker image, configure the platform through the Control Panel, and connect optional Docs, Mail Server, and Talk components for a broader ONLYOFFICE Workspace.

Getting started

The README points to the official Docker image named Docker-CommunityServer and to Linux installation documentation for setup. Administrators can use the Control Panel to configure the deployed ONLYOFFICE Groups instance.

When to use it — and when not to

Use CommunityServer when an organization wants an Apache 2.0, C#-based, self-hosted ONLYOFFICE Workspace foundation and can operate Docker deployment, Control Panel administration, and optional Docs, Mail Server, Talk, and cloud storage integrations. It may be less suitable for teams that want minimal operational burden, because the facts emphasize self-hosting and show 206 open issues with no listed contributor count.