Apache OpenOffice vs. Google Workspace Essentials

In my opinion, Apache OpenOffice is best suited for writing, editing and proofreading texts in any language. You can also download additional language packages that really take up little space in your PC's storage. Of course, Apache OpenOffice is comprehensive of spreadsheet-/drawing-/database-related softwares and so on, but I primarily use it for writing and editing my own texts. I don't see any scenarios where it is less appropriate, at least so far.

Incentivized

I will state this with 2 basic examples, When I require documentation to be edited by many editors then Google workspace is the way to go. It provides the best synching capabilities and also sharing capabilities. In case of meeting conduction through google meet a notes section would be awesome for personal notes and the capability to record the meetings would also help a ton to improve the productivity of all users

Incentivized

• The number one strength of OpenOffice is the flexibility it gives. We can open any file type, save any file type - it's pretty much invincible. Even if we're going to work on this in a different program, just being able to open some of these ancient files that we get from local city governments is a huge win for us.
• It's also administrator friendly - I'll use it a lot on the road because the licensing is so much easier to deal with than trying to check out a license from a server or make sure that everybody has internet connectivity.
• It just looks pretty! It's legitimately a quality product, the layout looks good, it's not nearly as pushy as "other suites," and for the money it's the best!

Incentivized

• Google Docs & Google Slides are essential to our company as we are remote. Multiple people can work on the documents at one time.
• Easy to share and store files in Google Drive.
• Google Calendar is amazing, it integrates seamlessly with other Google products and it's our company's primary calendar tool.

Incentivized

• There seem to be issues using this app in Windows 10. It worked fine when we used it on Windows 7, but after we upgraded the network with NEW Win 10 computers, it takes a very long time to process commands.
• It will not allow any upgrades.

Incentivized

• I'd love to see a formal integration of an Airtable-like program that expands on something like Sheets to really make project management extremely efficient and robust.
• I think it would be useful if public-facing pieces like Google Forms were more customizable to our org's brand.
• Creating some sort of easy-to-manage/integrated CRM, donor management, and marketing software would really change the game.

Incentivized

It is a cheap alternative; however, with Microsoft 365 licenses also dropping significantly, we might opt to go in that direction to maintain uniformity.

Incentivized

Now that our department has used G Suite Essentials for close to 2 years, I can't imagine not using it. It has proven to be a very practical tool for sharing files / folders on a shared drive. It also makes it easy to modify and update content. It is user friendly and the interface is simple.

Incentivized

It is so easy to use and produces quality work comparable to its paid competitor, Microsoft Office. I highly recommend this free software to any who need to make the switch to powerful and free Office software.

Incentivized

Is there really support? There is a user forum but I do not see much developer input. Support options are limited. The most recent (Sept 2019) version of the product seems to have issues operating under Windows 10, yet there are few recent comments in the community forum, most comments are regarding older versions.

Incentivized

We found that it is possible to use Open Office to accomplish everything we need. Some tasks required searching for steps on Google.

Incentivized

Apache OpenOffice is less intense on our computer systems and saves us a ton of financial resources. Since our document creation and editing needs are typical of a small business and not very complex, Apache OpenOffice is sufficient for us. We think that almost any smaller to medium sized business would feel the same way if they don't have a need to make or edit complex documents.

Incentivized

Google Workspace Essentials is more robust than Dropbox with the other features that are available. Google Workspace Essentials is very comparable to Microsoft 365, and we ultimately went with Google because at the time, it was free/priced better than MS, and now we have lots of legacy files already stored on Google servers, so a switch would be too time-consuming. We went with Google Workspace Essentials over OpenOffice because of the email features of using Google.

Incentivized

• Moving to OpenOffice will save the company the cost of 500+ of Microsoft Office licenses in our company.
• Because it is cross-platform, we could also save 500+ of Microsoft Windows licenses if we move everyone to Linux.
• On the negative side, the lack of online collaboration and browser support may be an issue when you use clouds like Box, Workboard etc.

Incentivized

• Not being able to record some meeting had an impact on context loss which hampers ROI
• Seamless integration has increased ROI in some cases
• Ability to not convert the office work files to MS office format properly has reduced ROI in some cases.

Incentivized