5 Best Google Docs Alternatives (Features and Pricing)

Udn Webber

Editorial Coordinator

Google Docs is a great document creation tool that lets you work alongside your team members in real-time. Teams can use it to document notes, ideas, and processes to keep everyone on the same page …literally.

However, it lacks advanced collaboration options and offers limited offline access and permissions.

Instead of forcing you to compromise, we’re here to help you find the best Google Docs alternatives.

In this article, we’ll go over why you need an alternative to Google Docs and highlight the five best tools you can use today.

Let’s document some alternatives. 📝

2 Major Reasons Why You Need A Google Docs Alternative

Google Docs is a cloud-based document editing and collaboration tool that lets teams create, share, and edit documents in a centralized place.

It lets virtual teams easily collaborate on documents with features like:

This way, you won’t have to collaborate by sending documents via email to one another. After all, long email threads only mean lost documents and stressful experiences with your team . 😫

Google Docs also lets you add images to your Google document using the built-in Google search engine and even use other Google apps like Google Slides alongside your work.

And while all that sounds cool, the Google Docs app does have a few glaring limitations:

1. Lacks advanced collaboration features

Google Docs has a few basic content collaboration features like real-time editing, document sharing, and cloud storage. You can even create Gantt charts or calendars in Google Docs .

However, if you want to document a large project, this Google app won’t cut it. 💇

It lacks advanced collaboration features like progress tracking, time tracking , custom task statuses, and more. These are essential if you want to monitor project performance and give life to that space vision.

2. Difficult to use as a knowledge base system

Here are three reasons why Google Docs isn’t the most comprehensive knowledge base solution :

“Ugh, where is that document I opened a second ago?”

“I remember a teammate shared that doc with me, but I can’t find it anywhere!”

Sounds familiar?

Creating a decent filing system in Google Docs might feel like you’re on a trek.

The journey is long, and the roads are rough.

You’ll even have to use Google Drive to manually create folders and organize your documents based on their projects.

Instead, with an alternative to Google Docs , you can spend that time being productive!

Sharing and permissions can be a total drag in Google Docs.

Sometimes you forget to give a teammate access, and other times you hit the “anyone with link” option.

Scenario one will result in wasted time and confusion, and scenario two, well… let’s just say you’ve kinda freely given your documents to the internet.

Google Docs doesn’t let you nest pages (create subpages).

Why are nested pages important for knowledge management?

Being able to nest pages means that you can create a well-structured document where certain pages are set up as subpages of other primary pages.

Without them, your complex documents will be difficult to organize.

5 Best Google Docs Alternatives

Since Google Docs isn’t really the best document collaboration tool, here are five excellent  alternatives:

1. UDN Task Manager

UDN Task Manager is the world’s highest-rated productivity and document collaboration software used by several teams in small and large companies.

From helping you get ahead with unique project templates to tracking the time spent on tasks, UDN Task Manager is the ultimate project management tool .

But wait… how will a project management software help you manage documents?

The answer lies in Docs .

Docs let you create awesome documents for anything you can imagine! 🤩

Powerful knowledge bases, user guides, meeting minutes, SOPs …. when it comes to Docs, the world is your oyster.

Just write out to your heart’s content using its unlimited number of pages.

And for easy file management, use UDN Task Manager Docs’ Relationships feature to link related tasks and pages, so you don’t have to look through multiple wiki pages to find them. Or you can tag Docs for easy reference and searchability.

You can also create nested pages (up to five levels) in your Docs and move nested pages around by dragging and dropping them.

Need to share your Doc with teammates or external collaborators?

Just use sharing and permissions in UDN Task Manager !

You can share:

You can also enhance security measures by protecting your Docs from unwanted edits. Simply turn on the Protect this page option and add context for your audience.

What’s more?

Collaborative editing lets everyone in your Workspace comment, edit, and work on the Doc simultaneously, without any overlap. You’ll also know who is working on what with real-time collaboration detection .

You can also customize your Docs for your needs with a wide variety of features like:

But that’s not all.

Get ready to take in even more delicious features!

Check out UDN Task Manager ’s roadmap to see how we’re fixing such limitations.

And explore all the exciting features that this free alternative to Google Docs has in store for you!

UDN Task Manager offers three pricing plans:

2. Microsoft Office Online

Microsoft Office Online is a great online collaborative writing tool. This office software gives you free access to Microsoft Word, Calendar, Forms, and more.

However, you can’t access password-protected documents or run macros inside a document when using MS Word online.

So here’s what’ll happen if you try to access those important docs:

Microsoft Office Online is a free document editing solution.

3. Zoho Docs

Zoho Docs is an online document editing tool with some basic project management features like reminders , user reports, and an in-app chat.

However, essential document management features like password-protected files and file sharing with non-users come with a price tag .

It’s only about the money, money, money… 🎵

Zoho Docs has three pricing plans:

4. Dropbox Paper

Dropbox Paper is a document editing tool with a cool personal assistant feature. It lets you know when you have a looming deadline or when someone shares a doc with you.

However, if you want to use the app for personal use, you may wanna look elsewhere.

You don’t get file locking on the personal pricing plans.

Dropbox Paper has six plans:

5. Apache OpenOffice

Apache OpenOffice is an open-source collaboration tool that lets you create documents, 3D illustrations, mathematical equations, and more.

The office app has a cool editing feature that auto-corrects, auto-completes, and spell checks to catch mistakes on the fly.

However, its UI is quite outdated compared to other document editing tools.

This document editing tool is free to download.

Time To Edit Out Google Docs 🖊

Don’t get us wrong, Google Docs is a handy document editing software.

But that’s about all it can do.

Fortunately, there are other collaboration tools that’ll make you strike through Google Docs.

If you’re confused about where to begin, why not start with UDN Task Manager ?

Not only does UDN Task Manager let you create documents and edit them alongside your teammates in real-time, but it also lets you manage projects with ease.

From helping you map out ideas in mind maps to tracking your due dates , UDN Task Manager is the best Google Docs and Microsoft Office alternative.

Join UDN Task Manager for free today to experience the ultimate document management tool and…