Nextcloud 19: overlap between Onlyoffice and Collabora?

🏷️ General
1

Hi everyone,

with the release of Nextcloud 19, we learn that with the new and improved Talk app, there is now an integration with Collabora and that Collabora would be shipped with Nextcloud 19 out of the box:

Collabora Online will be shipped out of the box with Nextcloud Hub in version 19. A special community server has been developed which dramatically eases the work required for installation, avoiding the need for web server configuration, docker containers and more. This version however sacrifices scalability for this ease of installation and is not suitable beyond private use. We recommend the existing Collabora Office solutions for that, with docker images for small offices and more scalable solutions available for enterprises through Nextcloud GmbH.

However in the previous major version of Nextcloud (18), the big news were that there would be an out of the box installation of Onlyoffice, which, as far as I can tell, is pretty much a competitor to Collabora.

Doesn’t that duplicate purpose? Why was the decision to push Onlyoffice for 18 and now shift focus to Collabora in 19? Which is better?

2

I have tried both and I can say

collabora

everything works but it is slower

onlyoffice

works much lighter and I personally like it, but it has a problem that it doesn’t sync the content in the desktop app

test on barebone
dual core procesor 4gb ram debian buster

3

No.
It means you have options.
Pick your own “poison”…:slight_smile:

If you search around this forum you will know why OnlyOffice fell out of favour…

4

I agree it is a bit messy. Now that there is an integration of Collabora with Talk, I hope we don’t see a situation where certain integrated features are only available to one office suite or the other. I think that’s something to avoid.

I’m glad to see an emphasis on Collabora, rather than OnlyOffice, as I think it’s a more credible project. But I think it’s a pity LibreOffice Online couldn’t have chosen instead, which is essentially the same product, but without any of the unnecessary restrictions.