There is no shortage of document applications available on Android, but you don’t want just any old document app. What you want is a full-featured office suite alternative that gives you everything you could need and more, and it’s all the better if it happens to be free. That’s exactly what you get with ONLYOFFICE. It’s a free, full-featured office suite alternative that lets you create text documents, spreadsheets, and even presentations, and you can edit them right in the app, with availability on the Google Play Store as well as on PC through the company’s main website.
ONLYOFFICE was created by a Latvian software company called Ascensio System SIA, which was founded in 2009. Not more than a year later, ONLYOFFICE was created under its initial name of TeamLab in 2010, which Ascensio System SIA rebranded to ONLYOFFICE a few years later in 2014. So, Ascensio System SIA and ONLYOFFICE have been around for a while, and now serve companies like Fujitsu and Oracle, as well as various government agencies. Naturally, organizations like this have some pretty big needs from office suite tools, and that makes ONLYOFFICE all the more impressive.
That’s all thanks to an impressive set of features, which includes things like creation and editing of text documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, as well as various options for font and format editing, cloud storage integration, offline and local editing, an AI Assistant, and our personal favorite, collaboration features like file sharing with different levels of access. In short, it does a lot for you. On top of that, the app is maintained regularly with the addition of new features often. In fact, the latest update was on December 4. With all of this in mind, I was eager to test out ONLYOFFICE for myself, as I’ve been a longtime user of other tools. So, I’m always interested in seeing what other options are out there. With that in mind, let’s dive into this review and take a closer look at ONLYOFFICE as an alternative to a full office suite.
ONLYOFFICE is a free, open source full office suite alternative that boasts a wide variety of features for just as wide a variety of users. From students to professionals, ONLYOFFICE offers the tools you need to perform any number of daily tasks. Documents, presentations, spreadsheets can all be created and imported into the app for working on the go. You can even import PDF files and fill them out if necessary.
Pros
- Incredible amount of document editing features
- Free, full office suite alternative
- Open source
- Constant updates with new features added often
- Local and offline compatibility
- Cloud storage integration with a variety of collaboration features
- Digital AI assistant feature
Cons
- AI Assistant requires API key, which some users may not have
ONLYOFFICE key features and my personal user experience with each of them
When it comes to key features, editing of text documents, spreadsheets, and presentations is the bread and butter of ONLYOFFICE and its mission of continuing to provide a free office suite alternative that doesn’t skimp on features. In fact, there was a lot I was able to do with the app in terms of editing. So, let’s start there.
Editing documents, spreadsheets, and presentations
Having a full spread of editing features is an important trait for any tool like ONLYOFFICE. The fewer editing features you offer, the less your tool is going to be used. While this might not be a big deal for some, for me personally, and likely many others, a wide range of editing features is necessary to ensure I’m able to do what I need to. This includes, but isn’t limited to, changing details with the font. It seems like a basic feature, and that’s because it is.
Changing your font type, color, size, or anything else with it should never be something that’s locked up behind a paywall or just not offered at all. Thankfully, ONLYOFFICE isn’t blocking this off. You can change quite a bit with the font so that your documents, spreadsheets, and presentations have the look that you’re envisioning. A font can have a big impact on the outcome of how things look, which is why I was glad to see a lot of font editing options. There are what appear to be 57 fonts available in the app, though it also looks like you can add your own if you have those files stored on your device.
You also get options for changing the format, adding bullet points and numbers, and you can even change the text direction and alter the line spacing if you need to. Presentations and spreadsheets offer many, if not all, of the same editing features. Plus, I found that all of the editing features are relatively user-friendly, with a navigation bar at the bottom that has dedicated buttons for edits. There’s also the “+” button there for adding new elements as well, if this is easier for you to correlate with adding things.
Formatting your text and adding images are both relatively simple things to do and seem to work well when I tested them. They’re incredibly easy in presentations, because there’s an image icon in the bottom navigation bar. You can add images to documents as well, but you’ll need to hit that “+” button first, then tap on the image option. As for formatting, you can easily format your text to be left, right, or centered with a couple of taps. The same can be done for bullet points if you need to use those. In addition to creating and editing documents within the app, you can also import documents that have been created outside of the app and edit them within it. This was rather easy. All I had to do was make sure that the document was downloaded to my device first, then import it into ONLYOFFICE from inside the app. I didn’t experience any compatibility issues with the documents I tested, so that was a huge plus.
The AI Assistant could be extremely useful for helping you polish your content
AI is becoming more and more a normal part of life, so I wasn’t too surprised when I saw that an AI Assistant was a feature of ONLYOFFICE. It is worth noting that to use this, you need an API Key you can connect to the app from whatever AI tool you’re using. Whether that’s Google AI, Anthropic, or OpenAI. I do not have an API Key from any of these, so I was not able to test this feature myself. But it’s something to keep an eye on if you do have an API Key from one of these tools, as it can easily boost your usability of the app.
That being said, you can use this assistant for tons of stuff. From generating entire documents to rewriting certain parts of text. It can also be used to generate ideas, which you can then take and write your own content based on those ideas. Essentially, it would just be giving you inspiration to work off of. Of course, if you want it to be pretty hands-off, it can also be used to simply check for grammar errors and spelling mistakes. That alone is probably enough of a reason to use it, provided you have the required API key.
Cloud integration is a huge deal
I think for me, and probably for most people, the cloud integration that ONLYOFFICE makes available is one of the most important features. Cloud integration is available on most of these kinds of tools, but that doesn’t make it any less useful here. With cloud integration in ONLYOFFICE, you can easily pull in and edit your documents or spreadsheets without having to go through downloading and importing them first. It saves a few steps and should be great for efficiency.
Unfortunately for me, I could not get cloud integration to work. I first tried by setting up the ONLYOFFICE cloud account. I made several attempts to create this account and set up the port, create passwords, add my email, etc., only to have the app dump me back to the starting screen for the cloud integration setup. ONLYOFFICE lets you integrate cloud accounts through Dropbox, as well as a few other options, such as Google Drive, using the WebDAV option. I have a Dropbox account already, so I tried that.
I didn’t run into the same issue as I did with the ONLYOFFICE cloud account; however, the issue I ran into this time is that after going through the captcha by signing into my Dropbox account, Dropbox would verify I was a human, but then ONLYOFFICE would tell me that verification had failed. I would then have to start this process all over again. I could not figure out the problem was even after closing the app and relaunching it, changing internet connections, and so on. I am confident that this feature is a huge benefit if it works properly, but I was not able to test it.
Collaboration is a key feature, and you have plenty of control
I think for any office suite app, including ONLYOFFICE, collaboration features are key. Having them isn’t enough, though. They need to be robust and give collaborators plenty of control. ONLYOFFICE does just that. I can share the documents or spreadsheets with other people easily enough, but I was also able to set varying levels of access based on my needs.
I think it is hugely beneficial if you often work with larger teams, and you plan on sharing your documents and such with large groups of people. For example, say you’re working on a project with 20 different people, but there are a few people you don’t want to have edit access. You can set this up with your documents and spreadsheets so that you designate who can edit and who can view only. This is important for security purposes, and I think it’s a must-have feature. I’m glad that ONLYOFFICE didn’t overlook this crucial factor. It’s also possible to co-edit documents in real time. However, you will need the cloud feature up and running for this to work.
The UI is pretty straightforward and was simple to use
With an app like this, it’s important that the user interface not only looks good but is easy to use. In all honesty, I personally think it’s less important to have a pretty UI than it is to have a functional one that’s easy for users to navigate. If it looks good, that’s a nice bonus. The UI in ONLYOFFICE was pretty decent in terms of styling. It doesn’t include any unnecessary design fluff, and everything is marked out pretty well. For example, the search icon is up top in the right-hand corner, along with a folder icon for importing files when needed.
Then there’s the nav bar at the bottom with recent files, an option for cloud integration, files that are on the device locally, and then your settings, with a giant yellow “+” button for adding a new file type.
In terms of comparison, ONLYOFFICE functions a lot like other alternative options, such as Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides, as well as Microsoft Office. I really didn’t notice anything lacking, as I was able to get everything I needed out of ONLYOFFICE, just as I would if I were using Google’s office tools. ONLYOFFICE has some advantages as well. It’s open source, for one, and that encourages others to collaborate on its functionality, which is ironic since collaboration on documents is one of the best features of this app. There are also no paywalls for core features, which is a huge benefit for anyone who’s looking for an affordable solution to office tools. In fact, this is perfect for students, who may not have that much extra money to shell out for a more expensive office suite.
Is ONLYOFFICE worthy of your time?
While ONLYOFFICE has a few limitations, like any piece of software, they aren’t limitations that would keep me from using this Android app as a main set of office tools. The main limitation I personally ran into was the connectivity issue with the cloud integration, and I think that’s probably something that’s easily fixable with an app update. I also noticed that the app can sometimes be slow to recognize my text input when typing via the touch keyboard if I’m typing too quickly, causing it to miss letters I had tapped. With that in mind, you should probably be using a physical keyboard for longer typing projects anyway.
Especially if you’re a student or someone who’s using these tools in a professional setting, which is who this app is perfect for. Overall, I think ONLYOFFICE works pretty well, and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a free office suite tool that doesn’t compromise on features.
“Disclaimer: The developer of this app paid a fee to expedite this review. Our editorial team maintained full independence, and this review reflects our honest assessment.”
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