CryptPad vs Google Workspace
CryptPad and Google Workspace are both office suite software. CryptPad is open source under AGPL-3.0, with 8k GitHub stars. Google Workspace is a commercial product from Google.
Which to pick
- Pick CryptPad when
- Confidentiality is the deciding factor and you want shared documents that even the server operator cannot read, either self-hosted or on cryptpad.fr.
- Pick Google Workspace when
- A small or mid-size business that works mostly in the browser and values real-time co-editing over desktop Office features.
Side by side
An end-to-end encrypted office suite in the browser with documents, spreadsheets, presentations, forms, kanban and whiteboards, where the server cannot read the content.
Gmail on your domain, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Calendar and Meet, managed from one admin console.
Encryption makes server-side search, recovery of lost keys and integrations harder, and large spreadsheets and documents can feel slower than Google or Microsoft equivalents.
Sheets and Docs fall short of Excel and Word for heavy files, and moving off it later takes real effort.
Production-ready (both)
Self-hosted server and cloud service
Cloud service and mobile app
JavaScript, Node.js and OnlyOffice
Not published
Open source, AGPL-3.0 (network copyleft)
Closed source, sold by Google
Use inside your business is unrestricted. If you change it and let customers use it over the internet, you must publish your changes.
Closed source: you use it under the maker's terms and cannot change or resell the code.
8k GitHub stars
4.6k Wikipedia readers a month on phones
Established: started 12 years ago, latest release 2026.10.0.
Not known
Other comparisons
More office suites and document editors
Both sides were judged on 2026-11-03 from makers' descriptions, Wikipedia, READMEs and GitHub data. License, age and popularity lines are worked out directly.