This morning Zoho will release their latest Web Office app, Meeting, as a public beta. It's a good opportunity to consider what progress each of the main Web Office vendors is making towards a full Web Office Suite. For this post, we'll consider Google Apps, Microsoft Office Live, Zoho, ThinkFree, and Zimbra. There are others of course, but these are (I hope you'll agree) the main players.
Also, later in this post we compare Zoho's Web Office apps with Google Apps. These two companies have the most apps so far, so it's a good indicator of progress in the space (remembering that Microsoft is yet to release a truly compelling Web Office Suite - and no, Office Live in its current incarnation doesn't count).
First of all let's summarize what exactly is a Web Office suite. Such a beast should have, at the least, the following apps in it: email, calendar, word processing, spreadsheets, presentations. These are the core products of Microsoft Office, the dominant office suite package. You could also make a case for apps like contacts manager, task manager or even project management to be in the core products, but we'll keep things real simple in this case. So here's how the Web Office contenders shape up:
| Calendar | Word processing | Spreadsheets | Presentation | ||
| Google Apps | Y, Gmail | Y, Google Calendar | Y, Google D & S | Y, Google D & S | Y, Zenter + Tonic* |
| Zoho | Y, Zoho Mail (private beta) | Y, Zoho Mail (private beta) | Y, Zoho Writer | Y, Zoho Sheet | Y, Zoho Show |
| ThinkFree | N | N | Y, ThinkFree Write | Y, ThinkFree Calc | Y, ThinkFree Show |
| Zimbra | Y | Y | Y | Y | N |
| Microsoft Office Live | Y | Y | N | N | N |
Note: Zimbra and Microsoft don't have separate names for their apps
* Update: Google acquired Zenter, which makes presentation software, less than 12 hours after this post was published.
It's certainly over-simplifying, but it helps to get a sense of where all the main players are in creating a basic Web Office suite. Google Apps has everything but Presentations, but that is rumored to be here soon. Zoho has the most complete offering so far, including many other apps not listed (Meeting, Wiki, etc). Its Mail product is currently in private beta, but it will be out in a couple of months. Zimbra also has an impressive offering - like Google it is only missing Presentations. ThinkFree has the main productivity apps, but curiously it doesn't have email or calendar.
A note about Microsoft. Currently it has a number of different offerings, all under the 'Office Live' banner - there are 7 products listed on this page, including Office Live Premium and Office Live Groove. But as yet, no sign that Microsoft will risk its massive desktop Office revenues, by offering an online office suite. Indeed, that may never happen - as Microsoft attempts to create a desktop/online hybrid around its 'services' strategy.
The above Core Products table doesn't tell the full story. ThinkFree obviously has its reasons for not offering email or calendar, while Zimbra's real power is more on the email, calendar and web services side, rather than documents and spreadsheets. In fact, although I put a 'Y' mark for Zimbra in documents and spreadsheets, neither product can import and export data from standard formats such as Word and Excel - which is generally seen as a requirement for such products.
Also, some of the smaller vendors believe their offerings are stronger than Google's. ThinkFree was of this opinion last time I spoke to them, and today Zoho told me a similar story. Raju Vegesna of Zoho told me that Zoho Office Suite has "about 50% more apps" than Google Apps. In terms of features for individual apps, Raju also claims they have better functionality, citing a recent word processor review at Donation Coder. Raju provided me with this comparison list, between Zoho and Google Apps:
| Zoho | |
| Zoho Writer | Google Docs & Spreadsheets |
| Zoho Sheet | Google Docs & Spreadsheets |
| Zoho Show | Not yet (one coming though) |
| Zoho Wiki | Not yet, but JotSpot in the wings |
| Zoho Notebook | Google Notebook (nb: both are quite different) |
| Zoho Meeting | None (but has acquired Marratech) |
| Zoho Projects | None |
| Zoho CRM | None |
| Zoho Creator (a db app) | None |
| None | Google Page Creator |
| None | iGoogle |
| Zoho Planner | None |
| Zoho Chat | Google Talk (Better than Zoho) |
| Zoho Mail & Cal | Gmail & Cal |
The above list shows that Zoho has more apps, although that isn't necessarily an important metric. Still, it demonstrates that a Web Office Suite can encompass many different apps, some of which don't exist in Microsoft Office (like wikis) and many of which offer different things online than on the desktop. And both Zoho and Google are in full-on development mode, trying to find the right combo of apps for a Web Office Suite.
There's a long way to go yet in the Web Office Suite stakes, and we have yet to see Microsoft show its hand. Right now, Google Apps is looking good from a market position, while Zoho, ThinkFree and Zimbra all have impressive offerings. What do you think of the current Web Office Suites? Any others that you'd recommend?
Disclosure: Zoho was recently a R/WW sponsor
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: Web Office Suite: Who's Leading The Pack?.
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There's a long way to go yet in the Web Office Suite stakes, and we have yet to see Microsoft show its hand. Right now, Google Apps is looking good from a market position, while Zoho, ThinkFree and Zimbra all have impressive offerings. What do you thin... Read More
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I use all of the above along with open office so I don't have to use/buy microsoft office. While I do like Zoho and Thinkfree the Google juggernaut roles on.
Also don't forget www.dabbledb.com it's one of the best online office apps available. It fundamentally changes the way we/I use spreadsheets.
Posted by: Simon Leyland | June 19, 2007 2:41 AMNo Google CRM - what about the "alliance" with the worlds biggest, SalesForce.com ... ok, maybe not actually something here and now but surely something is 'coming' ... no?
Posted by: Mike Riversdale | June 19, 2007 4:29 AMPS: You were missed and name checked at the Wellington mini-Webstock tonight ... oh such fame :-)
Posted by: Mike Riversdale | June 19, 2007 4:31 AMAbove list doesn't have Google base, their DB app, in it. Not that I prefer it to the Zoho offering, but they have one: http://base.google.com/
PS love this blog, I feel so well informed!
Posted by: Allen | June 19, 2007 5:33 AMExcellent article, I refer to heavily in my post "A comparitive cornucopia of online office ’sweets’ ... and was especially reactive to your assertion that Microsoft is trying to have the best of both worlds.
I ran into this line of thinking more than once in more than one conversation with MSFT product managers and developers - as they seem to feel the ASP model works better in terms of not eroding their client-app sales as opposed to adopting the Software as a Service model.
I personally think this is trying to serve two masters and a recipe for the eventual demise of a once dominant office suite.
Posted by: Mean Dean | June 19, 2007 5:50 AMThanks for this breakdown. For me, what will really win the day is when one of these services combines into a collaborative project management system with tracked updates--like Basecamp, but with the calendar and contacts integrated (Google almost manages this, but has no good tracking or notification).
Because as far as I'm concerned, the office suite based on my hard drive works just fine--the reason I want it on the web is not as much so I can access it anywhere (my laptop follows me better than my dog), but so that I can collaborate easily with colleagues spread across the globe.
Posted by: Alex | June 19, 2007 6:24 AMAlex, I agree with you regarding mobility (a point I made in my post) and would add that along with said mobility you also correctly identify collaboration as an important aspect not addressed via MSFT's adoption of the ASP model over SaaS.
That ... and realistically ... while I suspect some here use some of the advanced features of Word &/or Excel ... I think many of the online offerings are just enough for most daily communication operations.
Posted by: Mean Dean | June 19, 2007 6:28 AMZoho has a really nice feature set and suite of tools, but every time I've played with them it's been plagued by performance issues. Pages failing to load, etc. Which I think is a critical issue for "productivity" software. Google I just don't have those problems with, so they tend to be my web office of choice.
Posted by: Eric | June 19, 2007 7:10 AMEric,
I am sorry to hear about the performance issue you have had with Zoho. We have invested heavily in infrastructure recently and performance is really good. Can you tell us what services you tried? You can reach email us at svembu at zoho or raju at zoho or aravind at zoho
Thanks,
Posted by: Sridhar Vembu | June 19, 2007 7:32 AMSridhar Vembu
Wonderful blog, love reading most of the articles.
I think more people would seriously consider and use Zimbra if they offered a truly FREE version like Google Apps.
Posted by: Dave | June 19, 2007 7:36 AMWhat's the point? The lates version of MS Office is incredible.
If you can put the fact you dislike MS aside, you can't help but realize this is a great product.
Posted by: Woody | June 19, 2007 8:34 AMWhile it's wonderful to see all these web-based office suites challenging the dominance of Microsoft Office, the major barrier to adoption for most organizations always goes back to the question of compatibility. As a user, being 100% compatible with Microsoft Office is a necessity because you do not want to have the hassle of fixing up messed up formatting in documents that were created with Microsoft Office. None of these web-based office suites (and for that matter, not even OpenOffice or WordPerfect) can offer you "What You Created In Microsoft Office Is Exactly What You'll Get". Adding to the fact that most people use Microsoft Office, and you have a serious network effect to overcome before large-scale adoption of web-based or alternative office suites will occur.
If you are an individual user or a small business, then it may be possible to convert everything or change to a web-based office suite and use alternative formats instead of the ones in Microsoft Office. If that's the case, however, small businesses can also consider using free desktop alternatives such as OpenOffice, which provides more functionality and are more suitable for developing more complex documents. If you work for a major corporation (where Microsoft makes almost all of its revenues from), then the choice is pretty obvious as none of these alternatives can provide the level of functionality and compatibility with Microsoft Office.
The issue of collaboration and online sharing could be addressed by Microsoft in offering an add-on that integrates these features into Office with an online service. Likewise, it may be an idea for a new startup to create an online document sharing and collaboration service that works with OpenOffice, thus providing the functionality offered by these web-based office suites, but also allow users to be able to use a full-powered desktop application.
Posted by: Roy Chang | June 19, 2007 9:22 AMHi Alex,
Try www.foldera.com
Best,
Posted by: Richard Lusk | June 19, 2007 11:50 AMRichard
I've been a very happy Zoho user since they debuted and I love Zoho Mail. I used Zoho Creator to build a database for my office telephone calls. I have problems with Zoho Sheet embedded withing ZohoMail, and I'm not really sure what the purpose of Notebook is (although I've been both alpha and beta tester on it). But it has completely pulled my life together.
Posted by: Constance Reader | June 19, 2007 12:11 PMI also forgot to mention just how responsive the Zoho team is to problems and how communicative they are. I sent them an email long ago asking for their permission to create a Zoho badge for my blog. They created one for me and Arvind and I have been on a first name basis ever since.
Posted by: Constance Reader | June 19, 2007 12:13 PMSee more about North Korea.
Photos and videos from a trip last August 2006, of a Portuguese journalist.
http://coreiadonorte.wordpress.com
Posted by: Rita | June 19, 2007 12:24 PM#11 "the point" is that Office is EXPENSIVE. I think a Ferrari is incredible too, but I can't afford one.
#13: Roy -
Yes, that's exactly what MS want you to think. That's why they keep adding those little extra features to lock you in. That's why they battle against open document formats so hard. They don't want it to Just Work. Their future success depends on being incompatible with all other competitors while they still retain a monopolistic market share.
OpenOffice works great: I've been using it at home and work now for a couple of years, and none of the Office junkies have noticed. (Except when I tell them.) Sure, you can *choose* to use Office if you want, but 99% of users don't need it. The MS marketing engine has convinced them they do, and is unlikely to tell them otherwise. For businesses, it becomes a question of whether you can justify the license cost for the small number of features that a small number of users say they require?
Google have the same thing going online: there's just this assumption that if it's got a 'g' in front of it, it must be better.
Posted by: Paul | June 19, 2007 12:27 PMI think Zoho has the edge for a few different reasons.
1) integration with Box.net, Omnidrive.com and others. - If you store your Word doc/Excel Spreadsheet on one of those online storage containers, you get the option to edit it in place using Zoho Writer or Sheets.
2) The Zoho office plug-on. - I can't emphasize how cool this plug-in is. You can open a Word doc locally, edit it, work on it, then save it online using the plug in. Once it is saved online you can edit it from any computer using Zoho tools. You can also open documents stored in Zoho Writer or Sheets using the plug-in and edit them using MS Office. I've personally used the plug-in with Office 2007 and 2003 with no problems. No more syncing documents to usb flash drives or connecting using a VPN if you want to work on documents for work.
Those two things really set Zoho apart from Google's offerings in my opinion.
Posted by: Scott | June 19, 2007 2:30 PMI have used most of the tools above. For me a no-go is Microsoft Office Live - too complicated, too commercial, no relative benefit. Personally, I don't like Think Free so much - too heavy as an application, limited to MS files.
Posted by: tim wieringa | June 19, 2007 8:39 PMIs Google or Zoho better? Difficult to say and changing each week :-D But that's good, we have some great competition here and that's how it should be. Both have great function. Some of my friends prefer Google just because they already have a Google account...
The next huge step will be offline availability. Google is on the right track and Firefox 3 will push this trend.
I find the comments as interesting as the original article - especially with the 'meme' regarding features.
As I ask on my blog - how many in our small office situations actually utilize even 50% of the "features" bloated into products such as Word?
I ask this as someone who works in the software industry, and as a senior developer who has used Word since 1986 for a variety of business related operations.
Yet much of my recent work is easier to write and simpler to manage via docs.google.com ... though I have thought about dabbling with ZoHo ... hmmmm ....
Posted by: Mean Dean | June 19, 2007 9:35 PMI think that one of the key features that will impact usability and acceptance of the various online personal productivity tools is the ability provided for the interoperability of such tools with other online applications. This includes drag and drop features between various applications; ability to launch, sign in and even integrate into an online file system concept.
Posted by: Tareq | June 19, 2007 9:43 PMPlease check out the Global Hosted Operating SysTem at http://G.ho.st and discover a paradigm for integrating such online applications within a wrapper OS.
Most people who use web-based office suites are early adopters and are not 'mainstream' users. The simplicity of web-based office suites is very attractive and I agree with the comment about "features bloat" in Microsoft Office. However, it's not really just about features, but more about how the resulting document will end up in print or on the screen.
I can give you an example of where web-based office suites fail. A lot of businesses use the office suites as a type of form creation tool. To make a form with tables and lines, it's fairly easy using Word or Excel. Sure, it may not be the best way to make forms, but that's what most people do in the real world. They make these standardized templates with complex formatting, and of course, they work perfectly on Microsoft Office because that's how they were created. When you suck these things into any one of these office suites, the formatting is all messed up because the majority of them uses an HTML-based way of rendering the document. This is true weather it was a word processing document, a spreadsheet, or a powerpoint presentation. The thing with these types of "form" templates is that once they are created, people don't want to mess around with making new ones again.
As such, for many businesses, there may be a tendency for them to stop upgrading to newer versions of Microsoft Office than to move to a web-based office suite if cost was an issue.
Posted by: Roy Chang | June 19, 2007 10:04 PMI used to use Google docs until I tried Zoho. Zoho in my opinion is far better. Mostly I like it better because it's faster. It's functionality is also more intuitive and it has a better interface.
It should be disclosed that I'm CEO of Zooomr and that Zoho is helping Zooomr out right now with our photosharing site. But to me this is an even add more to my endorsement of their business. Because not only are they the better package, but they care about us little guys in the community. The company is intensely community oriented. Not only have they helped us out but they advertise on things like Techmeme and other small sites out there trying to make the Web space a better place.
This counts for a lot in my book and although I'd recommend Zoho on it's own over Google docs, even if they weren't helping us out, their community contributions and spirit make them that much more worthy of my online doc business.
Zoho rocks.
Posted by: Thomas Hawk | June 19, 2007 10:08 PMNo one has seen the screencasts of BuzzWord by Virtual Ubiquity. Beats the pants off Google docs,
http://blog.virtub.com/?p=15
http://preview.getbuzzword.com/
C.
Posted by: Campbell | June 19, 2007 11:34 PMIf you are an individual user or a small business, then it may be possible to convert everything or change to a web-based office suite and use alternative formats instead of the ones in Microsoft Office. If that's the case, however, small businesses can also consider using free desktop alternatives such as OpenOffice, which provides more functionality and are more suitable for developing more complex documents. If you work for a major corporation (where Microsoft makes almost all of its revenues from), then the choice is pretty obvious as none of these alternatives can provide the level of functionality and compatibility with Microsoft Office.
Best Regards
Posted by: wow power leveling | June 19, 2007 11:39 PMStop it Tom ... you're making me want to rip out all the google apps I just installed on my domain and put in yours ...
... btw, along this meme, I would suspect the game will change dramatically for larger adoption by larger corporations as such applications get commeditized as applications.
Posted by: Mean Dean | June 20, 2007 8:03 AMFor collaborating with colleagues on our school pta I installed E-Groupware http://www.egroupware.org/ and made it available to parents. This avoided us putting our data on to public services such as google apps, was cost free and provided an incredibly vast array of features.
Derek
Posted by: Derek | June 21, 2007 1:30 AMHello!
Posted by: joe haneda | June 21, 2007 2:27 AMI just googled for an online desktop and stumbled upon webdesk.in Check this out, it has got a nice surface and usability, but needs some updates to enable working on it on a daily base.
joe
Good article. We are currently evaluating robust web office suites (with emphasis on e-mail and shared calendaring solutions) for a 70 person office. Our two finalists appear to be Zimbra and WebOffice (www.weboffice.com) from WebEx.
Not sure which we will decide in the end, but I think your lack of evaluation of WebOffice is a significant oversight.
Posted by: Danny | July 17, 2007 2:29 PMThe comparison is very interesting and informative. However does not give me a clue if these products can serve my purpose as I am looking forward to integrate Calendar, Contacts, Tasks, Notes, E-mail, Word, Spreadsheet and Presentation with my own custom software. I also want to be able to offer these facilities in multiple languages by adding language modules. I am therefore looking for Open Source or any other products offering these facilities. Zoho and thinkfree look promising.Any one knowing the suitable products may please advise.
Posted by: Kant K Bansal | July 27, 2007 12:42 AM