Casual Editor vs Google Docs — open-source self-hosted alternative

If you searched “open source Google Docs alternative” or “self- host alternative to Google Docs”, this page is what you need before you commit. Both render the same surface — a paginated WYSIWYG document editor with real-time co-editing — but the trade-offs are different in ways that matter for adoption decisions.

I built Casual Editor, so I have an obvious bias. The comparison below tries to be honest about where Google Docs is the better answer.

At a glance

	Casual Editor	Google Docs
License	Apache-2.0 — fully open source	Proprietary SaaS
Hosting	Self-host via Docker (one container)	Google-hosted only
Price	Free; pay your own hosting (~$5–50/mo)	Free for @gmail.com; Workspace $6+/user/mo
Google account	Not needed	Required
Native file format	.docx (OOXML round-trip)	Proprietary Google format; export to .docx
Round-trip fidelity	44 of 44 fixtures pristine (per-tag audit)	Google → .docx loses fonts, complex tables, ContentControls
Real-time co-edit	Yes (Yjs CRDT + Go y-websocket gateway)	Yes (Google’s stack, OT-based)
Backend stack	Go gateway, ~120 LOC y-websocket protocol	Google’s proprietary
Memory per session	Stateless (in-memory rooms only)	Server-side state
Headers / footers	Full support (different first page, section-scoped)	Full support
Tables	Borders, shading, merged cells, multi-row headers	Same
Comments + tracked changes	Inline markers, sidebar, accept/reject revisions	Same
Lists (multi-level)	Native bullets + numbered with proper outline	Same
Math equations	Renders, round-trips	LaTeX-style entry, no .docx round-trip
Fonts	All system fonts; @font-face from doc	Limited to Google Fonts catalog
Mobile	Web viewer + light editor at ≤768 px	Native iOS + Android apps
Maturity	M1 backend live · public preview	20 years, billions of users
Auth	Pluggable host integration (inline / WOPI / JWT-API)	Google account + Workspace policies
Backup / DR	Your problem (host owns persistence)	Google’s problem
Add-ons / extensions	None today	Marketplace

Where Casual Editor wins

• You want to keep documents on your servers. Compliance, IP-sensitive contracts, paranoia — whatever the reason, docker run -p 8080:8080 schnsrw/casual-editor:latest puts the whole editor on a $5/mo VPS. No Google account required; no document leaves your network.
• You want true .docx round-trip. Open a Word document, edit in the browser, save back as .docx — the per-tag audit shows 44 of 44 fixtures round-trip pristine. Google Docs converts to its own format and re-exports with documented losses (complex tables, ContentControls, footnote numbering, fonts not in Google Fonts).
• You’re building on top of a document editor. Apache-2.0 means you can fork, embed, or wrap it without negotiating a commercial license. The editor is a React component (<DocxEditor>); the Go gateway is ~120 lines of y-websocket protocol. Two clean integration points.
• You don’t want Google’s billing math. Workspace at $6/user/mo for 50 people is $3 600/year. The same workload runs on a single $15/mo VPS — see the capacity model in the sister repo for the methodology (sheets numbers; editor’s WS path is the same shape).
• You want all your system fonts. Casual Editor uses the fonts already installed on the user’s system (plus any embedded in the doc via @font-face). Google Docs is limited to the Google Fonts catalog; uploading a custom font requires Workspace + Admin permissions and only works in your domain.

Where Google Docs wins

• You don’t want to operate infrastructure. Google Docs has no server you maintain, no Docker to upgrade, no TLS to renew. If “log in and use it” is the bar, the SaaS wins.
• You need native mobile apps. Google Docs ships first-class iOS + Android apps that work offline. Casual Editor ships a web viewer + light editor at ≤768 px viewport but isn’t a native app.
• You depend on the Google ecosystem. Drive sharing, Forms integration, Workspace SSO, Gmail attachments → Doc workflows, Smart Chips, Gemini integration — all SaaS-only by design.
• You need add-ons. Google has a marketplace of grammar checkers, citation managers, e-signature integrations, etc. Casual Editor has none today (the extension system in packages/react/ is designed to support it, but no marketplace).
• Your audience is non-technical. Google Docs URLs work for anyone with a Google account; Casual Editor rooms work for anyone with the link but the operator still has to maintain the link + the server.
• You want 20 years of edge-case .docx fidelity. Casual Editor’s 44/44 pristine fixtures cover the OOXML surface a typical business document uses; Microsoft + Google have decades of fixes for the exotic cases. If your documents push the format hard (legal contracts with deep ContentControls, scientific papers with mathML, etc.), Google Docs has more tested surface.

Round-trip honesty

The single biggest user-facing differentiator: .docx doesn’t survive a Google Docs round-trip cleanly. When you upload a .docx to Google Docs, edit it, and download as .docx, you typically lose:

• ContentControls (form fields, structured document tags)
• Complex table structures (merged cells with specific border combinations)
• Footnote/endnote numbering schemes outside the default
• Fonts not in the Google Fonts catalog (substituted with fallbacks)
• Custom XML parts (Word add-in data)
• Some chart types (re-rendered to images on export)
• Specific paragraph spacing edge cases (Word’s “line and page breaks” advanced settings)

This is documented on Google’s own help pages. For most casual editing it doesn’t matter. For document workflows where the file flows between web edit + desktop Word usage, Casual Editor’s pristine round-trip preserves the file.

Self-host complexity, honestly

You need to be comfortable with:

• Docker (single container; multi-arch amd64 + arm64).
• A reverse proxy (nginx, Caddy, Traefik, or Cloudflare).
• TLS termination + cert renewal (Let’s Encrypt via Caddy is one line; via nginx + certbot is more).
• Optional: pluggable host integration (inline / WOPI / JWT-API) if you want to delegate file storage to an external system.

The Go gateway is stateless — no DB to back up, no on-disk update log to maintain. Rooms live in memory while a session is active, which is the right shape for a small-team self-host (the host integration owns the persisted .docx bytes).

If your IT team already runs nginx, they can run Casual Editor.

Cost — real numbers

For ~50 users editing ~20 active documents (small-team shape):

Cost surface	Casual Editor	Google Docs (Workspace Business Basic)
Hosting	$10–20/mo (small VPS)	$0 (Google-hosted)
Per-user licensing	$0	$6/user/mo = $300/mo for 50 users
Setup time	1 hour	5 minutes per user
Ongoing ops	~1 hour/month	Zero
Total / year	~$180	~$3 600

The break-even is roughly 3 users. Below 3, Google Docs Personal (free) is the cheapest answer. Above 3, the per-seat Workspace billing pulls ahead in cost-of-self-host’s favour rapidly.

What’s NOT in Casual Editor

Being honest about gaps:

• AI assist. No Gemini-style “rewrite this paragraph” or “summarise this document.” The extension system supports it; no resources have been allocated to build the LLM integrations.
• Voice typing. Google’s voice typing is mature; we have none.
• Native mobile apps. Web viewer + light editor works on phones, but not a native app.
• Translation. Google’s right-click “Translate” is one click; ours requires a plugin nobody has built.
• Smart Chips / linked previews. No equivalent.
• Real-time stats / reading-level analysis. No equivalent.
• Marketplace add-ons. None.

These all land based on contributor interest — the improvement tracker in the repo lists what’s planned.

When to choose what

Pick Casual Editor if:

• You need self-host or want to keep documents off Google’s servers.
• True .docx round-trip matters (no silent format loss).
• You don’t want Microsoft / Google billing for editor seats.
• You’re building on top of a document editor.
• You want predictable, low cost.

Pick Google Docs if:

• You want zero operational responsibility.
• You depend on the Google ecosystem (Drive, Forms, Workspace).
• Your audience is non-technical.
• You need native mobile apps.
• You want AI assist + the marketplace add-ons today.
• Your documents push the OOXML format past common use.

Try Casual Editor

docker run -p 8080:8080 schnsrw/casual-editor:latest

Open http://localhost:8080. Upload a .docx, edit it, save it. Open the saved file in desktop Word — round-trip should be lossless for the surface our audit covers (see docs/internal/03-gap-matrix.md).

Live demo: https://doc.schnsrw.live/.