Free Web-Based Office Productivity Apps

FREE!

Another big benefit in the favor of the Web-based apps is the price tag. While a few, like gOFFICE and SimDesk, charge nominal fees for their services, most of the Web-based office productivity apps are free.

Or are they?

No company can stay in business very long by giving away their product for free. And these companies aren’t building Web-based apps out of the goodness of their heart; they want a piece of the $8.3 billion that Microsoft made from Office last year.

Some of these sites, like Gliffy, rely on ad revenue. Some plan to begin charging once their sites are out of beta. Others are free the way your first hit of crack is free — as you want more, you’ll have to pay more.

For example, at Zoho, several of the apps are free for individuals or very small offices. However, as your office grows, the price tag goes up. According to Zoho’s Evangelist, Raju Vegesna, the site currently has about 1,000 paying users compared to 150,000 non-paying members, but it plans to begin charging for more of its apps once they are out of beta. “Our target isn’t necessarily businesses or consumers,” says Vegena. “Our target is people. After all, after 5:00 we’re all consumers.”

Despite the fact that they’re not always entirely free, the online apps do cost considerably less than traditional office productivity software. Microsoft Office 2007 starts at $149 for the Home and Student Edition, with the Standard edition fetching $399.

Show Me the Features

Critics agree that the biggest downside to using these Web-based apps is their lack of features. With the exception of ThinkFree, most of these word processing and spreadsheet apps feel like dumbed-down versions of Word and Excel. They work fine for simple tasks, but not if you’re trying to do anything complicated.

However, because users don’t have to download or install anything on their hard drive in order to use their services, the Web-based apps can add features at an incredible rate.

In fact, the sites are quick to point out that they’re gaining on Microsoft Office every day. Google claims to be constantly working to improve Docs & Spreadsheets, and Zoho “adds new features every week.” Zoho’s Vegesnu adds, “Our applications are in the early stages. It took Microsoft Office 15 years to get to this point. We’ve only had 15 months.”

Just a Bit Quirky

Finally, because most of these apps are built on Ajax, their performance can be just a bit quirky. While Ajax provides fast performance, the set of technologies is not completely standardized. As a result, some of the apps work differently depending on which browser you’re using. And the Ajax13 apps work only in Firefox.

ThinkFree avoids this problem by using Java instead of Ajax, but their apps are noticeably slower as a result. These performance problems may be eliminated when the new versions of Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari come out next year. The latest iterations of the browsers are touted as much more friendly to Web 2.0. Zoho’s Vegesnu gets noticeably more animated as he raves, “As browsers are enhanced, there are just more and more cool things we can do.”

Will the Empire Strike Back?

With so many points against them, online office productivity apps aren’t likely to truly threaten Microsoft Office’s dominance any time soon. However, they can and do provide a complement to traditional software. And for certain projects that require collaboration and mobility, they may be a better choice.

The big unknown is what Microsoft will do to respond to the new threat. While their new Office Live project sounds like an attempt to bring the Office apps online, so far it’s just a set of Web site creation and e-mail tools. Clearly, their reaction to this new competition will help determine whether any of these new online apps last.

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