https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/assam-india-june-25-2021-google-1999771961
Face it: with the competition spending hundreds of millions of dollars on it, Google’s recent foray into AI isn’t going to stop anytime soon. While you can hide Google Workspace’s Gemini buttons and prompts for now, you can’t actually stop the company from continuing to build its apps around a technology that revolves around getting its hands on as much data as possible. I rely on Google Docs for collaboration, but the company’s AI push has got me looking for alternatives, even if Google currently denies using your data to train its models. On that note, these are the best AI-free, encrypted alternatives to Google Docs.
Proton Docs
Table of Contents
Credit: Proton
If you’re looking for a seamless switch from Google Docs to an AI-free encrypted writing app, then Proton Docs is what you want. It’s part of the Proton Drive cloud storage service , which has a generous free tier for you to get started, so trying it out is easy. Proton Docs lets you store up to 5GB of files for free, which is good enough to work on hundreds of documents, and its collaborative features are also good enough for most people. You can create documents and give others viewer or editor access easily, and when others are editing, you can see a cursor with their names on the screen to see who’s working on what. You also get end-to-end encryption by default, which means that your documents are secure and cannot be read by the company.
In my experience, Proton Docs is fast and reliable. The Proton Drive app is also able to load documents quickly, and you can even open shared documents in mobile web browsers, which is a big plus. The only major downside is that this service lacks any apps to handle spreadsheets or presentations, which may be a dealbreaker for some.
Cryptpad
Credit: Pranay Parab
Cryptpad offers an encrypted office suite that competes with the likes of Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. The servers are hosted in France, and Cryptpad’s differentiating feature is that it has a lot of apps, all of which are end-to-end encrypted. You can create documents, spreadsheets, forms, presentations, kanban boards, and more. That means you get an alternative to nearly every Google office product, and even other services such as Trello or Airtable.
You can use Cryptpad without signing up if you wish, but it’ll delete your documents within 90 days if you do. If you create an account, which doesn’t require an email address, you’ll get access to 1GB of encrypted cloud storage and your documents won’t be automatically deleted. However, for security’s sake, Cryptpad lets you set an automatic deletion date for new documents as you create them. Once set up, your document will automatically be destroyed once its time arrives.
There’s a lot to like about Cryptpad, but it’s a bit slow and janky. The UI isn’t as polished as that of Google Docs or Proton Docs, and you’ll see this when you use it. Above your documents, there’s a big banner that just has the file name and a couple of buttons. The toolbars and other elements are below this, and the cursor appears nearly halfway down the screen. This wastes too much screen space, unlike Google Docs or Proton Docs, where the toolbars are minimal and the focus is more on the actual document. I also wouldn’t recommend Cryptpad to anyone who needs mobile access to their work. Some of my friends weren’t able to load shared documents on their phones while I tested it, which limits how much of a Google Workspace replacement this app can be.
OnlyOffice
Credit: Pranay Parab
OnlyOffice is a fully-featured office suite for those who want a service that lets you use desktop apps instead of web-based ones. The desktop apps work well and you can actually use a self-hosted server for cloud syncing and collaboration. This allows you to decide the degree of privacy and security you’d like, and if that sounds too complicated, you’re free to use multiple supported cloud storage providers for this purpose, including OneDrive and others. However, I was a little shocked to discover that OnlyOffice’s desktop apps don’t have autosave. It’s a bit sad to see this in 2025, to be honest. The company’s website also lists a lot of products, and it’s a bit hard to know what they all do. As an example, although OnlyOffice has mobile apps, you can only edit files in them if you’re on the paid tiers.
The UI in OnlyOffice’s desktop apps looks a bit like Microsoft Office did before its Microsoft 365 rebrand. That’s not a bad thing, since it’ll feel familiar to anyone who’s used Microsoft Word or other Office apps. When you create new documents, it opens them in new tabs, which makes it easier to switch between multiple files. Once the initial setup is done, OnlyOffice is easy to use and won’t scare off anyone looking for a Google Docs alternative, but the process of setting up and using OnlyOffice isn’t straightforward. You’ll need to select a cloud storage provider, get other people onboard with using it, and so on before you can have it running smoothly. Having said that, it’s a solid free alternative to Google Docs that focuses on apps over the web, and its AI shenanigans are limited to the “hosted version,” which is targeted at businesses and not at home users.
Other private alternatives to Google Docs
If privacy is the first thing on your mind, there are a few more Google Docs alternatives to consider, but they can take some work to use. For instance, the following options require you to host them on a server before running them. This increases the complexity of the task for most people, but if you’re so inclined, they might suit your needs.
-
Hedgedoc: This is a collaborative text editor that runs in your browser. It’s lightweight, fast, and supports real-time collaboration.
-
Collabora Online: LibreOffice is one of the best open source alternatives to Microsoft Office, but it doesn’t ship with realtime collaboration. Collabora Online lets you use LibreOffice apps on the cloud and includes collaboration features. There are apps for mobile devices, too, which is good to see. The service is free for home use and students.
-
Etherpad: Etherpad is a customizable online text editor, and it includes a chat window to quickly text people you’re collaborating with. It hasn’t received major updates in a few years, unfortunately.