Why Google Docs Makes Sense For Startups

A startup has to select its office software (documents, spreadsheets, etc) early on. We picked ours based a quick and dirty assessment (is there any other kind for a startup?). Here goes:

Microsoft OfficeZoho DocsOpenOffice.orgGoogle Docs
USP1. The best office suite
2. Everybody uses it		1. Online, feature rich office suite
2. Great customer service		1. Free (yes, free)
2. Open-source office product for offline use		1. Collaborate on the web
2. It's by Google
Cost1. Most expensive
2. Rs. 1000/user to Rs. 17000 /user depending on the edition		1. Pay as you go monthly subscription
2. Rs 7200 per year for 5 users and 15 GB space		Free (yes, free)Free up to 50 users (Limits - 7GB/user for email, 1GB/user for docs)
FeatureThe best. No question.Very cool interface and surprisingly feature rich. They release updates frequently so the product is getting better rapidly.Not assessedFunctional
Ease of useAlmost everybody has used MS Office. It is intuitive and there is little or no learning curve for most people.Very intuitive. Still, there will be some learning to do since a browser-based office software is new to many people.Not assessedGoogle Docs itself may require a little learning but what makes it easy to use is that it is part of the Google Apps suite.

In the end, we selected Google Docs because:

  • It’s free.
  • It’s not the best office product but our needs aren’t very sophisticated.
  • Collaboration and version control is easy. The only risk is that it depends on availability of internet which is still not predictable in India. Google’s introduction of offline editing in 2011 should mitigate this risk.
  • It’s part of Google Apps. We had already signed up for it because, for a startup, there is nothing to beat Google Apps when it comes to Email and Calendar. Deciding to use Google Docs keeps things simple for us.

Of course, we will know for sure that it works for us only once we start using it seriously. We will re-visit our decision in a month and report our findings.