Ascensio System SIA
Rutba Office vs ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors
Free desktop editors for documents, spreadsheets and presentations, published under the AGPL, built OOXML-first and paired with commercial server products for collaboration.
Ours is the free one, so read this knowing whose page you are on. What follows starts with where ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors beats us, because on this page that is the part you cannot get from them.
First, honestly
Where ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors wins
Not a courtesy paragraph. Each of these is a real reason to choose them over us.
The closest OOXML rendering of the free options
Built around the Microsoft formats from the start rather than converting into them, and widely reported as the most faithful free renderer of a complex .docx.
A collaboration server exists
The same editors connect to their document server for real-time co-authoring, which is a path we do not offer at all.
Mature and shipping for years
Packaged, translated and supported, with a commercial tier behind it if you need one.
And ours
Where Rutba Office wins
Seven apps, not three
Mail, pictures, image editing and video are in the same download. Theirs is documents, spreadsheets and slides.
Outlook archives
No mail client, so no .pst or .ost. That is the gap this suite was built around.
Nothing is a funnel
There is no server edition to upsell and no connected account, so the desktop app is not the free half of something.
Side by side
The seven structural questions
Asked of desktop office suites. A component and a desktop suite are not decided on the same seven, so each group has its own.
| Question | Rutba Office | ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors |
|---|---|---|
| FreeUsable in full, at work, without paying | Yes | Yes |
| Works offlineEverything functions with the network off | Yes | Yes |
| No accountUsable without signing in to anything | Yes | Yes |
| Microsoft formatsReads and writes .docx, .xlsx and .pptx | Yes | Yes |
| Mail includedA mail client in the same suite, not a separate download | Yes | No |
| Outlook archivesOpens .pst and .ost files | Yes | No |
| Source publishedYou can read and change the code | Yes | Yes |
These seven are the questions this project was built to answer, so of course it answers them. Feature depth, maturity, collaboration and support contracts are not on this table, and ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors beats us on at least one of those.
Verdict
Who should choose which
If you only need documents, spreadsheets and slides, and fidelity matters more than breadth, theirs is more mature and you should use it. Ours is the better answer when mail — especially old mail — is part of the problem.
Model-level descriptions from Ascensio System SIA’s published licensing and product structure, as of 8 September 2026. No prices are reproduced here — check onlyoffice.com for those.
Also worth reading
Compared with each other, not with us
We are not in these. They are the same two questions asked without our thumb on the scale.
It costs nothing to find out
Install it beside whatever you use now — a normal per-user install, a normal uninstall.