Overview

Group-Office combines email and calendar work with shared documents, customer records, project tracking and invoicing. Teams can co-edit documents, schedule meetings, and communicate by chat or video call; CRM adds shared address books, newsletters and support tickets received through a website or email. This breadth is useful for teams trying to keep day-to-day operations together, but it may be more system than a team seeking only a focused project board or CRM.

Key features

Project tools cover tasks, files, time tracking, reporting and invoicing project work and time. Document editing and file management integrate with OnlyOffice, Collabora Online and Office 365. Finance supports Mollie and PayPal payments and e-invoicing formats including ZUGFeRD, XRechnung and UBL, giving organizations with billing workflows more than a basic collaboration suite.

Group-Office Studio lets power users build modules, while custom fields and filters offer ways to adapt records and workflows. That flexibility favors organizations able to configure their own system; it is less compelling for teams wanting a narrowly scoped tool with no need for customization.

Email, contacts, calendars, notes and tasks synchronize with native apps on iOS, macOS, Android and Windows through IMAP, Microsoft ActiveSync, CalDAV, CardDAV and WebDAV. The protocol range is a practical advantage for mixed-device teams. The provider says its hosted services are in the Netherlands and backed up daily offsite there, with backups retained for 14 days. Its privacy policy lists SSL encryption, one-time-password two-factor authentication, fail2ban, IP access controls and regular security tests.

Pricing

Community: Free, with unlimited users. The self-hosted edition includes email, calendar, files, document editing, notes, tasks, chat and video calls, address book and device sync. It is the strongest fit for teams able to manage their own server and willing to do without the Professional feature set.
Professional: 439.00 EUR per month, billed as a perpetual license, for 1–100 users. Professional self-hosted adds support tickets, time tracking, projects, newsletter, Kanban, Studio and helpdesk support from 9 to 5 CET/CEST. Updates to Professional features cost 219.00 EUR per year. The license and recurring update charge make this a more involved commitment than the free edition, and the 100-user limit excludes larger deployments.
Online: 12.00 EUR per month, with 5 GB storage per user. Document editor, video call and chat cost €2/user each; Finance costs €12/install and Document Search €15/install. The hosted option avoids running a server, but storage is capped per user and add-ons can raise the monthly bill.
Billing add-on: 219.00 EUR per once for invoices, online payments and smart debtor profiles. It suits Community users who need billing tools without buying Professional.
Document Search add-on: 299.00 EUR per once for deep file-content search, metadata search and e-discovery. It is a one-time addition for teams whose document retrieval needs justify the extra cost.

A 30-day trial is available. The Professional service contracts list weekday phone support from 9 to 17.

Platforms

Group-Office supports Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, Windows, web access and self-hosting. Native synchronization across the mobile and desktop systems broadens access, while self-hosting gives organizations control over deployment rather than requiring the hosted service.

Who it's for

Group-Office is best suited to organizations that want collaboration, customer support, project work and finance in one open-source system, particularly those with the capacity to self-host or a reason to use the Netherlands-hosted service. Community is a credible starting point for large teams seeking unlimited users at no cost. Organizations that need paid features should check whether Professional's 1–100-user range or Online's 5 GB per-user storage works for their needs.

Pros and cons

Pros

Broad free edition: Community supports unlimited users and includes core communication, file, calendar and device-sync features.
Business workflows in one system: CRM, project tracking, invoicing, online payments and e-invoicing extend beyond basic groupware.
Deployment choice: Teams can self-host or use the provider's Netherlands-hosted service, with daily offsite backups retained for 14 days.

Cons

Professional has a substantial ongoing cost: the perpetual license is paired with a separate 219.00 EUR annual updates charge, and the plan tops out at 100 users.
Online storage is limited: 5 GB per user may constrain document-heavy teams, while extra tools are separately priced.
Community requires self-hosting: teams that want a hosted service must pay for Online, and Community does not include the Professional-only feature set.

Alternatives

For a more focused project-management choice, compare Project Management Software; for document-focused tools, see Document Management Software; and for customer-management options, browse CRM Software.

Nifty is another freemium alternative. PLANKA offers a free self-hosted Community edition. Agantty has a free plan limited to one project with no teams or support. Basecamp has a free plan capped at one project, 1 GB storage and five users. ClickUp offers a free plan with unlimited tasks and members but 60 MB storage. Hive has a free plan with unlimited tasks and up to 10 workspace members. MeisterTask includes up to three projects on its free plan. Backlog has a free plan capped at 10 users, one project and 100 MB storage.

Verdict

Choose Group-Office if your organization wants an open-source suite spanning collaboration, CRM, projects and finance, and can either run it itself or accept the Online storage allowance and add-on costs. The unlimited-user Community edition is its clearest advantage; look elsewhere if you need a larger paid Professional deployment or more hosted storage per user.

	Group-Office	Smartsheet
Free plan	Yes	No
Free trial	Yes	Yes
Paid from	€12/mo	$9/mo
Open source	Yes
Platforms	Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, self-hosted, Web, Windows	Android, api, extension, iOS, Linux, macOS, Web, Windows
Free plan	Yes	No
Free trial	Yes
Mobile app	Yes
Open source	Yes
Task views		board
Automation rules		Yes
Time tracking		Yes
Guest access		Yes

Group-Office vs Smartsheet

Group-Office

Smartsheet