# Collabora Online

Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/collabora-online/

11 people recommended Collabora Online in Hacker News comments, 2 had mixed feelings and 7 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 6 of 12 months, in 10 threads. It does not meet the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Free, browser-based office suite built on LibreOffice that people self-host and recommend for Nextcloud setups. Common caveat: it is slow and struggles with complex documents.

Summary written by Claude from 18 comments.

## Why people recommend it

- Built on LibreOffice, wrapped for web (1 comment in the sample): "Which is distributed libreoffice you can self-host and also integrates with nextcloud." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50051927))
- Self-hosts and integrates with Nextcloud (1 comment in the sample): "The German Defense sector did something with Nextcloud, Collabora Online, Open-Xchange, Element/Matrix and Univention Nubus I believe." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49846020))

## What people warn about

- Slow performance (2 comments in the sample): "Collabora (the online document suite) is slow as heck." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46903824)) "the former is snappy compared to the second" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46902254))
- Maker's conduct criticized in dispute (2 comments in the sample): "Of course Collabora is also upset because LibreOffice resurrected their LibreOffice Online project" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47602258)) "it's really disappointing to see Collabora Online and TDF behaving like this" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47659650))

## Other office suites people recommend

- [LibreOffice](https://hackerapproved.com/p/libreoffice/): 253 recommend, 69 mixed, 171 criticize
- [Microsoft Office](https://hackerapproved.com/p/microsoft-office/): 130 recommend, 98 mixed, 364 criticize
- [Microsoft 365](https://hackerapproved.com/p/microsoft-365/): 70 recommend, 62 mixed, 316 criticize
- [Google Workspace](https://hackerapproved.com/p/google-workspace/): 56 recommend, 35 mixed, 204 criticize

## The badge

A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged.

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Collabora Online", https://hackerapproved.com/p/collabora-online/ (11 recommend, 2 mixed, 7 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026).

Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.