How to Set Up OnlyOffice on Saplo: A Microsoft 365 Alternative for Document Editing

A company that shares Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files with clients will sooner or later start paying for a cloud office suite: Microsoft 365's small team plan costs $29 per month, or $351 per year, and the bill grows with every additional team account. OnlyOffice Document Server is an open-source document editor that runs in the browser, opens and saves native docx, xlsx, and pptx files without converting them to its own format, and allows several people to edit the same document simultaneously and see each other's changes in real time. You deploy it on your own Box, under your own domain, and the documents remain on your infrastructure. Below is a step-by-step guide to setting up OnlyOffice on Saplo.

Why OnlyOffice instead of Microsoft 365

A paid cloud office suite makes sense as long as the team is small and a single account is enough for everyone. Problems begin when the number of people who need to add something to a contract, proposal or budget grows:

• per-user billing, Microsoft 365 for a small team costs $29per month, or $351per year, and each additional person adds their share to the bill every month, regardless of how often they actually edit documents,
• documents sit in the provider's cloud, so contracts, budgets and proposals are outside the company's infrastructure, while the provider, not you, decides where they physically reside and who can access them,
• free editors convert files to proprietary formats, Google Docs and similar tools convert files on import, which can throw off the document layout, styles and some features, causing the most pain in files exchanged with clients.

OnlyOffice Document Server has none of these drawbacks: it edits docx, xlsx and pptx files in their native formats, supports real-time collaborative editing, and runs entirely on your Box. A document opened in OnlyOffice retains the same format after saving as when you uploaded it, so it can move back and forth between you and your client without conversion in either direction.

Requirements

To deploy OnlyOffice on Saplo, you need:

• a Box with Docker enabled (the engine automatically enables it when you install from the catalog),
• at least 4 GB of free RAM on the Box and 10 GB of disk space, so the cheapest plan that can handle it is Box L for $149 per year (document conversion and rendering are demanding on CPU and RAM, which is why this application will not fit on a smaller plan),
• a domain or subdomain *.saploapp.pl included with each plan, under which the editor will run,
• you do NOT need a separate database; the official OnlyOffice image includes its own PostgreSQL database, RabbitMQ queue, and Redis cache, so the Saplo engine deploys a single container.

You can find a full description of the application and its place in the catalog on the OnlyOffice on Saplo page.

Step-by-step installation

1. In the Saplo panel, go to App catalog and select OnlyOffice (the "Business tools" category).
2. Select a Box with at least 4 GB of free RAM and 10 GB of free disk space, plus a domain or subdomain where the editor will be hosted.
3. Confirm the installation. The engine downloads the official onlyoffice/documentserver image, deploys a single container with a built-in database and queue, generates a random JWT secret, and exposes the site through the Box's nginx with free SSL.
4. On the container's first startup, it initializes an internal PostgreSQL database and a RabbitMQ queue. The image itself is over 1.5 GB, so installation can take several minutes instead of the usual dozen or so seconds. The engine waits until the editor actually responds over HTTP before marking the installation as complete.
5. Once installation is complete, the editor runs on the specified domain, while the integration data for other applications (the Document Server address and JWT secret) is placed in the ONLYOFFICE-SETUP.txt file in the app catalog.

OnlyOffice is an editing engine, not a file repository

Document Server does not display a list of your documents by itself, because it is an editing engine: it opens, renders, and saves files supplied by other applications. To edit your team's documents in practice, connect it to an application that stores them:

• Nextcloud with the ONLYOFFICE plugin is the most common pairing: files are stored on your team drive, and clicking a document opens it in OnlyOffice for collaborative editing. You can install Nextcloud with a single click from the Saplo catalog,
• your own application via API: if you are building a system where a customer needs to edit a contract or proposal directly in your interface, Document Server provides an editor and document converter through the API.

In the integration settings (in Nextcloud: Admin settings -> ONLYOFFICE), you enter two values from the ONLYOFFICE-SETUP.txt file: the Document Server URL and the JWT secret. JWT is intentionally enabled: without it, anyone who found the editor's public domain could make the server open and convert any file from any URL. An integration without the secret will return an authorization error, and it should remain that way.

OnlyOffice on Saplo vs Microsoft 365

Frequently asked questions

Can OnlyOffice fully replace Microsoft 365? As a document editor, yes: Word, Excel, and PowerPoint with native formats and real-time collaborative editing. OnlyOffice is not email, calendar, or messaging, so you can replace these Microsoft 365 features with separate apps on Saplo, while mailboxes are included with every plan.

Do files need to be converted to the OnlyOffice format? No, the editor works directly with the docx, xlsx, and pptx formats. A document saved in OnlyOffice retains the format in which it was opened, so you can exchange files with clients without converting them in either direction.

Do I need a separate database? No, the OnlyOffice image includes its own PostgreSQL database, RabbitMQ queue, and Redis cache. The Saplo engine deploys a single container, while the editor's data is stored in volumes on your Box.

Why does installation take a few minutes? The first container startup initializes the internal database and queue, and the image itself is over 1.5 GB. This is a one-time cost: subsequent container startups are faster, and the engine still waits for the editor to respond via HTTP before reporting the installation as complete.

How many people can edit a document at the same time? OnlyOffice does not meter users or edits, so the real limit is your Box's resources. Document conversion and rendering put a heavy load on CPU and RAM, which means the deployment recipe requires at least 4 GB of RAM and will not run on a plan cheaper than Box L.

Can I connect OnlyOffice to Nextcloud deployed on Saplo? Yes, this is the most common scenario: in Nextcloud, you install the ONLYOFFICE app from the built-in list and enter the Document Server address and JWT secret from ONLYOFFICE-SETUP.txt. From then on, documents from your team drive open in the editor on the same Box or an adjacent one.

If your team pays for Microsoft 365 mainly to edit documents, get in touch and we'll help you choose a Box and set up OnlyOffice together with Nextcloud.