Comparison
Dossiers vs Google Docs
Real-time writing everyone loves — until nobody can find the current version of anything.
For writing together in real time, nothing beats Google Docs: multiple cursors, comments, suggesting mode, and zero training required. It’s free for personal use and included in every Google Workspace subscription — which is why almost every spec starts life as a Google Doc.
The trouble starts after the writing. A Drive full of docs is a pile, not a library: three copies named “final”, permissions that mirror whoever clicked Share, no statuses, no cross-linked index, no way to browse what’s current. Dossiers is the after: merge the finished spec as Markdown and it appears on a searchable site with status, authors, history, and links between documents — the canonical shelf your Drive never becomes.
At a glance
| Dossiers | Google Docs | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost | CLI: free (MIT). Hosted service: TBD — free tier planned | Free for personal use; Google Workspace from ~$7/user/mo (Business Starter, annual billing) |
| Open source | Yes — MIT | No — proprietary |
| Where content lives | Markdown files in your Git repository | Google Drive, as individual documents |
| Authoring | Any editor or IDE; plain Markdown with YAML frontmatter | Best-in-class real-time editor with comments and suggesting mode |
| Review & approval | Pull requests — drafts appear automatically next to published specs | Suggestions and comments per doc; no publish gate |
| Version history | Full Git history of every document | Per-document version history |
| Full-text search | Full-text search in the hosted service; static builds use browser search | Drive search across your files |
| Access control | Google Workspace domain or GitHub org (hosted); static sites can sit behind your own auth | Per-file and per-folder sharing; domain-wide options |
| Self-hosting | Yes — static output hosts anywhere, or run the CLI server | No |
| Lock-in | None — plain Markdown files stay in your repo | Medium — per-doc export (Word, PDF, Markdown); no site or library output |
Prices are rounded list prices as of July 2026 and change often — always check the vendor’s pricing page. Dossiers hosted-service pricing will be announced at launch.
Which one is for you?
Choose Google Docs if…
- You’re drafting collaboratively, live, with mixed audiences
- Comments from non-technical stakeholders drive your review
- Documents are one-off artifacts, not a maintained library
- You’re already paying for Google Workspace anyway
Choose Dossiers if…
- Finished specs deserve a canonical, browsable, read-only home
- You want statuses, authorship, and history visible at a glance
- Documents should link to each other and be searchable as a set
- The approved version should be unambiguous — forever
The bottom line
This isn’t either/or — it’s a pipeline. Draft in Google Docs where collaboration shines, then land the result as Markdown through a pull request. Dossiers publishes the approved state; Drive keeps the scratchpads.
Frequently asked questions
How do I get a Google Doc into Dossiers?
Google Docs exports Markdown directly (File → Download → Markdown). Add YAML frontmatter for status and authors, commit it in a pull request, and it’s published on merge.
Do reviewers lose commenting?
Review moves to the pull request, where comments are threaded, resolvable, and permanently tied to the exact text they discuss — arguably a stronger record than doc margin comments.
See it with your own specs
Point Dossiers at a folder of Markdown files — you'll have a site before the kettle boils.