Comparisons
openDesk alternative
openDesk is the German public sector's sovereign workspace: open-source components — Open-Xchange, Nextcloud, Collabora, XWiki, Element, Jitsi — assembled into one suite. It is software, and somebody has to run it.
There is no list price to compare
openDesk is software rather than a service: what it costs depends on who hosts it, on how many servers and with which support contract. Comparing our price against a number we invented for them would be dishonest, so the comparison here is one of scope and operation.
What each one covers
| openDesk | Beskos | |
|---|---|---|
| Mail on your own domain | Included | Included |
| Calendar and invites | Included | Included |
| Contacts with custom fields | Limited | Included |
| Team files | Included | Included |
| Chat with channels and threads | Included | Included |
| Video meetings with recording | Included | Included |
| Edit Word, Excel and PowerPoint | Included | Included |
| Wiki / knowledge base | Included | Included |
| Kanban boards | Included | Included |
| AI assistant included | Not available | Included |
| Desktop folder sync | Included | Included |
| Own domain with DKIM and DMARC | Included | Included |
| Data in the European Union | Included | Included |
| Provider subject to EU law | Included | Included |
| Managed service, nothing to host | Limited | Included |
| All in the same app | Limited | Included |
Where openDesk is better
- Open-source throughout, auditable line by line, with no dependence on us or on anyone else.
- Developed under the German federal administration, which is a reference no start-up can match.
- Self-hosting means the data never leaves infrastructure you control, which is the strongest possible answer.
- Backed by an institution rather than a company, with the durability that implies.
Where Beskos wins
- A managed service: no servers, no updates, no backups and no integration between components to maintain.
- One product rather than six open-source projects federated behind a portal, with the consistency that follows.
- An AI assistant included and grounded in your own data, which openDesk does not provide.
- It runs from the first day, at a price per person, without an operations team.
In short
If you have the people to run it, openDesk is an excellent answer and its sovereignty is more complete than ours. If running mail servers is not your organisation's job, that operational cost is exactly what Beskos replaces — with the same jurisdiction.
Run it with your own numbers
Tick what you pay for today and see the difference at the end of the year.