Ellipsus is a collaborative writing app built by writers as an explicit alternative to Google Docs. It is a prose tool, not an office suite: one document, a set of linked drafts, comments, and a reader link for sharing finished work.

What it does well

• Drafts branch off a document instead of a suggestion mode — an editor works in their own copy, and you compare and merge what you want to keep.
• Comments run through the document and its drafts; collaborators get view, comment, edit or merge rights.
• No generative AI anywhere in the product, and the privacy policy commits to never training on, sharing or selling your writing.
• Imports and exports .docx with formatting and images intact; also exports PDF and Markdown.
• The free plan covers unlimited documents, drafts and collaborators.

Where it is worse

• No tables, and tables are dropped on import. Budgets, grant applications and line-item proposals cannot live here.
• No page layout: page numbers and pagination do not survive export, so contracts and formally formatted documents are out.
• Comments are lost on import and are absent from PDF and Markdown exports.
• No bulk download and no public API — moving a document library in or out is manual, file by file.
• Collaboration assumes everyone joins Ellipsus. Partners who work in Google Docs will not follow.
• Small independent team, and proprietary: no source, no self-hosting, no choice of data residency (documents are stored in Ireland).

Cost

The free plan is the whole writing tool. The optional Plus plan is $99 one-time, or $6/month for 24 months, and adds themes, writing insights and shareable snippets — nothing an organization needs.

Verdict

Worth it narrowly: essays, articles, newsletters, theory drafts and other long-form writing. Not a replacement for Google Docs as an organization's document system — use it beside Nextcloud or LibreOffice, not instead of them.