Today's Deep-Dive: Documize

All right, get ready to dive deep into Documize today.

They claim to be like a one-stop shop

for managing knowledge, whether it's for building

amazing products or even just making sure

your company's information runs smoothly internally.

Oh, before we get started, a big thanks to SafeServer

for supporting us on this deep dive.

They're the experts when it comes to digital transformation

and hosting solutions, and guess what?

They can even help you with Documize hosting.

So yeah, check them out at www.safeserver.desde.

It's interesting, they're not just one tool.

It's two separate products, actually.

There's ZeraBase for product development and then Community,

which is designed for managing internal knowledge

across, well, the whole company.

Yeah, that's right.

We've got a bunch of Documize's marketing stuff

from their website for this one,

and then we also snuck a peek under the hood,

so to speak, through their GitHub repository.

It's like having the fancy brochure

and the engineer's notes all at once.

But the big question is, can Documize Leave

really live up to the hype?

Can it be that ultimate knowledge hub

for both product stuff and company-wide knowledge?

Let's start with ZeraBase, their product development tool.

They call it Product HQ, and yeah,

it seems to be all about centralizing, well, everything.

Okay, so imagine this.

You're building like a brand new app, right?

You've got designers and developers,

product managers running around,

and maybe even some customer feedback trickling in.

It's a lot to handle, right?

Yeah.

Documize says ZeraBase can handle all that.

Everything from product plans and design assets

to documentation and even customer feedback,

all in one desktop application.

And they really push that offline functionality.

That's huge for people who are on the go

or maybe have unreliable internet access.

Definitely.

They even have this quote from a VP of product,

Eric Vortist, who says ZeraBase has basically

become their product HQ.

Sounds good, but it does make you wonder,

what kind of company does he actually work for?

And what problems were they facing

that ZeraBase actually solved for them?

Always good to be a little critical

of these testimonials, you know?

Oh, for sure.

And then there's the pricing.

Free for two editors and unlimited viewers.

So smaller teams can get started without paying anything,

which makes you wonder, what's their long-term plan here?

Now let's move over to community,

their internal knowledge management solution.

This one's all about organizing all that company knowledge

and making it easy to find.

Think of all those documents that get scattered everywhere.

You know, like shared drives, emails,

people's hard drives even, processes, guidelines, manuals.

Basically anything and everything

a company needs documented.

Documize says community can wrangle all of that.

They even compare it to Confluence,

which tons of companies use, but it can get so unwieldy.

Documize is pitching community as like a simpler

and more streamlined alternative to Confluence.

One quote that caught my eye

was from an infrastructure expert

who was praising the built-in workflows in community.

That just makes me wonder what exactly are these workflows

and how customizable are they?

Are we talking simple approvals

or something way more complex?

Okay, so we've heard the marketing pitch,

but what about the technology behind it all?

What's interesting is that Documize community is open source.

So their code is out there for anyone to see on GitHub.

Yeah, that means anyone can actually look at the code,

modify it, even contribute to the project if they want.

It's a big win for transparency.

On the technical side, it's built on Go and EmberJS.

Now, those might sound like a foreign language

to some people, but the key takeaway

is that it can compile down to a single file,

making it theoretically super easy to install.

So no more struggling

with those complicated installation processes.

That's a huge plus for me.

Definitely, and they support a bunch of different databases

and operating systems.

You can basically use it with whatever setup you've got.

And if you're worried about security,

especially with sensitive information,

you'll be glad to know they've got your back.

Lots of authentication options,

including the usual suspects like LDAP and Active Directory,

but also things like Red Hat Key Cloak.

And another thing, Community supports a lot of languages

right out of the box.

Let's see, we've got English, German, French, Chinese,

Portuguese, Japanese, Italian, Spanish.

I mean, is your language on the list?

Now, they have this free Community Edition,

but they also offer a paid version they call Community Plus,

which is their enterprise version.

The classic freemium model.

OK, so what extra goodies do we get with Community Plus?

Community Plus unlocks a bunch of more advanced features.

We're seeing workflows again, plus version control

so you can track changes, PDF export, analytics

to see how people are using the knowledge base,

and maybe the most important, you get dedicated support.

And their pricing structure is a bit unique.

Free for up to five users, then a flat fee for up to 100.

That's a pretty good deal for smaller businesses

compared to some other pracier options.

But how does it compare to the competition

for bigger companies with hundreds

or even thousands of users?

That's a really good point.

We'll have to dig into that a bit more.

Okay, so we've talked about the basics

of ZeraBase and Community, but like,

how would you actually use these tools in the real world?

Okay, so let's say you're building

a new software application.

You've got your whole product team,

you've got people sketching out features,

designers working on mockups,

developers coding like crazy,

and testers trying to, well, break everything.

It's a lot of information flying around, right?

Exactly.

That's where ZeraBase comes in.

It's meant to be that central hub

where all that information can live together.

No more trying to decipher notes on napkins

or digging through endless email chains.

So instead of having, like, project plans in one tool,

design files somewhere else,

and documentation all over the place,

it's all in ZeraBase.

Sounds pretty good to me,

but how do you keep everyone, like, on the same page?

That's one of the things ZeraBase is really pushing.

Product managers can lay out their roadmaps,

and they're directly linked to design mockups,

documentation, even code repositories.

Everyone can see, you know, what's being built and why.

So no more, like, lost in translation moments

between different teams.

No more developers building the wrong thing

because they didn't have the latest design specs.

It's got to save a lot of time.

Absolutely, and we can't forget about, you know,

customer feedback, Documize talks a lot about integrating

that right into ZeroBase.

Wait, so instead of having customer feedback

off in some separate tool,

it's right there next to the product plans

and development progress.

Yeah.

That's a pretty cool idea.

It is.

It helps teams make newer decisions,

prioritize features based on what users actually want,

not just, you know, guessing.

Yeah, closing that loop between what users are asking for

and what you're building.

Okay, that all makes sense for product teams,

but what about community?

Where does that fit in?

Think about all that knowledge that's kind of locked away

in people's heads or hidden deep in the company servers,

you know, those processes, guidelines, policies,

the things that keep everything running smoothly.

That's where community comes in.

You mean all that, like, tribal knowledge

that disappears when someone leaves the company?

Or those super important documents

that no one can ever seem to find?

Exactly.

Community wants to be that central place

for all that information,

making it accessible and searchable for everyone.

I can see how that would be really useful

for, like, onboarding new employees.

Yeah.

Instead of handing them a stack of old manuals,

you can just point them to community and boom,

they have everything they need.

And it's not just for new people either.

Think about collaboration between different departments.

Like, let's say the marketing team needs to know

about the latest sales process.

No more scheduling meetings or sending a million emails.

They can just find what they need in community.

So community is kind of like the ultimate

knowledge library for your company.

But you mentioned earlier that community is open source.

That seems like a pretty big deal.

It is.

It means anyone can actually look at the code,

see how it all works, even suggest changes or contribute

their own code.

That kind of transparency is pretty rare

in the software world.

OK, that's cool for the tech folks.

But what about regular people?

Like, what are the benefits for people who don't code?

Well, one thing is you can potentially

customize community to fit your company's needs exactly.

Maybe you have a specific workflow or some particular

security requirements.

With open source, you can actually tweak things.

So it's not just a one-size-fits-all thing.

You can adapt it to your own situation.

Exactly.

But there's also a potential downside

you have to think about.

Uh-oh.

What's the catch?

Well, with open source, you're relying on the community

to support and maintain the software.

So what happens if the company behind Documize disappears?

Will the community keep it going?

Yeah, that's a good point.

It's like putting all your eggs in one basket

and hoping that the community will always

be there to, well, catch them.

It's a bit of a gamble, for sure.

But for some companies, the benefits

of transparency and customization,

they might outweigh those concerns.

Speaking of risks, let's talk money.

We've danced around it a bit.

But how much does all this actually cost?

Well, remember, ZeraBase is free for smaller teams.

They only charge when you have more than two editors.

That makes it really appealing for startups

and smaller companies just starting out.

Yeah, it's a smart way to get people using it, right?

Start off with a free version.

And then, boom, they're hooked and ready to pay.

Exactly.

And then there's community.

The basic version is free for everyone.

But they have that paid enterprise version,

Community Plus, that gives you all the fancy features.

Right.

The workflows, version control, analytics, all that good stuff.

But how does the pricing work for Community Plus?

It's kind of interesting.

They have a free tier for up to five users,

which is pretty generous.

But once you hit that limit, you pay a flat fee

for up to 100 users.

So it might be a decent deal for small to medium businesses.

But what about the really big companies?

Yeah, if you've got hundreds or even thousands of users,

that flat fee could get pretty expensive.

I wonder how it compares to other enterprise knowledge

management solutions.

That's definitely a question worth looking into.

It seems like Documize is really targeting

those smaller, faster moving companies

with their pricing model.

It'll be interesting to see how that works out

for them in the long run.

Definitely.

OK, so we've looked at how ZeraBase and Community

could fit into real world workflows.

And we've talked about the whole pricing thing.

But there are still some big questions to answer.

Yeah, like can one platform really do it all?

And are there any downsides to relying

on an open source solution?

We'll dig into those questions in part three.

OK, welcome back to the last part of our deep dive

on Documize.

We've gone through their features,

looked at potential use cases, even gotten

into the tech side of things.

But now the big question, can Documize actually

do what it says it can do?

That's the real question, isn't it?

They're basically trying to be two things at once.

The essential tool for product teams, that's ZeraBase,

and the ultimate knowledge base for the whole company

with Community.

It's ambitious, for sure.

Having your product development info all in ZeraBase

and then seamlessly connected to the company's knowledge

and Community, that sounds pretty powerful, you know?

Imagine this.

A developer is working in ZeraBase and hits a roadblock,

some kind of tricky technical challenge.

Instead of getting stuck, they just jump over to Community,

search around, see if anyone else has run

into the same issue before, maybe even

find some internal best practices that could help.

It's like having all the knowledge of your company

right there easy to access.

But here's where I get a bit hesitant.

Can one platform really do both things well?

Or do we lose something by trying to do too much?

That's a good point.

It really comes down to your needs.

If your product development is super complex,

maybe you need a tool that's specifically

built for that ZeraBase might not be enough.

And then on the other side, if your company has a huge

knowledge base with sensitive info,

you probably need a system with really tight security

and powerful search.

Community might not be up to that task.

Exactly.

It's about finding the right tool for the job.

Another thing to consider is how easy

it is to learn, especially with community.

Documize says it's simpler than Confluence.

But any new platform takes time to get used to and integrate

into your workflows.

Oh, for sure.

And people don't always like change.

If community isn't easy to use, people

are just going to go back to their old ways,

emailing files around or keeping stuff

on their own computers.

Documize has to make the user experience really

good to succeed.

Yeah, I agree.

Speaking of succeeding, let's go back to the open source

thing with community.

We talked about the benefits, transparency, customization,

the potential for a really active community.

But there are also risks, right?

Right.

The big one being, can they make it last?

Can Documize build a successful business

around a product that's mostly free and open source?

It's a big gamble.

It depends on them building a strong community that's

not just using the software, but actually contributing to it.

Writing code, documentation, providing support,

they need to become like the center of everything community.

So it's a bit of a catch-22.

They need a strong community to succeed,

but to get that community, they need to prove that, well,

community's here to stay.

Exactly.

It'll be interesting to see what happens.

If they can make it work, they could really change the knowledge

management world.

So we've talked about the pros and cons,

looked at the potential benefits and the risks,

even dug into some of the tech stuff.

But really, the best way to see if Documize is right for you

is to just try it out.

Totally.

Go to their website, read the documentation,

maybe even try a free trial, see how it feels,

if it fits into how you work, if it clicks for you.

And think about if it really addresses your specific needs

and challenges.

Don't just use it because it sounds cool.

Make sure it's the right tool for what you're trying to do.

Well put.

This has been a really interesting look at Documize.

We talked about their strategy of having two products, what

they're doing with open source, and the big question of if they

can make it work long term.

A huge thank you to SafeServer for making this deep dive

possible.

If you need experts in digital transformation and hosting

solutions, and yes, that includes Documize hosting,

check them out at www.safeserver.de.

They're the people to talk to.

Until next time, keep exploring and keep learning.

Happy learning, everyone.