GitBook

Overall Opinion: The main draw of GitBooks, as opposed to other online collaborative services like Google Docs, is the fact that a document can be published instantly with a custom domain. In a practical setting, this is great for if a user or organization needs a specific (mostly text) page for a website done quickly, like a frequently asked questions section. A user or a team can work on GitBook and then publish results directly to the web. For those that desire convenience and speed over cost saving, GitBook is the way to go. GitBook does have a free plan for organizations and businesses: It allows up to five collaborators and an unlimited amount of public books, visits and updates to documents. It also allows custom domains and community support, but does not allow any private books. The next step up, which is called "Startup," allows up to 10 private books and up to 10 collaborators, but costs $49 per month. It also includes individual support options and an analytics dashboard. The next plan is called "Business." It costs $249 per month and includes all the features of the previous plans, plus organization domains and up to 50 collaborators and 100 private books. The final plan is called "Enterprise," weighing in at an astounding $949 per month. Like the Business plan, it features everything from the lower cost plans, plus up to 200 collaborators and an unlimited amount of private books. The Enterprise plan is the only plan that offers "premium support." Personal plan pricing is a bit more reasonable than the organization plan bundles, starting at $7 per month (for a single user) for the use of private books. Otherwise, all work done on GitBook is publicly available, which is not a friendly option for those who want to protect their intellectual property.

Pros: Education discounts are offered for schools, teachers and students. Interested parties must contact the company for more information Payment plans are monthly and can be cancelled at any time Payment methods accepted are Visa, Mastercard and American Express credit and debit cards

Cons: This product draws a whole lot of similarities to Google Docs, Google Sheets and other collaborative office services offered by Google. Users who are comfortable with their Google accounts might prefer simply using those instead, since it doesn't require the user to sign up with another service, and there doesn't seem to be any features present in GitBook that one can't emulate with Google Docs (although publishing to the web must be done manually and will probably require a lot more work for novice web designers). Google Docs is also free, and an unlimited amount of private documents can be kept for free. GitBook, on the other hand, doesn't allow the user to have a single private book for free