Forget Google Docs, Canadian-made cDox could be your new place to write

With the dumpster fire south of the border getting worse every day, there’s been a lot of talk in Canada about data sovereignty. You might have heard the term thrown around. Maybe you haven’t. But if you use any tech, data sovereignty probably matters more to you than you realize.

At a basic level, the concept is about which country’s laws apply to data — laws that determine who can access data, how it’s protected, and more. That’s particularly important in current times, when many of us rely on products from U.S. tech giants. Products that store our data in the U.S., where it’s subject to U.S. law, controlled by companies that are increasingly allying with U.S. President Trump.

That might cause you some alarm. Understandably so — it freaks me out! Thinking about just how much of my personal and professional data is already in the hands of U.S. tech, and the possible repercussions of that, it’s a bit scary. I know I’m not alone — I’ve seen more and more people discuss moving away from U.S. tech, and there are a growing number of alternatives out there for all kinds of apps and services, and plenty of excellent resources for people looking to get off U.S. tech.

One that caught my attention was cDox, a Canadian-made, Canadian-hosted, web-based writing platform similar to Google Docs. And for me, it has increasingly replaced Google Docs and Microsoft Word as my go-to place to write.

A more private place to write

I’ve been using Google Docs pretty much since it launched in 2006. It’s an incredibly convenient and powerful tool that underpinned much of my education and later professional work. Back when I was in school, Docs was the ultimate collaboration tool for working on projects with classmates. Free, accessible to anyone with a web browser, with real-time editing by many people.

Even after school, when I started working at MobileSyrup full-time, Docs was integral to my workflow. Almost every longform story I’ve written — reviews, interviews, everything — at some point existed as a Google Doc. A major part of why I keep going back to Docs is the editing features, allowing me to get near-instant feedback from my editors or, now that I’m the editor, offering feedback quickly on the work my writers submit.

Enter cDox, which covers many of the same features as Google Docs while being totally Canadian. Created by Canadian designer and developer Barry Lachapelle and hosted in Montreal, cDox offers much of the convenience of Google Docs — web-based, accessible, free — with some additional upsides like data sovereignty and privacy. cDox promises not to train AI models on your writing or sell your data. It’s certainly compelling.

cDox editor interface. | Image credit: cDox.

I’ve been using cDox as my main place to write for a couple weeks now, and so far, it’s been fantastic. Aside from one small hiccup with getting logged out while working (something Lachapelle was quick to fix), cDox has been reliable and flawless.

I love the simple interface, which gets out of my way and lets me focus on writing without sacrificing useful tools. cDox supports adding images and links, highlighting text, commenting, and more. You can even publicly publish cDox documents, making them easy to share with just a URL, and cDox provides plenty of export options if you need to take your work elsewhere — PDFs, Markdown, even a Word document if you need it.

Getting better every day

cDox dashboard. | Image credit: cDox.

There’s a lot to love about cDox, but it’s not perfect. It’s missing some features, some of which might be dealbreakers for some people, others might just be inconvenient. And in a few cases, it’s just a matter of time until Lachapelle adds them in. For me, collaboration is one of the biggest things that’s missing compared to Google Docs, but it’s also something that’s on the list of upcoming features for cDox.

cDox also doesn’t have an app — it’s all web-based, for now. A FAQ section on the cDox website notes the web-only interface is “by design” as part of an effort to reduce reliance on big tech. That said, downloadable desktop apps are in the cDox roadmap and, earlier this month, cDox gained a terminal command that allows Mac, Windows, and Linux users to build cDox as a desktop app.

Other upcoming features include search, data tables, dictionary and thesaurus, keyboard shortcuts, and more. Lachapelle is moving quickly — even just since I started using cDox, multiple features and updates have come online.

Finally, there’s the issue of price and storage. Currently, cDox is free but caps users at 50MB of storage. It doesn’t sound like much, though when you’re working with just text, it goes a long way. cDox will eventually have paid subscriptions, which presumably will include additional storage, but that’s not ready yet.

Despite all this, cDox is still extremely promising. As a simple, web-based writing platform, it is already excellent and rapidly getting better. I write all day, every day, and cDox is one of the better places I’ve found to spend that time. And while it might not have all the features that Google Docs or Microsoft Word have, it gets impressively close.

If you spend a lot of time writing, and you want somewhere you can write that isn’t tied into U.S. big tech, cDox is absolutely worth a shot. You can try it for free from any web browser.