Small Business Webware - CatalystWeb vs Google Apps for Domains

catalyst

The rising costs and complexity of enterprise software are driving small businesses towards web-ware. This is the market which small business software maker CatalystWeb is trying to capture with the launch of CatalystOffice last week. I was asked if I could test and give it a full public critique so here goes…

Basically CatalystOffice offers:

Webmail - which is compatible with your domain
Online file access
Online Calendar
Online Contacts
Intuitive contacts management
Enterprise-wide IM

…Which sounds pretty basic, but still important aspects of every small business. Now to set some benchmarks so I can review Catalyst Web properly, I am comparing it against the Google Apps for Domains service.

Pros:

Scalable cost - You don’t pay per user - you pay for the amount of space being used (prices are competitive)
Automated online backup for and version control for documents which are checked in

Neither of these are offered by Google, although the cost are much smaller for Google if you have less than 10 employees.

Cons:

One of the core benefits of having a web based office system is mobility. This is where CatalystOffice falters big time.

Doesn’t support Opera… and Internet Explorer (!!!) - only Firefox is supported. Now if you read this blog long enough, you’ll know I’m the last person which supports IE, but the reality is that most browsers out there are IE based. Not supporting IE means you won’t be able to hop on to most public terminals - which is a huge blow to mobility.
Doesn’t support mobile platforms. Not being able to check email with my mobile is an issue for me.

Here are my other gripes:

Doesn’t support IMAP email - CatalystOffice supports POP3 email - which is fine - but IMAP is better.
Unlike Google Apps for domains, CatalystOffice doesn’t come with office document web-ware like spreadsheets, word processors, and presentation creators. This means you have to buy your own MS-Office software.
Slow interface. Running of Java, it really felt clunky throughout my whole testing period, and I was not impressed.

FriedBeef’s Take:

For a quick and powerful small business solution, CatalystOffice falls short of Google Apps for Domains in my books. Too few advantages, and too many drawbacks make for a product which I feel isn’t quite ready yet.

If you still want to track this product you can do so via the Catalyst launch blog or get a 3 month free trial to test it for yourself.

Disclaimer: CatalystOffice has paid me to review their service, and to give an honest opinion. Please note that all opinions expressed in this post are completely my own, and have not been influenced by CatalystOffice in any way.