Windward vs Docmosis
A Definitive Comparison in 2024

Creating Templates

Docmosis lets you quickly iterate the development of a template, while Windward’s approach to templates can be quite complex.

Windward comes with 18 pre-made templates and requires a Fluent Designer plugin.

The plugin supports template creation with Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. While these interfaces might feel familiar, the plugin’s features require a high level of technical competence — you need to familiarize yourself with Windward’s Autotag and Wizard features, learn to configure and connect with databases, and have a good grasp of data structures.

On the other hand, Docmosis has 43 document templates that include:

• invoices,
• proposals,
• certificates,
• and business letters.

Many of these are made by Docmosis and come with sample data for testing. Docmosis also provides the ability to generate sample data based on the fields in the template either via the user interface or via the API.

You can create templates from scratch using LibreOffice Writer or Microsoft Word by adding plain-text placeholders to create the merge fields. When uploaded to Docmosis they can be easily tested with the sample data to see what the final document will look like once generated. Also, creating conditional statements for content and injecting data into table rows requires only a few lines of code.

The final document retains the formatting applied to merge fields in your template (which we cover in-depth in the next section).

Quality of Export

Windward supports multiple output formats with lower template to document conversion accuracy, while Docmosis supports fewer output formats but offers a higher conversion accuracy.

Windward can output documents in 18 formats, including DOCX, PPTX, XLSX, PDF, and HTML. In addition to that, it also does RFT and direct-to-printer.

When it comes to the quality of document exports, Windward’s acceptable for basic docs with limited formatting and simple tables. However, when working with complex documents, the final output can look quite different from the original template. For example, logos can get resized or moved, font types changed, and column widths expanded.

This means that, after investing time designing templates, they’ll end up looking different in the output, which defeats the purpose of a template-based process.

Meanwhile, Docmosis only focuses on the following document-based outputs: PDF, DOCX, ODT, and TXT. Unlike Windward, the generated documents look like the initial template for simple and multi-page documents.

This gives you the flexibility and control expected of a template-based approach knowing that your hard work will be reflected in the final document.

Data Sources

For input data, Windward connects with multiple databases, while Docmosis primarily supports JSON and XML data.

Docmosis accepts data in XML and JSON formats, making it compatible with most modern custom-built software applications. It also has an easy-to-use API that lets you connect with other apps and third-party software. However, it doesn’t offer as many direct integrations as Windward.

**Update: From November 2023, Docmosis now provides a Zapier integration, enabling numerous custom integrations!

Windward is very flexible when it comes to data sources. In addition to its API, it connects directly with JSON, XML, SQL, Oracle, DB2, and other databases to inject data into templates in real time. Unlike Docmosis, Windward can combine data from multiple sources into a single template, which makes it more flexible.

Resources & Support

Windward’s resources are outdated, but their support is reliable. Docmosis offers organized resources and excellent support.

Having a well-organized help section means seamless troubleshooting, done by end-users themself. This helps take the load off higher-level decision-makers and removes bottlenecks since the person encountering issues can also resolve them.

Now that Windward is part of the larger Apryse group, finding specific resources is challenging due to poor organization and searchability. The knowledge base also isn’t frequently updated, which leads to confusion and lengthy troubleshooting sessions. But on the other hand, users praise the customer support team; they say it’s helpful and responsive.

Unlike Windward, Docmosis’ resource section is neatly structured and organized, with filters that make it easy to find resources according to products (Cloud, Tornado, and Java) and their different versions.

Plus, Docmosis has comprehensive, easy-to-follow, and frequently updated documentation for quickly resolving issues. Their customer support team is also prompt, providing detailed responses with specific examples and templates.

Price & Free Trial

Docmosis has a long free-trial period and the best value paid plans. Windward’s pricing plans are hidden.

Windward’s free trial lasts for 30 days. During this period, generated documents have the Windward branding at the bottom.

Similar to Windward, Docmosis also offers a free 30-day trial. However, Docmosis gives full access to its features, without any form of branding in the headers and footers, and no watermarks.

Currently, Windward’s (or Apryse’s) paid plans are hidden. However, as at April 2023 (the last time they were public) the starting price for the Windward engine was $6,790 per year. It begs the question, what happens at the end of the year? Editing templates requires an MS Word Add-in, that is called the Windward Designer, which has an additional cost of $730 per user per year. This means that the number of template authors needs to be known and licensed in advance.

Windward’s Restful Engine and Java Library are similar to the Docmosis Tornado and Docmosis-Java products, which only require a one-time license payment — starting at $3,695. For support and updates, Docmosis offers an optional package, starting at $1,478 annually. Unlike Windward, where the license fees need to be paid every year, if you don’t take the optional renewal, the Docmosis software will continue to run indefinitely.