Get started

Collaboration Engine

Real time collaboration in Vaadin apps

The simplest way to add real-time collaboration to Vaadin web apps.
Documentation Try demo app
ce-hero
Secure integration

Securely integrate collaboration features into business web apps

Many businesses rely on multiple 3rd-party tools to enable real-time collaboration in remote or distributed workflows. Collaboration Engine provides developers with everything necessary to productively and affordably build these features directly into custom business applications. This means simpler workflows, superior UX and complete control over sensitive data.
See who else is working on something
Show your user avatar and see other active users in real-time.
View documentation
Edit a form together
Collaborate on the same form without delay and avoid conflicts when saving your work.
View documentation
Discuss
Chat, leave comments and keep track of recent edits to any component or view.
View documentation

Get to know Collaboration Engine

Collaborative UI state is automatically synchronized between multiple users. In a cluster, synchronization can use existing clustering infrastructure.

  • An intuitive, high-level API tailored for specific use cases.
  • Low-level Topic APIs that offer more fine-grained control over its features.
  • The Collaboration Avatar Group component that populates an avatar group with all the people present in the view, component or application.
  • A Collaboration Binder, which allows everyone active in a form to see the real-time activities of other users, and shares values among users.

A few lines of code, a fraction of the time

Collaboration Engine is easy to set-up and integrate into new or existing Vaadin projects. Use the Collaboration Avatar Group component to display active users in a specific area of the application, and simply subscribe any Vaadin UI component, view or application to a collaboration topic, using the API to enable collaboration capabilities.

Collaboration Engine Sampler

On-premise hosting for absolute security

Collaboration Engine is embedded into the application itself. Synchronization between nodes in a cluster can be handled using existing clustering infrastructure. Collaboration Engine is suitable for intranet or offline usage and supports a wide range of access control and security options.

Use our Topic API to build collaboration features for custom use-cases

More features are coming to our high-level API, but if you need a completely custom use-case immediately, you can easily use our low-level Topic API to code them yourselves using our infrastructure.
Improved DX & Productıvıty

More great features to boost DX and productivity

Works with any Vaadin Component
Collaboration Engine works with all Vaadin components out of the box. In addition, it supports custom UI components to be integrated with Vaadin components.
Unparalleled development velocity
Simplicity and DX are at the heart of Collaboration Engine. Robust documentation, tight Vaadin integration and an intuitive API, afford unmatched development velocity
Developed and optimized for Vaadin
Collaboration Engine was developed with Vaadin in mind. It works, and provides exceptional performance, out of the box. No tinkering or architectural changes are required.
Shrink your maintenance overhead
We provide all the updates, bug fixes and security patches necessary to keep your app running smoothly— compatibility with new Vaadin versions and browsers is ensured.
End-to-end support for your application
Our extensive free and commercial support services cover all aspects of the Vaadin platform— including Collaboration Engine. If something goes wrong, we have your back.
Excellent user experience by default
Pre-defined behaviors and UX patterns that are easy to tweak, provide a solid foundation for building market-leading collaborative solutions for employees and customers.
Simple pricing

Pricing

Developing with Collaboration Engine is free.

You only need a license when taking your application into production. Start for free with 20 users per month, and scale with a commercial license.

Starter

 
 
Up to 20 users
Start for free

  • Up to 20 users per month in production
  • Enable Collaboration Engine for selected users only
  • Upgrade to a commercial license at any time
  • Can be used with open-source Vaadin Core

Commercial

 
 
/month/500 users
Contact us

  • Up to 500 users per month in production
  • Can be purchased separately or with other Vaadin commercial subscriptions
  • Enable Collaboration Engine for selected users only
  • Commercial Vaadin subscriptions include a free monthly quota of users
Have Questions?

Frequently Asked Questions

Learn the fundamentals of Collaboration Engine and watch a live demo with our introductory webinar.
Watch the webinar

How many licensed users do I get with my Vaadin subscription?

Core subscribers get 20 users/month.

Pro subscribers get 50 users/month.

Prime and Enterprise subscribers get 150 users/month.

Commercial subscribers can also get a custom quota package.

Request your license by filling this form.

What happens to users who are not using collaboration features? Are they still able to use an application that includes Collaboration Engine?

Yes. If a user who has not been assigned a license interacts with a Collaboration Engine-powered component or view, they are presented with a regular, non-collaborative version of the component or view.

How can I upgrade my user limit?

You can extend the user quota included in your subscription, upgrade to the starting package of up to 500 monthly users for 199 € / $ 229 per month, or get a custom package according to your application's usage. Contact our team and they'll be happy to set this up for you.

How long do I have to upgrade my user limit when I go over the user limit?

We give out a 30 day grace period the first time you go over the limit. During this grace period, you will receive a notification reminding you to upgrade your limit. Collaboration Engine and your Vaadin application will continue to function normally. The grace period is reset upon upgrading, or on a yearly basis.

Do I need an active Vaadin subscription to use Collaboration Engine?

No, Collaboration Engine does not require any other commercial subscription. Vaadin Pro, Prime and Enterprise subscribers have a number of users included, but Collaboration Engine licenses can be purchased separately. To request more licenses, contact us.

Is Collaboration Engine stable, feature-complete and ready for production usage?

Yes. It has been extensively tested and is ready to be used in production. It is also feature-complete, in that it enables collaborative editing, but additional functionality will be introduced regularly over the coming months. For more information, please see our roadmap.

Which servers support hosting the Collaboration Engine?

Collaboration Engine can only be deployed directly on the application server (in-memory).

We're currently working on a BYOB (Bring Your Own Backend) approach, which means you will be able to reuse existing clustering infraestructure to distribute data within a cluster. 

What programming languages does Collaboration Engine support?

Collaboration Engine initially ships with a Java API (Vaadin Flow). However, a TypeScript API (Hilla) is on our roadmap. If you're interested in this, send us a message!

Can I purchase Collaboration Engine licenses for only the subset of users who need collaborative features?

Yes. You can purchase Collaboration Engine licenses for only the users who need to actively use collaborative features.

Developers can also choose to enable collaborative features in specific UI components or views. In addition, they can use code to selectively use either CollaborationBinder or Binder depending on the application requirements.

How is the number of users calculated? Is it calculated per collaboration "topic", or the overall users of an application using collaboration features in a month?

The usage is calculated based on the total number of unique user ids encountered by the engine during the calendar month. It is not "per topic".

Will my application break if I go over the monthly user limit for Collaboration?

Your application will not break / be rendered unusable if you go over your limit. Instead, users over the limit will be assigned to separate "Topics", which will provide a non-collaborative experience similar to the regular Binder.

Is Collaboration Engine an integrated part of the Vaadin platform?

Yes, Vaadin 20+ includes Collaboration Engine as part of the Vaadin platform. It can also be used in our latest LTS Vaadin 14 as a separate package. This means that the relevant dependency must be added to the pom.xml file of the application.

Do you offer a free trial of Collaboration Engine?

Collaboration Engine is billed per user (it is a run-time offering). All Vaadin users with any commercial subscription (Vaadin Pro, Prime and Enterprise) receive a free quota of users each month (see the pricing section above). Additional number of users can be purchased as needed, based on the monthly users who use collaboration features in your application.

Does Vaadin host a cloud version of Collaboration Engine that I can subscribe to?

At this point in time, we only offer a self-hosted version of Collaboration Engine. A cloud version may materialize at a later stage.

What impact does enabling collaboration features have on my application server?

We estimate that up to 100,000 users should have no discernable impact on the performance of your application server. Advanced performance and scalability testing is currently underway. More information will be provided as it becomes available.

Which Vaadin version should my application be built on to use Collaboration Engine?

Collaboration Engine is included in Vaadin 20+, and is also compatible with Vaadin 14.
Learn more about collaboration engine

Collaborative Experience Resources

Follow the links below to learn more about Collaboration Engine.
Documentation Demo app Release blog post Webinar recording What are collaborative experiences Collaboration for SaaS