What are the best Nextcloud al­tern­at­ives?

There are numerous reasons why users opt for a Nextcloud al­tern­at­ive. Viable al­tern­at­ives to Nextcloud are similarly high-per­form­ing open-source cloud solutions that offer com­par­able features and data pro­tec­tion compliant with GDPR for com­mer­cial use. We take a closer look at some al­tern­at­ives – ownCloud, Seafile, Syncthing, Sparkle­Share and FileCloud – and let you know whether they pass the test.

What is Nextcloud?

Nextcloud is an open-source cloud solution with cloud storage and teamwork/groupware tools. It’s well suited to both private and business uses.

Some of the main strengths of the ap­plic­a­tion are easy migration, a variety of Nextcloud apps, col­lab­or­a­tion tools, role man­age­ment and GDPR-compliant data security. Ad­di­tion­al ad­vant­ages include a large active community and the choice between in­de­pend­ent self-hosting and managed hosting with secure host servers. This makes Nextcloud a solid free al­tern­at­ive to com­mer­cial providers such as Amazon AWS, Apple iCloud, Microsoft Onedrive and Google Drive.

What al­tern­at­ives to Nextcloud are available?

There’s a wide selection of open-source solutions for free cloud software. Below we present five worth­while Nextcloud al­tern­at­ives.

Accurate as of May 2023

ownCloud

The open-source solution ownCloud supports data syncing in­de­pend­ent of device and location and allows for col­lab­or­a­tion on files. As tra­di­tion­al private cloud software with practical features for cross-device team work in realtime, file sharing and central data storage, ownCloud is in the league of Microsoft 365 and iCloud while also enabling you to self-host. ownCloud is suitable for private users and for busi­nesses with more than 25 employees. There is a free version available for private use. If you want access to the full features of the software, you’ll need to pay for a sub­scrip­tion.

The most important features:

• Central saving, editing and sharing of files and contents, re­gard­less of location, time and device
• Com­pre­hens­ive admin for creating groups, sharing files and managing access priv­ileges
• Upload chunking for breaking up larger files into smaller parts
• Available with self-hosting or managed hosting
• Activ­it­ies stream with an event log for each activity and each time a file is accessed
• Col­lab­or­a­tion on office documents with Collabora Online, with support for Microsoft Office and Lib­reOf­fice
• File versions and optional file locking
• Com­pre­hens­ive ad­min­is­trat­ive access features
• Very good web interface
• Reliable data security for com­pli­ance and data pro­tec­tion
• Good com­pat­ib­il­ity with Linux-based systems

Seafile

Seafile is open-source software in the spirit of Dropbox, with an emphasis on file sharing and file transfers. Unlike Dropbox, it has open, un­li­censed code on both server and client side. It’s es­pe­cially strong when it comes to col­lab­or­at­ive work on files and contents, with its practical com­ment­ing features, clear file versions, messaging and end-to-end client en­cryp­tion. The software is available in free and pro­fes­sion­al versions.

The most important features:

• Central saving, editing and sharing of files and contents, re­gard­less of location, time and device
• Practical file sharing and file transfers via central data storage on the cloud server
• Access to files for selected users with links
• File syncing and file versions
• Helpful col­lab­or­a­tions tools for teams and projects (e.g. comments, messages)

Syncthing

Syncthing is an open-source solution for practical peer-to-peer file syncing. It doesn’t rely on cloud storage for syncing data and uses the internet instead. This means that files stay on users’ local devices but can still be updated and shared in realtime using device IDs.

In elim­in­at­ing the cloud server, Syncthing provides one less op­por­tun­ity for potential attacks. In addition, its practical web interface offers tools like user-defined as­sign­ment of access and priv­ileges, folder in­teg­ra­tion and stat­ist­ics. Ad­di­tion­al devices can be added using the ID.

The most important features:

• Practical col­lab­or­a­tion and realtime data syncing between computers using device IDs and the internet (peer-to-peer)
• As­sign­ment of priv­ileges and access to unlocked files and folders for selected users
• Helpful web interface for con­fig­ur­ing roles, unlocking files or con­nect­ing ad­di­tion­al devices

Sparkle­Share

This open-source solution Sparkle­Share is focused on Linux, making it one of the preferred softwares for ad­min­is­trat­ive man­age­ment on Linux systems. Sparkle­Share can be used to sync files and store them centrally on a local or hosted server. Git version control ensures that files can be restored and changes can be tracked. That ensures that status of files is always clear, even when it comes to large projects with a lot of users with access. Since it’s based on Git, Sparkle­Share can also be seen as a graphic front end for Git.

The most important features:

• Cent­ral­ised file sharing and encrypted syncing across devices
• Simple file restores and tracked changes with Git version control
• Easy desktop in­teg­ra­tion with a special directory for files and folders

FileCloud

FileCloud is open-source file sharing software that is mainly aimed at busi­nesses. Its main focuses are on security, ad­min­is­trat­ive man­age­ment and com­pat­ib­il­ity. This al­tern­at­ive to NextCloud is very flexible and can be connected with popular programs and cloud services such as Microsoft Office, AWS and Google Workspace. The graphic interface can be in­di­vidu­ally con­figured (e.g. with your company’s logo). Data formats can be cus­tom­ised depending on the location of the end user. You can either self-host your FileCloud server or have FileCloud host it.

Admins can manage the access priv­ileges of each in­di­vidu­al device and also delete data from those devices remotely. You can also automate the deletion of private user data using FileCloud. If FileCloud is hosting your server, you can decide which country your data is saved in. That way you can ensure that per­son­al­ised data are saved and deleted in com­pli­ance with the GDPR.

The most important features:

• Com­pat­ib­il­ity and syncing across devices
• Security: AES-256 en­cryp­tion, SSL/TLS protocols and login with SSO and/or two-factor au­then­tic­a­tion available
• Flexible cus­tom­isa­tion of user interface and the option to self-host the server
• Wide-ranging in­teg­ra­tion with popular software packages and cloud services
• Simple and com­pre­hens­ive man­age­ment of device and files with several options of auto­ma­tion
• Unlimited ver­sion­ing