Nextcloud is functionally similar to Dropbox, Office 365 or Google Drive. It can be hosted in the cloud or on-premises. It is scalable from home office solutions based on the low cost Raspberry Pi all the way through to full sized data centre solutions that support millions of users.
Reviewed by Marco Wollank
Nextcloud
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Threat level
Hardened
A hardened pick. Worth the effort once you have chosen to shrink your footprint on purpose. Enough for most people. Threat levels
Our take
The right answer when the real goal is owning your infrastructure rather than renting privacy from a vendor, scaling from a Raspberry Pi to a company server. The catch is that you are now the administrator: you handle setup, updates, backups, and security, and that is a genuine commitment, not a download. Choose it if self-hosting appeals and you will maintain it; if you want storage that someone else keeps running, a hosted service is the saner path.
GitHub at a glance
nextcloud/server
Stars
36,103
+ 385 this week
Last commit
8d ago
healthy
License
AGPL-3.0
Latest release
v34.0.1
15d ago
Stars, last 31d
Website at a glance
nextcloud.com
B+ score 80
Solid website security headers
Graded by Mozilla HTTP Observatory, tested today
Inspect this site yourself
Measures the security configuration of the tool's own website, not the privacy of the product itself. A strong tool can still score low here.
Nextcloud alternatives
Internxt Drive Internxt is a privacy-focused cloud storage platform with zero-knowledge encryption and anonymous accounts. The free plan offers 1GB of storage forever, with paid plans…
NordLocker Premium plans to get 500 GB ($3.19 USD/mo) or 2 TB ($7.99 USD/mo) storage space. 30-day money-back guarantee. Company is based in Lithuania.
PrivacyNotes Zero-knowledge notes, tasks, files, passwords and journal secured by a single 12-word recovery phrase, with no email or password required. The crypto core and database schema are published for audit. No subscription model.
MEGA The free plan offers 20 GB storage and a daily 5GB transfer limit. Company is based in New Zealand.
Proton Drive 15 GB storage for 3.99€/mo or 500 GB for 9.99€/mo. Discount for yearly payments. Based in Switzerland.
Tresorit End-to-end encrypted cloud storage founded in 2011, owned by Swiss Post, the national postal service of Switzerland. Closed-source clients with multiple independent security audits; available on Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and iOS.
Nextcloud license, in plain English
AGPL-3.0 Strong copyleft · network
Free to use, even commercially. Changes must be published under the same license, and running a modified version as a network service counts as distributing it.
Permits
- Commercial use
- Modification
- Distribution
- Patent use
- Private use
Requires
- Disclose source
- Network use is distribution
- Same license
- State changes
- License and copyright notice
Does not provide
- Liability cover
- Warranty
Why it matters: The network clause is the point. Anyone who runs a modified version as a hosted service has to publish those changes, so the code handling your data stays inspectable. This is why privacy-first projects reach for AGPL.
Plain-language summary of the project's license, not legal advice. Read the full text for the exact terms.
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