This is a niche use, but I use the PhoneTrack app[1] with Nextcloud. It allows me to track my phone without relying on a third party service. It saved my ass already when I lost my phone in the park one night, and it's a nice way to track long hiking trips or road trips too as it saves the gpx and lets you export it:
Nextcloud is great, I self-host an instance at home. I mostly use the calendar, address book, and file sharing with links a la Google Drive. It's probably heavier and slower than it should be for what it does, but it works.
Just like Home Assistant, it is a "must have" tool for self-hosters.
I now use Nextcloud both for a family server and an academic lab. It has become such a daily part of my life, and I am really grateful for it. I just wish the network effects were stronger so I could benefit more from the federated features, and people didn't think it is so weird to get a Nextcloud link.
I have maintained a Nextcloud server for a small business for the last 6 years.
I agree when I started using it early 2020 that the ui felt less modern, but after some updates down the road up until now it looks completely like it is from this era. Am I missing something?
However, I never complained about the UI neither then nor now.
That is not a compelling reason to overhaul a UI (which is something that should rarely, if ever, be done). If it works and is pleasant to use, what it looks like is of no consequence.
Been using Nextcloud exclusively for probably 4 years now? Before that it was a mix of nextcloud + Google Drive. It works for me really well, I can grab my files through my vpn with any of my computers when I am not at home.
GMKTec G9. Four NVMe slots, plus some internal memory to deploy TrueNAS. It only has 12GB of RAM, but has two ethernet cards, acceptable cooling and performance and has a small footprint.
SSDs shall be single sided and gonna need heatsinks, but I believe it works well and is not tied to any manufacturer for anything.
If you want go all-out get ASUSTOR's Ryzen based systems. You can use the stock firmware or disable it without wiping it and deploy TrueNAS on it. It's a beast.
TrueNAS has containers and applications and VM support so you can run any service you want on it.
Upgraded yesterday, I only use a small amount of features (files, memories, calendar, tasks). It sucks that tasks isn't compatible yet (but I mostly use DAVx⁵/Tasks.org as front-end), and it sucks that the landing page still pulls close to 20MB or so, but besides that, nothing to report one way or another.
I always had terrible trouble keeping it (and before it, Owncloud) updated and in sync with available dependencies on my Debian host. A few years ago, when I built a new NAS, I installed a snap, and that's been the ticket. It's pretty close to flawless now.
I'm not a huge "run everything in a container" guy, but Nextcloud is one of those things I absolutely will always run in a container. It's too much of a beast for me to have any desire to try to manage package versions and fixing it if something breaks.
When I ran OwnCloud (on Debian), I installed from their APT repo, and one "apt upgrade" handled everything. It was nice and easy, and I didn't have any problems with it.
NextCloud uses its own updater* (which I don't like), and aside from some recent MariaDB snafu it's been very low maintenance.
Yeah, I eventually gave up on self hosting Nextcloud because of incompatibilities with PHP(-FPM), iirc. They were always lagging behind and it became a hassle to mantain. I ended up replacing all the parts I used with other single purpose software, and it's been a better experience overall.
Arch Linux added php-legacy and php-fpm-legacy, which tracks (I think) the oldest supported PHP release, a couple of years ago. After I switched to that it's been pretty smooth sailing.
My biggest problem with Nextcloud is that it intentionally broke (at least twice by memory) on some updates, wanting me to run some oci command on the box. Remember that "for my family" also means "for my family when I'm gone." I never got round to having to find an alternative thanks to the divorce, but I'd consider Nextcloud a complete non-starter for this reason.
The good OwnCloud is abandoned, and instead they released some meme enterprise nonsense.
I'm running NextCloud, but I hesitate to call it good, because of its kitchen sink approach to features. I really want 2015 era OwnCloud with just files, it being PHP/MariaDB/Apache-based. I refuse to use anything that requires Docker, which is most of the slop alternatives currently available.
I run Nextcloud at home with 1.5TB of files and 2 users, on a reasonably sized server. It is painfully slow. Still better than OneDrive, but only just: synscing takes forever, never reaching a fraction of available bandwidth. Upload from my phone is flaky, often hangs and needs manual intervention. It is a battery drain. The whole experience with add-ons and the general UI feels like a 2010 PHP app.
I am grateful Nextcloud exists, but no app deserves a vibe coded Rust rewrite more than Nextcloud. Literally nothing to loose
This seems to be a really common issue with NextCloud. I'd say about 30% of installs seems to just..be slow? I've had this happen to me on a handful of installs, and i've had friends/collegues it's happened to.
I'm not aware of any "Fix" besides whiping your install(s) and trying again. Try not to use a backup if you can, as it can keep the slowness/lag across installs.
Nextcloud has the most confusing versioning of any software I have ever used.
Nextcloud Hub 26 is Nextcloud 34 and follows Nextcloud Hub 9 which is Nextcloud 33.
And I could be off on those exact numbers.
This is a niche use, but I use the PhoneTrack app[1] with Nextcloud. It allows me to track my phone without relying on a third party service. It saved my ass already when I lost my phone in the park one night, and it's a nice way to track long hiking trips or road trips too as it saves the gpx and lets you export it:
https://github.com/julien-nc/phonetrack
I left nextcloud because how slow it felt even on my beefy server. I switched to opencloud.eu, it might have less features but it's just what I needed
Nextcloud is great, I self-host an instance at home. I mostly use the calendar, address book, and file sharing with links a la Google Drive. It's probably heavier and slower than it should be for what it does, but it works.
Just like Home Assistant, it is a "must have" tool for self-hosters.
I now use Nextcloud both for a family server and an academic lab. It has become such a daily part of my life, and I am really grateful for it. I just wish the network effects were stronger so I could benefit more from the federated features, and people didn't think it is so weird to get a Nextcloud link.
Lab use: https://git.medlab.host/MEDLab/Handbook/src/branch/main/docs...
Personal use: https://nathanschneider.info/2026/06/toward-a-durable-writin...
I love Nextcloud but I feel like they should really completely redo their UI. It just doesn't look like something from this decade.
Wait, you don't feel so?
I have maintained a Nextcloud server for a small business for the last 6 years. I agree when I started using it early 2020 that the ui felt less modern, but after some updates down the road up until now it looks completely like it is from this era. Am I missing something? However, I never complained about the UI neither then nor now.
That is not a compelling reason to overhaul a UI (which is something that should rarely, if ever, be done). If it works and is pleasant to use, what it looks like is of no consequence.
Been using Nextcloud exclusively for probably 4 years now? Before that it was a mix of nextcloud + Google Drive. It works for me really well, I can grab my files through my vpn with any of my computers when I am not at home.
If I want to buy a small NAS that just runs Nextcloud and has a copy of my Google Photos library - what do I go with?
I don't have a ton of space so something that fits in the media center.
If you’re going to run your own NAS then consider swapping Google Photos out with Immich.
I know it’s not the question you asked but I feel not enough people know about it as an option and it’s really as good as Google Photos.
GMKTec G9. Four NVMe slots, plus some internal memory to deploy TrueNAS. It only has 12GB of RAM, but has two ethernet cards, acceptable cooling and performance and has a small footprint.
SSDs shall be single sided and gonna need heatsinks, but I believe it works well and is not tied to any manufacturer for anything.
If you want go all-out get ASUSTOR's Ryzen based systems. You can use the stock firmware or disable it without wiping it and deploy TrueNAS on it. It's a beast.
TrueNAS has containers and applications and VM support so you can run any service you want on it.
Google photos will become one way sync only in august. You can upload to cloud, but no sync to pc.
Upgraded yesterday, I only use a small amount of features (files, memories, calendar, tasks). It sucks that tasks isn't compatible yet (but I mostly use DAVx⁵/Tasks.org as front-end), and it sucks that the landing page still pulls close to 20MB or so, but besides that, nothing to report one way or another.
How is OpenCloud a serious competitor?
Maybe I'm alone but nextcloud has gone from being kinda flaky and annoying to really great the past few years.
I don't think I really push it, but I find it just right for self-hosting my calendar, contacts, photos, and files.
I'd agree that it has gotten better over time. I'm glad we have Nextcloud around.
I always had terrible trouble keeping it (and before it, Owncloud) updated and in sync with available dependencies on my Debian host. A few years ago, when I built a new NAS, I installed a snap, and that's been the ticket. It's pretty close to flawless now.
I'm not a huge "run everything in a container" guy, but Nextcloud is one of those things I absolutely will always run in a container. It's too much of a beast for me to have any desire to try to manage package versions and fixing it if something breaks.
When I ran OwnCloud (on Debian), I installed from their APT repo, and one "apt upgrade" handled everything. It was nice and easy, and I didn't have any problems with it.
NextCloud uses its own updater* (which I don't like), and aside from some recent MariaDB snafu it's been very low maintenance.
Yeah, I eventually gave up on self hosting Nextcloud because of incompatibilities with PHP(-FPM), iirc. They were always lagging behind and it became a hassle to mantain. I ended up replacing all the parts I used with other single purpose software, and it's been a better experience overall.
Arch Linux added php-legacy and php-fpm-legacy, which tracks (I think) the oldest supported PHP release, a couple of years ago. After I switched to that it's been pretty smooth sailing.
Is nextcloud the good one and owncloud the inferior one?
My biggest problem with Nextcloud is that it intentionally broke (at least twice by memory) on some updates, wanting me to run some oci command on the box. Remember that "for my family" also means "for my family when I'm gone." I never got round to having to find an alternative thanks to the divorce, but I'd consider Nextcloud a complete non-starter for this reason.
Find an alternative.
I don’t know about owncloud, but I have been hosting a family Nextcloud instance for a little under two years and it works fine.
It’s boring. It works.
same here, great choice for a private family cloud.
Nextcloud is written in PHP, which doesn't sound scalable to me.
OwnCloud is written in Go but employs an open-core model. Some features are locked behind a proprietary paywall.
“OwnCloud infinite scale” is written in Go. But ownCloud 10 is php.
I tried for weeks to get OCIS working but gave up and went back to ownCloud 10.
They’re committed to security updates for 10 but it’s a small company. I doubt it will get much attention sadly.
Shared nothing is no scaleable?
> Nextcloud is written in PHP, which doesn't sound scalable to me.
Lol what? Facebook (pre Hack), Tumblr, Wordpress, Etsy...
The good OwnCloud is abandoned, and instead they released some meme enterprise nonsense.
I'm running NextCloud, but I hesitate to call it good, because of its kitchen sink approach to features. I really want 2015 era OwnCloud with just files, it being PHP/MariaDB/Apache-based. I refuse to use anything that requires Docker, which is most of the slop alternatives currently available.
I run nextcloud on a NixOS server within a systemd container, so no Docker.
You can remove almost app in Nextcloud. It is pretty modular. You can have a files only Nextcloud, last time I tried.
Am I the only one who doesn’t trust Nextcloud because they use Vimeo instead of a privacy-respecting CDN to showcase videos of their project?
I run Nextcloud at home with 1.5TB of files and 2 users, on a reasonably sized server. It is painfully slow. Still better than OneDrive, but only just: synscing takes forever, never reaching a fraction of available bandwidth. Upload from my phone is flaky, often hangs and needs manual intervention. It is a battery drain. The whole experience with add-ons and the general UI feels like a 2010 PHP app.
I am grateful Nextcloud exists, but no app deserves a vibe coded Rust rewrite more than Nextcloud. Literally nothing to loose
This seems to be a really common issue with NextCloud. I'd say about 30% of installs seems to just..be slow? I've had this happen to me on a handful of installs, and i've had friends/collegues it's happened to.
I'm not aware of any "Fix" besides whiping your install(s) and trying again. Try not to use a backup if you can, as it can keep the slowness/lag across installs.
It's really annoying.