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DevelopmentProductivityCloud

What are the best self-hosted cloud storage solutions?

14

Options
Considered

407

User
Recs.

Feb 1, 2024

Last
Updated

13 Options Considered

Best self-hosted cloud storage solutions	Price	Platforms	API
74 Seafile	Free / paid	Windows, MacOS, Linux, iOS, Android	yes
68 Nextcloud	Free / paid	Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, Windows Phone	Yes
52 Syncthing	-	Windows, macOS, Linux, BSD, Android	-
-- FileRun	-	-	-
-- ownCloud	-	-	-

Seafile

Top Pro

High sync rates due to delta syncing

Sync clients analyzes files for edits and syncs only differences (=deltas) between client and server (and vice-versa) See More

Top Con

Counterintuitive way of saving data

Seafile does not save files as files, but chops them up and saves them as blocks (required for delta sync and deduplication). Hence, you will not find any files in the storage backend and file access happens through Seafile's clients, its web interface and the API. See More

ThoughtfulGelos's Experience

If you want all the features to be focused on the cloud data (no need or calendar, email...), then that's a very good choice. Very easy to install the server and client softwares numerous and well designed. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, MacOS, Linux, iOS, Android

File syncing:yes

File sharing (w/ third party):yes

Top Pro

Free and open source

Seafile Server Community Edition is licensed under AGPLv3, the sync client under GPLv2, the Android/iOS app under GPLv3/Apache license v3; source code available on GitHub. See More

Top Con

Search function only in paid version

The open-source Seafile Server Community Edition does not have any search functionality in the web interface. The Professional Edition (subscription model) features full-text search. See More

D FR's Experience

Seafile is much faster than all other file sharing software. See More

Top Pro

Offers an option to encrypt files client-side

All files can be encrypted with AES 128 bit encryption before syncing with the server. Importantly, the feature is not enabled by default and it makes the web and Android clients slightly more difficult to use. See More

Nextcloud

Top Pro

Support for add-ons

Nextcloud provides a reliable API to build add-ons. Over 200 add-ons, e.g. for note taking or Google Docs-like document editing are already available. See More

Top Con

Very slow upload of many small files

RespectableParjanya's Experience

I have ongoing sync issues with 4 different installs on different servers. Not one response to my multiple queries and many others have the issue. All new folders/files don't sync to the group that owns it. New installs suck for the same reason. Upgrades can be problematic as well See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, Windows Phone

Offline access:Yes

Top Pro

Good file control

With Nextcloud, you can manage your files whether they are kept internally or externally. You can also see how many active users have connected to your cloud through a line graph. See More

Top Con

Consumes high resources for mediocre performance

SpiritedLympha's Experience

Just loaded that on Pi and I'm blown away by how great it is. See More

Top Pro

Open source

Top Con

Android app notifications annoying

Android app uploads fail very often, resulting in thousands of notifications, all to be removed manually. See More

GenerousUrania's Experience

It's super easy too use ! user-friendly, it's fast and I would recommend it to you ! See More

Top Pro

Being very actively maintained and enhanced

Regular security and functional updates. See More

Top Con

Very poor server performance

stoltenberg's Experience

I have known own- & nextcloud for many years and versions. The concept is very good, the variety of functions is very attractive now, but you have to invest a lot of time, debugging and resources. For a production use I would still have no confidence today. See More

Top Pro

Local clients for iOS, Android, Linux, MacOS, and Windows available

Top Con

Lacks delta syncing

They have discussed adding it but this makes lots of small changes very slow. See More

HilariousPortunes's Experience

i mean, its has every function we needs, the thing is..... it's just super super super slow........ it take forever to upload. See More

Top Pro

Collaborative MS office document editing included

Comes with Collabora Online or ONLYOFFICE built in so you can edit MS Office documents in the browser, alone or together with others, or even during a video call by dragging an office doc in the chat! See More

Top Con

Unintuitive interface and doesn't have camera skip/backup

Top Pro

Video conferencing available

Top Con

Folder/Files don't sync to groups

Top Pro

Passwordless login

Passwordless login posible since version 19. See More

Top Con

AGPLv3 Licensed

License on the free version heavily discourages any non-personal use cases. See More

Top Pro

End to end file encryption available

Top Con

Complicated

It's cumbersome and takes time. See More

Top Pro

Runs well on hardware as small as a Raspberry Pi for personal/small groups use

Preconfigured packages available now, a few Linux skills still required. See More

Top Con

Nextcloud Server does not support Microsoft Windows

Although it can be run in a virtual machine or Docker. See More

Syncthing

Top Pro

Works out of the box

Requires no configuration to protect your privacy; it just works. See More

Top Con

Not a Reliable Sync method

No online cloud sync option, so if your other devices are turned off = no sync occurs. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, macOS, Linux, BSD, Android

License:MPL-2.0

Top Pro

Reasonably active community forum

Top Con

Selective sync not fully supported yet

Top Pro

Free and open source

Top Con

Device limited

To sync your files you either have to have some of your daily devices always on, or you have to buy a dedicated device to always be running like a $50.00 raspberry pi. Additionally you could rent a server and have it run Syncthing if you wanted too. See More

Top Pro

Lightweight

Syncthing only has what you need, Other file sharing services often try to 're-invent the wheel' in areas where there is already an abundance of software options that work as well or better. See More

Top Con

Poorly designed

Non-intuitive, error prone and developed with design death (corned into self-justifying and some useless 'features'). See More

Top Pro

Cross-platform

Available for Linux, OS X and Windows and web. See More

Top Con

High maintenance

Requires constant checking to ensure nothing breaks - checking failures/error messages that require you to do a lot of online doc referencing to resolve. See More

Top Pro

Client side encryption

Top Con

In beta

Although mostly stable, such stability is not guaranteed, and support is only community driven. Caution advised. See More

Top Pro

Free and open-source

Licensed under MIT. See More

Top Pro

Peer to peer

There is no 'middle man', each device you are using connect to each-other rather than centralized point. See More

ownCloud

Top Con

Bad support

Since the core developer team and owner of ownCloud moved to nextCloud, and a property shark bought up ownCloud to drain the last drops of blood, customer support has suffered a lot. See More

Top Pro

Just works

Илья Цветков's Experience

They introduced breaking changes, and upgrade didn't work, as result I lost ALL my files! 😡 See More

Top Con

File sync is very buggy at times

Top Pro

Easy to install with docker

Top Pro

Allows selective sync

Desktop clients offer sync almost as versatile as dropbox. See More

Top Pro

Open source software

Top Pro

You have full control with your data

Only chose a provider or host it on your soho-server. See More

Top Pro

Real-time collaborative .doc and .odt editing

The web client allows for up to 5 people to edit .odt and .doc files at the same time. See More

Pydio

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Linux, Mac

BitTorrent (protocol)

IPFS

WebDAV

Newfang Cloud

Top Pro

Transparent and Simple Billing

I am currently using it for free under Alpha release, but the pricing is straight forward with billing for storage and download, no unnecessary list of unbundled API' are billed. All the usage is logged on the blockchain that can be audited against the bill. See More

Top Pro

Very easy to integrate

SDK just has a couple of endpoints with good documentation See More

Top Pro

Good for video streaming & hosting

Due to the distributed nature of servers, video streaming is performant and better than current providers. Quite cheaper too. Files are downloaded from an edge network. See More

Top Pro

Privacy Focused and Transparent

All the files are encrypted and access is logged on the blockchain that I can verify. Only those with access can view the files. See More

SparkleShare

Enterprise Data Storage

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