Nextcloud is a suite of client-server software for creating and using

file hosting service A file-hosting service, also known as cloud-storage service, online file-storage provider, or cyberlocker, is an internet hosting service specifically designed to host user files. These services allow users to upload files that can be accessed o ...

s. It can integrate with the

Collabora Online Collabora Online is an open source online office suite based on LibreOffice, enabling web-based collaborative real-time editing of word processing documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and vector graphics. Optional apps are available for deskto ...

and

OnlyOffice OnlyOffice (formerly TeamLab), stylized as ONLYOFFICE, is a free software office suite and ecosystem of collaborative applications. It consists of online editors for text documents, spreadsheets, presentations, forms and PDFs, and the room-base ...

office suites. It can be hosted in the

cloud In meteorology, a cloud is an aerosol consisting of a visible mass of miniature liquid droplets, frozen crystals, or other particles, suspended in the atmosphere of a planetary body or similar space. Water or various other chemicals may ...

or on premise and can scale up to millions of users. It is translated to 60 languages.

Features

Nextcloud files are stored in conventional directory structures, accessible via

WebDAV WebDAV (Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning) is a set of extensions to the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), which allows user agents to collaboratively author contents ''directly'' in an HTTP web server by providing facilities for conc ...

if necessary. A

SQLite SQLite ( "S-Q-L-ite", "sequel-ite") is a free and open-source relational database engine written in the C programming language. It is not a standalone app; rather, it is a library that software developers embed in their apps. As such, it ...

MySQL MySQL () is an Open-source software, open-source relational database management system (RDBMS). Its name is a combination of "My", the name of co-founder Michael Widenius's daughter My, and "SQL", the acronym for Structured Query Language. A rel ...

MariaDB MariaDB is a community-developed, commercially supported Fork (software development), fork of the MySQL relational database management system (RDBMS), intended to remain free and open-source software under the GNU General Public License. Developm ...

PostgreSQL PostgreSQL ( ) also known as Postgres, is a free and open-source software, free and open-source relational database management system (RDBMS) emphasizing extensibility and SQL compliance. PostgreSQL features transaction processing, transactions ...

database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data or a type of data store based on the use of a database management system (DBMS), the software that interacts with end users, applications, and the database itself to capture and a ...

is required to provide additional functionality like permissions, shares, and comments. Nextcloud can synchronize with local clients running

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

(Windows 8.1 and above),

macOS macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...

(10.14 or later),

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

and

FreeBSD FreeBSD is a free-software Unix-like operating system descended from the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). The first version was released in 1993 developed from 386BSD, one of the first fully functional and free Unix clones on affordable ...

. Nextcloud permits user and group administration locally or via different Backends like

OpenID OpenID is an open standard and decentralized authentication protocol promoted by the non-profit OpenID Foundation. It allows users to be authenticated by co-operating sites (known as relying parties, or RP) using a third-party identity provi ...

LDAP The Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP ) is an open, vendor-neutral, industry standard application protocol for accessing and maintaining distributed Directory service, directory information services over an Internet Protocol (IP) networ ...

. Content can be shared inside the system by defining granular read/write permissions between users and groups. Nextcloud users can create public

URL A uniform resource locator (URL), colloquially known as an address on the Web, is a reference to a resource that specifies its location on a computer network and a mechanism for retrieving it. A URL is a specific type of Uniform Resource Identi ...

s when sharing files.

Logging Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidder, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or trunk (botany), logs onto logging truck, trucksmulti-factor authentication Multi-factor authentication (MFA; two-factor authentication, or 2FA) is an electronic authentication method in which a user is granted access to a website or application only after successfully presenting two or more distinct types of evidence ...

using TOTP,

WebAuthn Web Authentication (WebAuthn) is a web standard published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Its primary purpose is to build a system of authentication for web-based applications that solves or mitigates the issues of traditional passwo ...

Oauth2 OAuth (short for open authorization) is an Open standard , open standard for access Delegation (computer security), delegation, commonly used as a way for internet users to grant websites or applications access to their information on other we ...

OpenID Connect OpenID is an open standard and decentralized authentication protocol promoted by the non-profit OpenID Foundation. It allows users to be authenticated by co-operating sites (known as relying parties, or RP) using a third-party identity provid ...

, Brute-force protection exist. Nextcloud has planned new features such as monitoring capabilities,

full-text search In Document retrieval, text retrieval, full-text search refers to techniques for searching a single computer-stored document or a collection in a full-text database. Full-text search is distinguished from searches based on metadata or on parts of ...

and Kerberos authentication, as well as audio/

video conferencing Videotelephony (also known as videoconferencing or video calling) is the use of audio signal, audio and video for simultaneous two-way communication. Today, videotelephony is widespread. There are many terms to refer to videotelephony. ''Vide ...

, expanded

federation A federation (also called a federal state) is an entity characterized by a political union, union of partially federated state, self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a #Federal governments, federal government (federalism) ...

and smaller

user interface In the industrial design field of human–computer interaction, a user interface (UI) is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur. The goal of this interaction is to allow effective operation and control of the machine fro ...

improvements.

History

In April 2016

Frank Karlitschek Frank Karlitschek (born 25 July 1973) is a German open source software developer living in Stuttgart, Germany. Karlitschek argues on his blog that "Privacy is the foundation of democracy." He says that people should have a basic right "to control ...

and most core contributors left

ownCloud ownCloud is a Free Software Foundation, free and open-source software project for content collaboration, File sharing, file-sharing, and file-syncing. It's usable in distributed and Federation (information technology), federated enterprise scena ...

Inc. These included some of ownCloud's staff according to sources near to the

community. Karlitschek and many of these contributors went on to fork the ownCloud, creating NextCloud. The fork was preceded by a blog post of Karlitschek announcing his departure and raising questions about the management of the ownCloud, its community, and priorities between growth, money, and sustainability. There have been no official statements about the reason for the fork. However, Karlitschek mentioned the fork several times in a talk at the 2018

FOSDEM Free and Open source Software Developers' European Meeting (FOSDEM) is an annual software engineering conference. It is non-commercial and volunteer-organized with a focus on free and open-source software. Initiated in 2000, it is usually held d ...

conference and in two appearances on the

FLOSS Weekly Leo Laporte (; born November 29, 1956) is the former host of '' The Tech Guy'' weekly radio show and founder of TWiT.tv, an Internet podcast network focusing on technology. He is also a former TechTV technology host (1998–2008) and a technology ...

podcast, emphasizing cultural mismatch between open source developers and business oriented people not used to the open source community. On June 2, within 12 hours of the announcement of the fork, the American entity "ownCloud Inc." announced that it is shutting down with immediate effect, stating that " ..main lenders in the US have cancelled our credit. Following American law, we are forced to close the doors of ownCloud, Inc. with immediate effect and terminate the contracts of 8 employees." ownCloud Inc. accused Karlitschek of poaching developers, while Nextcloud developers such as Arthur Schiwon stated that he "decided to quit because not everything in the ownCloud Inc. company world evolved as I imagined". ownCloud GmbH continued operations, secured financing from new investors and took over the business of ownCloud Inc. In April 2018 ( ITZBund) reported Nextcloud wins the tender for " Bundescloud" (Germany government cloud) project. In August 2019 it was announced that the governments of

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

and the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

will use Nextcloud for file transfer. In January 2020 Nextcloud 18 "''Nextcloud Hub''" was released. The major change was direct integration of an

Office suite Productivity software (also called personal productivity software or office productivity software) is application software used for producing information (such as documents, presentations, worksheets, databases, charts, graphs, digital paintin ...

(

) and Nextcloud claimed the goal to compete with

Office 365 Microsoft 365 (previously called Office 365) is a product family of productivity software, collaboration and cloud-based services owned by Microsoft. It encompasses online services such as Outlook.com, OneDrive, Microsoft Teams, programs form ...

and

Google Docs Google Docs is an online word processor and part of the free, web-based Google Docs Editors suite offered by Google. Google Docs is accessible via a web browser as a web-based application and is also available as a mobile app on Android and iO ...

. Partnership with

Ionos Ionos SE ( iː'ɔnɔs">International_Phonetic_Alphabet.html" ;"title="nowiki/>International Phonetic Alphabet">iː'ɔnɔs proper spelling IONOS) is a German Internet service provider that is known for its Web hosting service, web hosting, Domain ...

was revealed – its hosting location in Germany and compliance with

GDPR The General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679), abbreviated GDPR, is a European Union regulation on information privacy in the European Union (EU) and the European Economic Area (EEA). The GDPR is an important component of ...

should support the goal of data sovereignty. In spring 2020 remote work and

web conferencing Web conferencing is used as an umbrella term for various types of online conferencing and collaborative services including webinars (web seminars), webcasts, and web meetings. Sometimes it may be used also in the more narrow sense of the peer-l ...

usage raised due to

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

and Nextcloud released version 19 with chat and videoconferencing ''Talk app'' integrated into the application core. Talk with an optional "high performance back-end" allows self-hosting of web conferences with more than 10 participants.

was introduced as another integrated office suite. In August 2021 Nextcloud was chosen as collaboration platform for European cloud software GAIA-X. In a September 2021

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

report it was mentioned as "the most widely deployed Open Source content collaboration platform" Following the

2025 United States tariffs against the European Union During Second presidency of Donald Trump, his second presidency, United States president Donald Trump enacted a series of steep Protective tariff, protective tariffs affecting nearly all List of imports of the United States, goods imported into ...

, fear of overreliance on US cloud providers such as Microsoft 365 en Google Workspace increased, with Nextcloud being one of the foremost contenders to replace them. Some governmental organisations including the

European Data Protection Supervisor The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) is an independent supervisory authority whose primary objective is to monitor and ensure that European institutions and bodies respect the right to privacy and data protection when they process p ...

and the German state of

Schleswig-Holstein Schleswig-Holstein (; ; ; ; ; occasionally in English ''Sleswick-Holsatia'') is the Northern Germany, northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical Duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of S ...

have since switched from Microsoft's Sharepoint to Nextcloud. According to Nextcloud, during the first 5 months of 2025, customer interest in the software had tripled.

References

External links

* {{Fediverse Cloud computing Cloud storage File hosting Free software for cloud computing Free software programmed in JavaScript Free software programmed in PHP Software using the GNU Affero General Public License

Features

History

See also

References

External links