Nextcloud Alternatives

Seafile is one of the alternatives comparison guides name most often, and for a simple reason: it does file sync and share, and it does it fast. You run it on your own Linux server (Docker images exist for generic Linux), and people sync libraries from Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS clients, or mount them as a network drive with the SeaDrive client. On top of sync you get version history, password-protected share links with expiry dates, audit logs, wikis, the SeaDoc co-editing tool and OnlyOffice or Collabora integration for office files.

How the price reads: the Community Edition is free and open source. The Professional Edition is free for 3 users without any license file, costs $100 in total for 9 users (a small-business offer), then $48 per user per year from 10 to 249 users and $44 from 250 to 499, with lower rates above. Education pays half in the first two tiers ($24, then $22). If you would rather not run a server, SeafilePlus Cloud costs 8 USD per user per month, starting from 3 users, with 500 GB of storage; it keeps file versions for 3 months, and its free trial plan (3 users, 1 GB) is inactivated after 30 days, then deleted within 90. Tip: the $100 offer for 9 users excludes the basic email support that other Pro licenses include, so budget for the forum or for remote help at $120 an hour.

OpenCloud is the Heinlein Group's file sharing and collaboration platform. The company, based in Berlin, has worked on open source IT for 30 years. OpenCloud covers files and folders, spaces (shared workspaces for a team or a project), versioning, full-text search, file locking, public links with password and expiry date, federated sharing, desktop and mobile clients and an integrated office suite. It is built cloud-native, needs no relational database, and runs on premises or as SaaS through partners. The Community Edition is open source and you run it yourself free of charge.

How the price reads: the commercial plans are support subscriptions, charged per user. Basic is 2 euros per user per month, Professional 4 euros and Premium 8 euros, each shown for 100 users; the page warns that these are price examples, with individual conditions for smaller and larger environments. Basic gives production and long-term support releases with community support. Professional adds 9/5 email support, password policy, GDPR export and audit logs. Premium adds 24/7 phone support, multi-tenancy and a custom logo. Two traps: the subscription does not cover installation, upgrades or migration, which only partners do, so budget partner time on top; and on Basic, long-term support releases get no support after their release date, against 1 year on Professional and 2+ years on Premium. If you are under 100 users, ask for a quote before you budget on the 2 euro figure.

Proton Drive is not something you host. It belongs on this list because many people run Nextcloud for one reason: they do not want a big provider to read their files. Proton Drive answers that need without a server to patch. Every plan, the free one included, protects files with end-to-end encryption, so the provider cannot open them. The free plan gives 5 GB of storage for photos and documents, with an online document and spreadsheet editor, and needs no credit card. Paid plans add space, longer version history (Drive Plus keeps 10 years of previous file versions) and, on the Unlimited and family plans, the rest of the Proton suite: Mail, Calendar, Pass and VPN.

How the price reads: for a team, Drive Professional costs $7.99 per user per month on yearly billing ($95.88 per user every 12 months), or $9.99 billed monthly, with 1 TB per user; it starts with 2 users. For one person, Drive Plus gives 200 GB at $2.49 a month the first year: it is billed $29.88 for the first 12 months, then renews at $47.88 every 12 months. Tip: that renewal is 60% higher than the first year, so compare the second-year price, not the banner price, with the cost of your own server.

ownCloud is the project Nextcloud was forked from, and it now runs two server lines: ownCloud 10, the classic PHP server, and Infinite Scale, a cloud-native rewrite with spaces, custom user roles, full-text search, secret file drop folders, GDPR export and tags. ownCloud is part of Kiteworks, which runs an open source program office for it. You can self-host the free Community edition with unlimited users and community apps, buy Standard or Enterprise for your own data center, or use ownCloud.online, hosted in Germany, with 180 days of file recovery, multi-factor authentication and free guest accounts.

How the price reads: Standard and Enterprise start from 25 users, with an annual commitment billed yearly. Enterprise adds 12x5 global email and phone support with a 2-hour reaction time and pro features in the apps; Standard has 9x5 email support, also with a 2-hour reaction time. The main grid sends you to sales, but the pricing overview it links lists Standard at 5 euros and Enterprise at 12 euros per user per month for 25 to 99 users, bought on an annual basis; that document dates from 2021, so treat it as a starting point for a quote. Special pricing for large deployments or educational institutions starts at 1.85 euros per user per year. Tip: the 25-user minimum is a quarter of Nextcloud Enterprise's 100-user entry point, which matters for a mid-sized firm that wants a support contract.

Pydio Cells is a self-hosted document sharing platform aimed at privacy-conscious industries. The free Cells Home edition, for home use and evaluation, stores files on a file system or S3-compatible storage, has sharing features, an embedded user directory, online preview, a REST API, WebDAV, and desktop and mobile sync. Cells Connect adds AD/LDAP, single sign-on through OpenID Connect, OAuth2, SAML or Azure ADFS, and white-labelling. Cells Enterprise adds role-based and rule-based access control, multi-factor authentication, terms of service validation and exportable audit logs in CSV or XLSX. Cells Flows, its automation layer, runs file tasks such as conversions and maintenance jobs.

How the price reads: Connect starts at 3,280 euros a year for 50 users, which is 65.60 euros per user per year. Enterprise starts at 4,380 euros a year for 50 users, and 5,980 euros a year from 100 users. Tip: Pydio counts as a user anyone who has been given a user name, whether or not they ever log in, so external partners you invite as accounts eat your licence. Share with a password-protected public link instead when you can.

Syncthing is a continuous file synchronization program: it keeps folders identical between two or more computers, yours or those of people you share a folder with, in real time, with no central server at all. Your data is stored only on your computers. All traffic goes over TLS with perfect forward secrecy, and each device is identified by a cryptographic certificate, so only devices you explicitly allow can connect. It runs on macOS, Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, OpenBSD and more, and you configure it from a web interface in your browser. All code is under the MPLv2 license, and Kastelo sells commercial support for companies that want a contract.

How the price reads: Syncthing is free. The real cost is that it is not a cloud: there are no share links for a client, no web file browser for your files, no online office editing. If you want an always-on copy, run Syncthing on a small home server or a cheap VPS as one more device. Tip: point that remote device at an encrypted folder, so the server only stores data it cannot read.