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How Nextcloud
Why is Nextcloud the most popular self-hosted EFSS
and Content Collaboration Platform?
What makes Nextcloud
the best choice
Best security
Nextcloud is developed in a security-focused process as attested by a range of external experts and security pen-tests.
Industry-leading features include machine-learning based login protection, 2-factor authentication measures, brute force protection and unique capabilities like Video Verification, end-to-end and server-side encryption.
We put our money where our mouth is: our USD 10.000 security bug bounty program brings top security expertise in, keeping your data safe.
Largest ecosystem
As the most deployed self-hosted file sync and content collaboration platform, Nextcloud offers the widest range of add-on capabilities and integrations in the industry. Over 200 ‘apps’ offer powerful security capabilities, team productivity features and infrastructure integrations.
With Nextcloud you can eliminate a confusing mess of different SaaS platforms and the security, cost, compliance and productivity problems they bring with them.
Easiest to use
Powerful capabilities often result in complicated user interfaces, lowering productivity and hindering quick adoption in organizations. Without limiting their abilities, Nextcloud does not overwhelm users with unnecessary clutter. Our customers remark time and again how few support tickets it creates for their IT teams.
Accessibility features like keyboard and screenreader navigation, WCAG 2.1 compliant contrast and a dyslexia-friendly font are available only in the leading on-premises content collaboration platform!
How we stack up
See how Nextcloud compares to these popular closed-source services, and switch to a more open and transparent solution to protect your data!
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| Licensing | Open source open source = any OSI approved license. Anything else is proprietary. | Proprietary open source = any OSI approved license. Anything else is proprietary. | Proprietary open source = any OSI approved license. Anything else is proprietary. | Proprietary [ownCloud Enterprise Edition] open source = any OSI approved license. Anything else is proprietary. | Proprietary open source = any OSI approved license. Anything else is proprietary. | Proprietary open source = any OSI approved license. Anything else is proprietary. | Proprietary open source = any OSI approved license. Anything else is proprietary. | Proprietary open source = any OSI approved license. Anything else is proprietary. | |
| Unlimited storage and amount of files Limits imposed by either the purchased plan or your own infrastructure when self-hosting | The limit is customer infrastructure. There are no limits from the Nextcloud side. | Varies per plan | Varies per plan | Max 10 TB | |||||
| Large file support | 10GB | 5GB | 10GB | 20GB | 25GB | ||||
| Self hosted / on premises | can be hosted wherever you decide, including hybrid. | ||||||||
| Global Scalability Sharding across clusters and data centers | single cluster: up to 100K active users. With Global Scale: unlimited. | 5K in one group, 10K for educational organizations, unclear limits otherwise | Some limitations exist but nothing is clearly documented | 2K users in a share, more limits exist but not clearly documented | Unclear various file limitations exist, unclear user limits | ||||
| Clients | |||||||||
| Mobile clients | free version only supports up to 3 client devices total | ||||||||
| Auto upload Images/Video/other files | // | //* can do files with external app | //* can be done with external app | // | //* Only paid. Files can be done with external app | //* Extra paid feature. Files can be done with third party app | //* Files can be done with third party app | //* | |
| Desktop clients | free version only supports up to 3 client devices total | ||||||||
| LAN synchronization | |||||||||
| Extensible with Apps Allows third party to write apps that integrate apps in the cloud itself, adding functionality | Over 200 apps available | No third-party apps that can be integrated | Limited to Microsoft Apps | Over 70 apps available | Limited Microsoft office integration | No third-party apps that can be integrated | Limited Microsoft office integration | Pretty wide range of apps | |
| Server features | |||||||||
| Unified Search Cross-application search (Calendars, mails, chat messages, files etc) | Full-text search costs money, cross-application search free | full-text search paid, cross-app search not available | full-text search only in paid versions, with 365 integration no cross-app search | ||||||
| File versioning | limited | limited Only for MS Office files | limited 25-50 revisions depending on plan | limited Max 1 month, up to 1 year with Business subscription | limited max 3 revisions | ||||
| File locking/Checkout Block a file temporarily from being edited while you work offline with it | Does NOT block collaborative editing | * not available in web UI or WebDAV | Only for business edition | ||||||
| Multiple link shares | |||||||||
| Share note Add a note for the sharee | |||||||||
| Dashboard Dashboard app with overview of info like recent files, chats, calendar items and more | Admins have a dashboard, users not | ||||||||
| View PDF, Images, Video, Gallery | |||||||||
| Integrated Audio/Video/Text chat | // | // | // | // Unsupported | // | // | // | // | |
| Integrated Groupware (Calendar / Contacts / Mail / Kanban) | /// | /// | / | /// Only as unsupported (Nextcloud-developed) third party apps | not natively, third party app | /// | // G = through Google Apps | / | |
| Mobile calendar/Contact integration | / both Android/iOS (Android with integrated 3rd party tool) | / Unsupported. Available for iOS, Android possible with tool from Nextcloud partner | |||||||
| Online Office web/ Mobile apps Online Office web / mobile apps | / 4 options With Collabora Online, ONLYOFFICE, Hancom Office or MS Office Online | / | / feature-limited in web and mobile UI compared to desktop | / 3 options Collabora Online, OnlyOffice, MS Office Online | / Through Microsoft Office | / Microsoft Office 365 | / Microsoft Office 365 | / Microsoft Office 365 | |
| Knowledge management A knowledge base/wiki with articles/pages, sub pages, search and other basic knowledge base functionality is available | |||||||||
| Forms and surveys The platform allows creating forms and surveys and store and display the results | |||||||||
| User-managed groups Normal users can create and manage groups without having to rely on the system administrator, a power user or a group admin | |||||||||
| File Drop (customer file upload) Public link to folder recipient can upload to, which hides existing content of the shared folder | |||||||||
| Video verification Protect public links with Video Verification | |||||||||
| Inter-server sharing Sharing between separate cloud instances of different vendors. Example, Nextcloud users can share files with users on Pydio and ownCloud servers. | |||||||||
| Workspaces Add context to a folder by having a space to add comments, notes and todo lists | * Can pin files to the top of a folder, which gives a big preview. | ||||||||
| Accessibility | |||||||||
| Keyboard/Screen reader support | Could not find information | ||||||||
| WCAG 2.1 support | AA/AAA AAA with optional theme | AA/AAA AAA with Box.com accessiblity site | |||||||
| Dyslexia-friendly font | |||||||||
| Admin features | |||||||||
| Access control lists Permissions on files and folders, inherited by default, can be overridden at any level. | |||||||||
| Content workflow automation | Only via third party app | limited to admins | limited to admins | limited to admins | limited to admins | limited to admins | limited to admins | ||
| Approval process workflow | |||||||||
| Cryptographic document signatures Request documents signed with DocuSign or another technology | DocuSign, EID-Easy and LibreSign | ||||||||
| Automatic script execution | |||||||||
| Impersonate users | |||||||||
| Real time notifications files created, updated, shared, unshared and deleted by user or others, chat or call received etc. | |||||||||
| Monitoring web/API interface | / | / | / | / | / | / | / | / | |
| Data retention policy support | limited Max 6 months | ||||||||
| Long term support (5-10 years) Life cycle matching your operating system | N.A. Hosted only, customer has no control over when/what changes | N.A. Hosted only, customer has no control over when/what changes | N.A. Hosted only, customer has no control over when/what changes | N.A. Hosted only, customer has no control over when/what changes | N.A. Hosted only, customer has no control over when/what changes | N.A. Hosted only, customer has no control over when/what changes | |||
| Branding | Easy self-service in UI or full custom CSS | very limited | Using paid ownBrander or manually changing CSS | Varies per plan but mainly yes | very limited | ||||
| Compliance features | |||||||||
| Audit trail Mandatory if you have a legal requirement to find out who did what and when | |||||||||
| Imprint and privacy links | Only to their imprint and privacy policy, not yours | Only to their imprint and privacy policy, not yours | Only to their imprint and privacy policy, not yours | Only to their imprint and privacy policy, not yours | Only to their imprint and privacy policy, not yours | * If self-hosted | |||
| Built in data-request/account deletion | You can request (deletion of) data | You can request (deletion of) data | You can request (deletion of) data | You can request (deletion of) data | You can request (deletion of) data | Yes | |||
| Terms-of-service | You and your customers you share with have to agree to their terms | You and your customers you share with have to agree to their terms | You and your customers you share with have to agree to their terms | You and your customers you share with have to agree to their terms | You and your customers you share with have to agree to their terms | If self-hosted | |||
| Security features | |||||||||
| Server side encryption | |||||||||
| Client side / End-to-end encryption | Google is working to introduce this | Only offering a web E2EE solution without client support so failing to provide zero-knowledge protection | |||||||
| Video Verification | Optionally verify identity of recipient by video call | ||||||||
| Brute force hacking protection | There is an unsupported external app developed by community student, occasionally updated | ||||||||
| NIST compliant password policy | |||||||||
| Web UI secured with CSP 3.0 | |||||||||
| Same-site cookie attribute | |||||||||
| File Access Control | Can be done in limited way with third party applications | ||||||||
| App access rights Allow restricting mobile/desktop/third party applications access to filesystem or other data | |||||||||
| Authentication | |||||||||
| Enforceable 2-factor authentication | U2F/OTP/SMS Signal/Telegram notifications Supports multiple factors | U2F/OTP/SMS notifications Multiple factors | U2F/OTP/SMS notifications Supports multiple 2nd factor options | Cannot be enforced, only supporting OTP | SMS Supports multiple factors | SMS | SMS/U2F/OTP | OTP/SMS OTP only via Duo Push | |
| ML based suspicious login detection Uses machine learning technology to protect authentication | |||||||||
| LDAP/AD | |||||||||
| Native SAML Native SAML is implemented directly in the application without a requirements on external software like Apache modules. Native SAML is compatible with all webservers and supports group memberships, flexible session management, multiple identity providers and app specific passwords. | |||||||||
| Auth via env variable Authentication through Apache modules allows eg SAML/ShibbolethADFS, OAuth, OpenID, CAS and more. | |||||||||
| Kerberos | |||||||||
| Storage | |||||||||
| File storage (local/NFS) | |||||||||
| Object storage (S3/Swift) | Only support for outdated V2 authentication | ||||||||
| CIFS/Windows Shares | Also supports Kerberos | ||||||||
| Sharepoint | 2013/2016 | 2013/2016 | |||||||
| Extensible storage | |||||||||
Based on public information to our best knowledge, gathered July 1, 2021. We understand the world is constantly changing, if you see we missed a feature or made a mistake, let us know. You can use our contact form.
Note that end-to-end encryption in a browser is not the same as client-side encryption as it fails to protect adequately from the server (it does not offer ‘zero-knowledge’ protection). Security experts consider javascript encryption in the browser “harmful”.
Top rated
Nextcloud is top rated amongst many of our competitors on all the major rating platform sites.
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