How Nextcloud stacks up

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.

Workflow capabilities, several online office solutions and a tool employing advanced entropy analysis to recover files from a ransomware attack, built by security researchers from a German university, are just some of the applications found in our app store.

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!


Compare products

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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  • License
  • Unlimited storage and amount of files
  • Large file support
  • Self hosted/on premises
  • Scalability limits
  • Clients
  • Mobile Clients
  • Auto upload images/video/other files
  • Desktop clients
  • LAN Synchronization
  • Extensible with apps
  • Outlook integration
  • Server features
  • Full text search
  • File Versioning
  • File Locking/checkout
  • File Metadata
  • View PDF, images, video, gallery
  • Integrated Audio/Video/Text chat
  • Integrated Groupware
    (Calendar/Contacts/
    Mail/Kanban)
  • Mobile calendar/contact integration
  • Online Office in web / mobile
  • File Drop (customer file upload)
  • Block downloads
  • Video Verification
  • Inter-server sharing
  • Workspaces
  • File ownership transfer
  • Accessibility
  • Keyboard/screen reader support
  • WCAG 2.1 support
  • Dyslexia-friendly font
  • Admin features
  • Access control lists
  • Content workflow automation
  • Automatic script execution
  • Impersonate users
  • Real time notifications
  • Monitoring web/API interface
  • Data retention policy support
  • Long term support (5-10 years)
  • Branding
  • Compliance features
  • Full audit trail
  • Imprint and privacy links
  • Built in data-request/account deletion
  • Terms-of-service
  • Security features
  • Server side encryption
  • Client side encryption
  • Ransomware prevention/recovery
  • Video Verification
  • Brute force hacking protection
  • NIST compliant password policy
  • Web UI secured with CSP 3.0
  • With same-site cookie attribute
  • File Access Control
  • App access rights
  • Authentication
  • enforcable 2-factor authentication
  • ML based suspicious login detection
  • LDAP/AD
  • Native SAML
  • Auth via env variable
  • Kerberos
  • Storage
  • File storage (local/NFS)
  • Object storage (S3/Swift)
  • CIFS/Windows Shares
  • Sharepoint
  • Extensible storage
  • Nextcloud

    product logo
    • Open Source
    • Unlimited
    • / /
    • //
    • ///
    • /
    • /
      Collabora/ONLYOFFICE MS Office
    • AA/AAA
    • /

    • Easy self-service in UI or full custom CSS
    • /
    • U2F/OTP/SMS Signal/Telegram notifications

    • 2013/2016
  • Google Drive

    product logo
    • Proprietary
    • 5K/10K/unlimited
    • / / *
    • limited
    • //
    • ///
    • /
    • /
    • limited
    • N.A.
    • very limited
    • limited
    • /
    • U2F/OTP/SMS notifications
  • Office 365

    product logo Detailed comparison
    • Proprietary
    • 10GB
    • 500K
    • / / *
    • limited
    • //
    • /
    • /
    • *

    • limited to admins
    • /
    • N.A.
    • limited
    • /
    • U2F/OTP/SMS notifications
  • ownCloud

    product logo
    • Proprietary
    • 20K users
    • / /
    • //
    • ///
    • /
    • /
      Collabora/ONLYOFFICE MS Office

    • limited to admins
    • /
    • /

    • 2013/2016
  • Box

    product logo
    • Proprietary
    • Varies per plan
    • 5GB
    • Unlimited
    • / / *
    • limited
    • //
    • /
    • AA/AAA

    • limited to admins
    • /
    • N.A.
    • limited
    • /
    • SMS
  • Citrix

    product logo
    • Proprietary
    • 10GB
    • 2K/unclear
    • / / *
    • *
    • //
    • ///
    • /

    • limited to admins
    • /
    • N.A.
    • /
    • SMS
  • Dropbox

    product logo
    • Proprietary
    • Varies per plan
    • 20GB
    • Unlimited
    • / / *
    • limited
    • //
    • //
    • /

    • limited to admins
    • /
    • N.A.
    • very limited
    • limited
    • /
    • SMS/U2F/OTP
  • Egnyte

    product logo
    • Proprietary
    • max 10 TB
    • 25GB
    • unclear
    • / / *
    • limited
    • //
    • /
    • /

    • limited to admins
    • /
    • N.A.
    • limited
    • /
    • OTP/SMS
  • Accellion

    product logo
    • Proprietary
    • 2GB
    • Unlimited*
    • / / *
    • limited
    • /

    • limited to admins
    • /
    • limited
    • /
    • SMS

Based on public information to our best knowledge, gathered September 2 2018. 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). The security experts at the British NCC Group have written on this subject, considering javascript encryption in the browser "harmful".

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