head to head · open source
Nextcloud vs cloudreve
Nextcloud has 36,863 GitHub stars, 5,232 forks, 3,657 open issues and last shipped today. cloudreve has 28,737 stars, 3,896 forks, 147 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Nextcloud leads on adoption by 28% (36,863 vs 28,737 stars). Nextcloud is written in PHP under AGPL-3.0; cloudreve is written in Go under GPL-3.0. Nextcloud has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, cloudreve 14%. Nextcloud was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (cloud, file-sharing), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Nextcloud | cloudreve | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 37K | ★ 29K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | PHP | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.2K | ⑂ 3.9K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Nextcloud if
- You weight community size — 37K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick cloudreve if
- You want the cloudreve feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and cloudreve fits your workflow better
About Nextcloud
Nextcloud is a self hosted cloud collaboration platform built in PHP, licensed under AGPL 3.0. It enables organizations and individuals to store, synchronize, and share files, contacts, calendars, and other data on infrastructure they control, replacing reliance on third party cloud services. The project lives in the open source cloud software ecosystem and serves as a decentralized alternative to proprietary suites like Dropbox, Google Workspace, and Microsoft 365.
read the full Nextcloud overview →
About cloudreve
Cloudreve is a self hosted file management and sharing system written in Go that gives an organisation its own web file manager, sharing layer, and multi cloud storage gateway running on infrastructure it controls.
read the full cloudreve overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Nextcloud or cloudreve more popular?
Nextcloud has 36,863 GitHub stars and cloudreve has 28,737. Nextcloud has the larger community by that measure.
Are Nextcloud and cloudreve free?
Both are open source. Nextcloud is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and cloudreve under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Nextcloud and cloudreve?
Nextcloud is written in PHP and cloudreve in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Nextcloud or cloudreve?
Choose Nextcloud if you want the larger community (36,863 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose cloudreve if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.