[opensourcedex]

Nextcloud is a free, open source file management & sync project written in PHP and released under AGPL-3.0. It has 36,828 GitHub stars, 5,222 forks and 3,657 open issues, and was last pushed 5 hours ago. On this registry it ranks #3 of 12 tracked projects in File Management & Sync, and is listed as an open source replacement for 4 paid products, with 5 head-to-head comparisons available. It gained 43 stars over the last 6 tracked days.

Nextcloud — Secure cloud collaboration platform for organizations

What is Nextcloud?

What it is

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.

Key capabilities

  • Store, sync, and access files, contacts, and calendars across devices using WebDAV, desktop, and mobile clients
  • Share data with granular permissions and optional password protection or expiration
  • Extend functionality via hundreds of apps, including Calendar, Contacts, Mail, and Video Chat (Spreed)
  • Enable federation to share resources across independent Nextcloud instances
  • Apply server-side encryption, client-side encryption, and two-factor authentication for data protection
  • Integrate with external storage (S3, SMB, FTP, etc.) via built-in connectors
  • Support SAML-based single sign-on and LDAP/Active Directory for enterprise identity management

Who uses it and how

  • Enterprises deploy Nextcloud on-premises or via managed hosting to replace Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace for internal file sharing and collaboration
  • Public sector and education institutions use it to meet data sovereignty requirements by hosting data within national borders
  • Individuals run Nextcloud on home servers or NAS devices to avoid vendor lock-in and maintain control over personal data

Getting started

Install via official installer scripts, Docker (nextcloud/server image), or prebuilt appliances; sign up for a hosted instance at nextcloud.com/signup; or purchase certified hardware with Nextcloud preinstalled. Development setups require cloning the server repo, initializing submodules, and configuring a web server with PHP and a database.

When to use it — and when not to

Use Nextcloud when data control, compliance, or cost are priorities over convenience, and when operational resources exist for server maintenance. It requires managing a database (MySQL/MariaDB/PostgreSQL), web server (Apache/Nginx), PHP runtime, and optionally SMTP, object storage, and reverse proxy. It is not ideal for teams needing turnkey, zero-administration cloud services or lacking technical staff for updates, backups, and security hardening. Compared to paid alternatives, Nextcloud trades convenience for sovereignty but demands more operational overhead.

project readme (upstream, from github) — read inline

Nextcloud Server ☁

REUSE status codecov CII Best Practices Design

A safe home for all your data.

Why is this so awesome? 🤩

  • 📁 Access your Data You can store your files, contacts, calendars, and more on a server of your choosing.
  • 🔄 Sync your Data You keep your files, contacts, calendars, and more synchronized amongst your devices.
  • 🙌 Share your Data …by giving others access to the stuff you want them to see or to collaborate with.
  • 🚀 Expandable with hundreds of Apps ...like Calendar, Contacts, Mail, Video Chat and all those you can discover in our App Store
  • 🔒 Security with our encryption mechanisms, HackerOne bounty program and two-factor authentication.

Do you want to learn more about how you can use Nextcloud to access, share, and protect your files, calendars, contacts, communication & more at home and in your organization? Learn about all our Features.

Get your Nextcloud 🚚

Enterprise? Public Sector or Education user? You may want to have a look into Nextcloud Enterprise provided by Nextcloud GmbH.

Get in touch 💬

You can also get support for Nextcloud!

Join the team 👪

There are many ways to contribute, of which development is only one! Find out how to get involved, including as a translator, designer, tester, helping others, and much more! 😍

Development setup 👩‍💻

  1. 🚀 Set up your local development environment
  2. 🐛 Pick a good first issue
  3. 👩‍🔧 Create a branch and make your changes. Remember to sign off your commits using git commit -sm "Your commit message"
  4. ⬆ Create a pull request and @mention the people from the issue to review
  5. 👍 Fix things that come up during a review
  6. 🎉 Wait for it to get merged!

Third-party components are handled as git submodules which have to be initialized first. So aside from the regular git checkout invoking git submodule update --init or a similar command is needed, for details see Git documentation.

Several apps that are included by default in regular releases such as First run wizard or Activity are missing in master and have to be installed manually by cloning them into the apps subfolder.

Otherwise, git checkouts can be handled the same as release archives, by using the stable* branches. Note they should never be used on production systems.

Testing your code

We use multiple test frameworks for specific areas of the code:

  • PHPUnit for PHP unit tests
  • Behat for PHP integration tests
  • Vitest for Javascript / Typescript unit tests
  • Playwright for end-to-end tests

For our end-to-end tests using Playwright you can refer to our documentation on how to debug errors and to contribute new test cases.

Tools we use 🛠

Helpful bots at GitHub :robot:
  • Comment on a pull request with /update-3rdparty to update the 3rd party submodule. It will update to the last commit of the 3rd party branch named like the PR target.
Ignore code style updates in git blame

git config blame.ignoreRevsFile .git-blame-ignore-revs

Contribution guidelines 📜

All contributions to this repository from June 16, 2016, and onward are considered to be licensed under the AGPLv3 or any later version.

Nextcloud doesn't require a CLA (Contributor License Agreement). The copyright belongs to all the individual contributors. Therefore we recommend that every contributor adds the following line to the AUTHORS file if they made substantial changes to the code:

- <your name> <your email address>

Please read the Code of Conduct. This document offers some guidance to ensure Nextcloud participants can cooperate effectively in a positive and inspiring atmosphere and to explain how together we can strengthen and support each other.

Please review the guidelines for contributing to this repository.

More information on how to contribute: https://nextcloud.com/contribute/

Frequently asked questions

Is Nextcloud free to use?

Nextcloud is open source under the AGPL-3.0 licence. There is no licence fee and no seat count — you can self-host it or, where the project offers one, pay a vendor for a managed version instead.

What does Nextcloud do?

Secure cloud collaboration platform for organizations

What is Nextcloud written in?

Nextcloud is primarily written in PHP. Its source is publicly available at https://github.com/nextcloud/server, and it has 36,828 GitHub stars.

What is a good open source alternative to Dropbox?

Nextcloud is one of the open source options listed as an alternative to Dropbox, Google Drive, Google Workspace. Compare licences, stars and activity side by side on the Nextcloud profile.