OxiCloud is a self-hosted cloud storage suite written in Rust that gives self-hosters, home labs, and small teams files, photos, calendars, and contacts in a single lightweight deployment, aimed at anyone who wants the useful parts of a cloud suite without the operational weight of a traditional PHP stack.

What it is

OxiCloud is an open-source, MIT-licensed cloud platform built in Rust and distributed as a Docker image, a Docker Compose stack, a Helm chart, a Nix module, and self-contained prebuilt binaries. It combines file storage and a web UI with sharing, trash, search, favorites, recent items, thumbnails, and chunked uploads, and it adds calendar and contact sync through CalDAV and CardDAV alongside file access through WebDAV. Authentication and administration cover JWT auth, Argon2id password hashing, OIDC/SSO, shared links, quotas, and admin and user roles. Office editing is handled through WOPI against Collabora or OnlyOffice, and a REST API is exposed for integrations. The project lives in the self-hosted cloud storage ecosystem, where it is presented explicitly as a Nextcloud alternative, and its GitHub topics also position it against Dropbox and OneDrive.

The concrete problem it solves is operational drag. A traditional self-hosted cloud suite tends to mean a PHP stack, a plugin ecosystem to maintain, and a slow startup, and it often needs custom sync tooling before basic desktop and mobile access works. OxiCloud replaces that stack with a PostgreSQL-backed Rust service that speaks standard DAV protocols out of the box, so native clients connect directly instead of relying on a proprietary sync layer. The project states plainly that it is not trying to mirror the full plugin ecosystem of Nextcloud; the design target is a smaller stack, fast startup, and standards-based interoperability.

Key capabilities

• Files: multi-file upload, folders, inline previews, thumbnails, chunked uploads, deduplication, and trash.
• Standard sync protocols built in: WebDAV at https://your-host/webdav/, CalDAV at https://your-host/caldav/, and CardDAV at https://your-host/carddav/.
• Security: JWT auth, Argon2id hashing, OIDC/SSO with configuration examples, shared links, quotas, and admin/user roles.
• Integrations: REST API plus WOPI for office editing through Collabora or OnlyOffice.
• Client compatibility: macOS Finder, Windows Explorer, GNOME Files, KDE Dolphin, Thunderbird, Apple Calendar and Contacts, and DAVx5 on Android.
• Operations surface: Docker image, Docker Compose, environment-driven configuration, and a PostgreSQL backend.
• Project tooling: architecture docs, a Helm chart, a Nix module, and CI.

Who uses it and how

• Self-hosters and home labs running Docker Compose who want files, calendars, and contacts on one host and connect native desktop clients over WebDAV, CalDAV, and CardDAV.
• Small teams that need shared links, quotas, and admin/user roles, and that want SSO through OIDC rather than a local-only account model.
• Organisations deploying to Kubernetes with the Helm chart, or to Nix-based hosts with the Nix module, instead of a hand-rolled Compose stack.
• Office-editing users who already run Collabora or OnlyOffice and connect it through the WOPI integration.
• Mobile and desktop users who prefer existing clients — Thunderbird, Apple Calendar and Contacts, DAVx5 — rather than installing a vendor sync client.

Getting started

The documented path is Docker Compose: clone the repository, copy example.env to .env, set OXICLOUD_BASE_URL if users will reach it through a domain or reverse proxy, then run docker compose up -d and open http://localhost:8086. Prebuilt binaries for Linux musl amd64/arm64 and macOS Intel/Apple Silicon are attached to tagged releases, with cargo binstall oxicloud as an alternative, and running from source requires Rust 1.93+ and PostgreSQL.

How it compares

Against Nextcloud, the facts draw the line at scope rather than features: OxiCloud does not attempt to reproduce Nextcloud's plugin ecosystem, trading extensibility for a smaller stack and faster startup, and it competes on MIT licensing and standards-based DAV access instead of a custom sync stack. The repository topics also name Dropbox and OneDrive as the proprietary services it substitutes for, which is where the self-hosting and data-ownership argument applies: files, calendars, and contacts stay on hardware the operator controls, with no per-seat subscription and no third-party storage.

When to use it — and when not to

A self-hoster must operate PostgreSQL, the OxiCloud service itself, and whatever reverse proxy and TLS termination the deployment requires; running from source additionally requires Rust 1.93+ and a reachable PostgreSQL instance. Anyone who depends on Nextcloud's plugin ecosystem, or who needs features beyond the documented file, calendar, contact, and WOPI surface, should not pick OxiCloud. Be aware of the current state of the project: DAVx5 Android support is marked partial, with file sync working well and other capability incomplete, and the issue tracker carries 94 open issues, so it is a fit for operators comfortable following an actively developed project rather than one seeking a frozen, fully finished platform.

git clone https://github.com/AtalayaLabs/OxiCloud.git
cd OxiCloud
cp example.env .env

# If users will access OxiCloud through a domain or reverse proxy,
# set OXICLOUD_BASE_URL in .env before the first login.
docker compose up -d

git clone https://github.com/AtalayaLabs/OxiCloud.git
cd OxiCloud
cp example.env .env

# If PostgreSQL runs on your host instead of Docker, update both
# OXICLOUD_DB_CONNECTION_STRING and DATABASE_URL to use localhost:5432.
cargo run