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Nextcloud
Free and open-source file hosting software suite From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Nextcloud is a suite of client-server software for creating and using file hosting services. It can integrate with the Collabora Online and OnlyOffice office suites. It can be hosted in the cloud or on premise and can scale up to millions of users.[6][7][8] It is translated to 60 languages.[9]
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Features
Nextcloud files are stored in conventional directory structures, accessible via WebDAV if necessary. A SQLite, MySQL/MariaDB or PostgreSQL database is required to provide additional functionality like permissions, shares, and comments.[10]
Nextcloud can synchronize with local clients running Windows (Windows 8.1 and above),[11] macOS (10.14 or later), Linux and FreeBSD. Nextcloud permits user and group administration locally or via different Backends like OpenID[12][13] or LDAP.[14] Content can be shared inside the system by defining granular read/write permissions between users and groups. Nextcloud users can create public URLs when sharing files.[15][citation needed]
Logging of file-related actions, as well as disallowing access based on file access rules is also available.[16]
Security options like brute-force protection and multi-factor authentication using TOTP, WebAuthn, Oauth2,[17] and OpenID Connect[12][18] [19] are available.
Nextcloud has planned new features such as monitoring capabilities, full-text search and Kerberos authentication, as well as audio/video conferencing, expanded federation and smaller user interface improvements.[20]
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History
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In April 2016 Frank Karlitschek and most core contributors [21] left ownCloud Inc.[22] These included some of ownCloud's staff according to sources near to the ownCloud community.[23] Karlitschek and many of these contributors went on to fork the ownCloud, creating NextCloud.[23]
The fork was preceded by a blog post of Karlitschek announcing his departure and raising questions about the management of the ownCloud, its community, and priorities between growth, money, and sustainability.[22] There have been no official statements about the reason for the fork. However, Karlitschek mentioned the fork several times in a talk at the 2018 FOSDEM conference and in two appearances on the FLOSS Weekly podcast,[24][25] emphasizing cultural mismatch between open source developers and business oriented people not used to the open source community.[26]
On June 2, within 12 hours of the announcement of the fork, the American entity "ownCloud Inc." announced that it is shutting down with immediate effect, stating that "[...] main lenders in the US have cancelled our credit. Following American law, we are forced to close the doors of ownCloud, Inc. with immediate effect and terminate the contracts of 8 employees." ownCloud Inc. accused Karlitschek of poaching developers, while Nextcloud developers such as Arthur Schiwon stated that he "decided to quit because not everything in the ownCloud Inc. company world evolved as I imagined".[27] ownCloud GmbH continued operations, secured financing from new investors and took over the business of ownCloud Inc.[28]
In April 2018 Informationstechnikzentrum Bund (ITZBund) reported Nextcloud wins the tender for "Bundescloud" (Germany government cloud) project.[29][30]
In August 2019 it was announced that the governments of France, Sweden and the Netherlands will use Nextcloud for file transfer.[31]
In January 2020 Nextcloud 18 "Nextcloud Hub" was released. The major change was direct integration of an Office suite (OnlyOffice) and Nextcloud claimed the goal to compete with Office 365 and Google Docs.[32] Partnership with Ionos was revealed – its hosting location in Germany and compliance with GDPR should support the goal of data sovereignty.[33]
In spring 2020 remote work and web conferencing usage raised due to COVID-19 pandemic and Nextcloud released version 19 with chat and videoconferencing Talk app integrated into the application core. Talk with an optional "high performance back-end" [34] allows self-hosting of web conferences with more than 10 participants. Collabora Online was introduced as another integrated office suite.
In August 2021 Nextcloud was chosen as collaboration platform for European cloud software GAIA-X.[35][36][37][38]
In a September 2021 European Commission report it was mentioned as "the most widely deployed Open Source content collaboration platform"[39]
Following the 2025 United States tariffs against the European Union, fear of overreliance on US cloud providers such as Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace increased, with Nextcloud being one of the foremost contenders to replace them.[40] Some governmental organisations including the European Data Protection Supervisor and the German state of Schleswig-Holstein have since switched from Microsoft's Sharepoint to Nextcloud.[41] According to Nextcloud, during the first 5 months of 2025, customer interest in the software had tripled.[42]
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See also
- Seafile (FOSS client-server software for file storage and transfer)
- Comparison of file hosting services
- Comparison of file synchronization software
- Comparison of online backup services
References
External links
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