Nextcloud Community Awards 2026: celebrating community champions

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The Nextcloud community is one of the most dynamic, fast growing open-source communities in the world, and among the biggest in the collaborative software industry. Making privacy, data sovereignty, and digital freedom accessible for people and organizations, Nextcloud has seen unprecedented growth in the recent years. 

Our goal is to give due visibility to the people behind the scenes of this trend: contributors and projects who help the Nextcloud ecosystem grow and prosper. That’s why we are launching the Nextcloud Community Awards.

Introducing the Nextcloud Community Awards!

The Nextcloud Community Awards are a new recognition initiative launched as part of Nextcloud’s 10th anniversary to celebrate the people who have made outstanding contributions to our community and ecosystem. Rather than being an industry award or public competition, the awards are intended as a heartfelt recognition of the individuals and teams who have helped shape the Nextcloud ecosystem through collaboration, innovation, and community engagement.

The inaugural edition will focus on three meaningful award categories and culminate in a ceremony during the Nextcloud Conference on September 19 & 20. Our goal is to establish a thoughtful and sustainable tradition that celebrates the community at the heart of Nextcloud.

Submit your nominations until August 9 🏆

In 2026, we focus on three award categories, to highlight the diversity of the Nextcloud community and ecosystem.

Each category has a set of evaluation criteria that will guide the jury to pick the winners. But as every contribution and project is unique, we keep an open mind.

1. Best Non-technical Contribution

This award reconizes non-technical contributions like translations of apps and content, writing and improving documentation, support and moderation on the Nextcloud Community forum, submissions of high quality bug reports and feature requests. Even substantial input in any public discussion can be nominated.

Evaluation criteria:

• It’s a non-code contribution
• It has a visible impact on the community
• It makes access to Nextcloud easier
• It meets our core values and principles.
• Quality of the contribution is evaluated on the case-by-case basis.

2. Hidden Gem

Nominate a lesser known, unique Nextcloud app with a specific, niche purpose. Something you think more people should know about. It can be an app for a specific industry or workflow, or one that changes the core functionality, makes something new of Nextcloud (for example, OpenClaw Command Center or LinkBoard app).

Evaluation criteria:

• The app has a specific purpose and works well for it
• A real-world proof of application is a plus
• It’s a unique app, not the obviously popular one

3. Side Quest

Playful, delightful and fun contributions. Features, apps, or even a new approach or concept delivered in any form: a how-to, video, guide, or setup. It can be something that lets you use “corporate” software for hobby activities, has a fun theme and a creative approach. For example, the Nextcloud Talk bot that rolls the dice and can be used for a D&D night with friends.

Evaluation criteria:

• It falls outside of enterprise use
• Perceived quality or impact are not as important. Creativity is key!

Nominations for the Nextcloud Community Awards are open until August 9.

You can submit more than one nomination. Ready to compete for the Nextcloud Community Awards yourself? Don’t be shy: we also accept self-nominations!

What’s next?

On August 9, we will close the nominations and let our jury begin the evaluation. The jury will cast their vote internally and pick the winners who receives the Nextcloud Community Award in each of the categories.

We will shortly announce the composition of the jury for the Nextcloud Community Awards.