How Nextcloud
stacks up

Why is Nextcloud the most popular self-hosted EFSS
and Content Collaboration Platform?

What makes Nextcloud
the best choice

Best security

Nextcloud is developed in a security-focused process as attested by a range of external experts and security pen-tests.

Industry-leading features include machine-learning based login protection, 2-factor authentication measures, brute force protection and unique capabilities like Video Verification, end-to-end and server-side encryption.

We put our money where our mouth is: our USD 10.000 security bug bounty program brings top security expertise in, keeping your data safe.

Largest ecosystem

As the most deployed self-hosted file sync and content collaboration platform, Nextcloud offers the widest range of add-on capabilities and integrations in the industry. Over 200 ‘apps’ offer powerful security capabilities, team productivity features and infrastructure integrations.

With Nextcloud you can eliminate a confusing mess of different SaaS platforms and the security, cost, compliance and productivity problems they bring with them.

Easiest to use

Powerful capabilities often result in complicated user interfaces, lowering productivity and hindering quick adoption in organizations. Without limiting their abilities, Nextcloud does not overwhelm users with unnecessary clutter. Our customers remark time and again how few support tickets it creates for their IT teams.

Accessibility features like keyboard and screenreader navigation, WCAG 2.1 compliant contrast and a dyslexia-friendly font are available only in the leading on-premises content collaboration platform!

How we stack up

See how Nextcloud compares to these popular closed-source services, and switch to a more open and transparent solution to protect your data!


Licensing	Open source open source = any OSI approved license. Anything else is proprietary.	Proprietary open source = any OSI approved license. Anything else is proprietary.	Proprietary open source = any OSI approved license. Anything else is proprietary.	Proprietary [ownCloud Enterprise Edition] open source = any OSI approved license. Anything else is proprietary.	Proprietary open source = any OSI approved license. Anything else is proprietary.	Proprietary open source = any OSI approved license. Anything else is proprietary.	Proprietary open source = any OSI approved license. Anything else is proprietary.	Proprietary open source = any OSI approved license. Anything else is proprietary.
Unlimited storage and amount of files Limits imposed by either the purchased plan or your own infrastructure when self-hosting	Included The limit is customer infrastructure. There are no limits from the Nextcloud side.	Included	Included	Included	Varies per plan	Not included	Varies per plan	Max 10 TB
Large file support	Included	Included	10GB	Included	5GB	10GB	20GB	25GB
Self hosted / on premises	Included can be hosted wherever you decide, including hybrid.	Not included	Not included	Included	Not included	Included	Not included	Not included
Global Scalability Sharding across clusters and data centers	Included single cluster: up to 100K active users. With Global Scale: unlimited.	Included 5K in one group, 10K for educational organizations, unclear limits otherwise	Included	Not included	Included Some limitations exist but nothing is clearly documented	Not included 2K users in a share, more limits exist but not clearly documented	Included	Unclear various file limitations exist, unclear user limits
Clients
Mobile clients	Apple Android	Apple Android	Apple Android	Apple Android	Apple Android	Apple Android	Apple Android free version only supports up to 3 client devices total	Apple Android
Auto upload Images/Video/other files	Included/Included/Included	Included/Included/Not included* can do files with external app	Included/Included/Not included* can be done with external app	Included/Included/Not included	Only paid. Files can be done with external app / Only paid. Files can be done with external app / Not included* Only paid. Files can be done with external app	Included/Included/Not included* Extra paid feature. Files can be done with third party app	Included/Included/Not included* Files can be done with third party app	Not included/Not included/Not included*
Desktop clients	Apple Windows Linux	Apple Windows	Apple Windows	Apple Windows Linux	Apple Windows	Apple Windows	Apple Windows free version only supports up to 3 client devices total	Apple Windows
LAN synchronization	Not included	Not included	Not included	Not included	Not included	Not included	Included	Included
Extensible with Apps Allows third party to write apps that integrate apps in the cloud itself, adding functionality	Included Over 200 apps available	Not included No third-party apps that can be integrated	Included Limited to Microsoft Apps	Included Over 70 apps available	Included Limited Microsoft office integration	Not included No third-party apps that can be integrated	Included Limited Microsoft office integration	Included Pretty wide range of apps
Server features
Unified Search Cross-application search (Calendars, mails, chat messages, files etc)	Included	Full-text search costs money, cross-application search free Full-text search costs money, cross-application search free	Included	Not included	full-text search paid, cross-app search not available full-text search paid, cross-app search not available	Included	full-text search only in paid versions, with 365 integration no cross-app search full-text search only in paid versions, with 365 integration no cross-app search	Not included
File versioning	Included	limited	limited Only for MS Office files	Included	limited 25-50 revisions depending on plan	Included	limited Max 1 month, up to 1 year with Business subscription	limited max 3 revisions
File locking/Checkout Block a file temporarily from being edited while you work offline with it	Included Does NOT block collaborative editing	Not included	Included	Included	Included	Included* not available in web UI or WebDAV	Included Only for business edition	Included
Multiple link shares	Included	Not included	Not included	Included	Not included	Not included	Not included	Not included
Share note Add a note for the share	Included	Not included	Not included	Not included	Not included	Not included	Not included	Not included
Dashboard Dashboard app with overview of info like recent files, chats, calendar items and more	Included	Included	Included	Not included	Not included	Included	Not included	Not included Admins have a dashboard, users not
View PDF, Images, Video, Gallery	Included	Included	Included	Included	Included	Included	Included	Included
Integrated Audio/Video/Text chat	Included/Included/Included	Included/Included/Included	Included/Included/Included	Not included/Not included/Not included Unsupported	Not included/Not included/Not included	Included/Included/Included	Included/Included/Included	Not included/Not included/Not included
Integrated Groupware (Calendar / Contacts / Mail / Kanban)	Included/Included/Included/Included	Included/Included/Included/Included	Included/Included	Not included/Not included/Not included/Not included Only as unsupported (Nextcloud-developed) third party apps	not natively, third party app	Included/Included/Included/Not included	Included/Included/G = through Google Apps G = through Google Apps	Not included/Not included
Mobile calendar/Contact integration	Included/Included both Android/iOS (Android with integrated 3rd party tool)	Included	Included	Unsupported. Available for iOS, Android possible with tool from Nextcloud partner / Unsupported. Available for iOS, Android possible with tool from Nextcloud partner Unsupported. Available for iOS, Android possible with tool from Nextcloud partner	Not included	Not included	Not included	Not included
Online Office web/ Mobile apps Online Office web / mobile apps	Included/Included 4 options With Collabora Online, ONLYOFFICE, Hancom Office or MS Office Online	Included/Included	Included/Included feature-limited in web and mobile UI compared to desktop	Included/Not included 3 options Collabora Online, OnlyOffice, MS Office Online	Included/Included Through Microsoft Office	Included/Included Microsoft Office 365	Included/Included Microsoft Office 365	Included/Included Microsoft Office 365
Knowledge management A knowledge base/wiki with articles/pages, sub pages, search and other basic knowledge base functionality is available	Included	Not included	Included	Not included	Not included	Not included	Not included	Included
Forms and surveys The platform allows creating forms and surveys and store and display the results	Included	Included	Included	Not included	Not included	Not included	Not included	Included
User-managed groups Normal users can create and manage groups without having to rely on the system administrator, a power user or a group admin	Included	Not included	Included	Not included	Not included	Included	Included	Not included
File Drop (customer file upload) Public link to folder recipient can upload to, which hides existing content of the shared folder	Included	Included	Not included	Included	Not included	Included	Included	Included
Video verification Protect public links with Video Verification	Included	Not included	Not included	Not included	Not included	Not included	Not included	Not included
Inter-server sharing Sharing between separate cloud instances of different vendors. Example, Nextcloud users can share files with users on Pydio and ownCloud servers.	Included	Not included	Not included	Included	Not included	Not included	Not included	Not included
Workspaces Add context to a folder by having a space to add comments, notes and todo lists	Included	Not included	Not included* Can pin files to the top of a folder, which gives a big preview.	Not included	Not included	Not included	Included	Not included
Accessibility
Keyboard/Screen reader support	Included	Included	Included	Not included	Included	Included	Included	Could not find information Could not find information
WCAG 2.1 support	AA/AAA AAA with optional theme	Included	Included	Not included	AA/AAA AAA with Box.com accessiblity site	Not included	Included	Not included
Dyslexia-friendly font	Included	Included	Not included	Not included	Not included	Not included	Not included	Not included
Admin features
Access control lists Permissions on files and folders, inherited by default, can be overridden at any level.	Included	Included	Included	Not included	Included	Included	Included	Included
Content workflow automation	Included	Only via third party app Only via third party app	Included limited to admins	Included limited to admins	Included limited to admins	Included limited to admins	Included limited to admins	Included limited to admins
Approval process workflow	Included	Not included	Included	Not included	Not included	Not included	Not included	Not included
Cryptographic document signatures Request documents signed with DocuSign or another technology	Included DocuSign, EID-Easy and LibreSign	Not included	Not included	Not included	Not included	Not included	Not included	Not included
Automatic script execution	Included	Not included	Included	Included	Not included	Included	Not included	Not included
Impersonate users	Included	Included	Included	Included	Included	Included	Included	Included
Real time notifications files created, updated, shared, unshared and deleted by user or others, chat or call received etc.	Included	Included	Included	Not included	Included	Included	Included	Not included
Monitoring web/API interface	Included/Included	Included/Included	Included/Included	Not included/Not included	Included/Included	Included/Included	Included/Included	Included/Included
Data retention policy support	Included	limited Max 6 months	Included	Included	Included	Included	Not included	Included
Long term support (5-10 years) Life cycle matching your operating system	Included	N.A. Hosted only, customer has no control over when/what changes	N.A. Hosted only, customer has no control over when/what changes	Not included	N.A. Hosted only, customer has no control over when/what changes	N.A. Hosted only, customer has no control over when/what changes	N.A. Hosted only, customer has no control over when/what changes	N.A. Hosted only, customer has no control over when/what changes
Branding	Included Easy self-service in UI or full custom CSS	very limited	Included	Included Using paid ownBrander or manually changing CSS	Included Varies per plan but mainly yes	Not included	very limited	Included
Compliance features
Audit trail Mandatory if you have a legal requirement to find out who did what and when	Included	Included	Included	Included	Included	Included	Included	Included
Imprint and privacy links	Included	Only to their imprint and privacy policy, not yours Only to their imprint and privacy policy, not yours	Only to their imprint and privacy policy, not yours Only to their imprint and privacy policy, not yours	Included	Only to their imprint and privacy policy, not yours Only to their imprint and privacy policy, not yours	Only to their imprint and privacy policy, not yours Only to their imprint and privacy policy, not yours	Only to their imprint and privacy policy, not yours Only to their imprint and privacy policy, not yours	Included* If self-hosted
Built in data-request/account deletion	Included	Included You can request (deletion of) data	Included You can request (deletion of) data	Not included	Included You can request (deletion of) data	Included You can request (deletion of) data	Included You can request (deletion of) data	Included Yes
Terms-of-service	Included	You and your customers you share with have to agree to their terms You and your customers you share with have to agree to their terms	You and your customers you share with have to agree to their terms You and your customers you share with have to agree to their terms	Not included	You and your customers you share with have to agree to their terms You and your customers you share with have to agree to their terms	You and your customers you share with have to agree to their terms You and your customers you share with have to agree to their terms	You and your customers you share with have to agree to their terms You and your customers you share with have to agree to their terms	Included If self-hosted
Security features
Server side encryption	Included	Included	Included	Included	Not included	Included	Not included	Not included
Client side / End-to-end encryption	Included	Google is working to introduce this Google is working to introduce this	Not included	Not included Only offering a web E2EE solution without client support so failing to provide zero-knowledge protection	Not included	Not included	Not included	Not included
Video Verification	Included Optionally verify identity of recipient by video call	Not included	Not included	Not included	Not included	Not included	Not included	Not included
Brute force hacking protection	Included	Included	Included	Included There is an unsupported external app developed by community student, occasionally updated	Not included	Included	Included	Included
NIST compliant password policy	Included	Not included	Included	Not included	Included	Not included	Not included	Not included
Web UI secured with CSP 3.0	Included	Included	Not included	Not included	Not included	Not included	Not included	Not included
Same-site cookie attribute	Included	Included	Included	Included	Not included	Included	Included	Not included
File Access Control	Included	Not included	Not included	Included	Not included Can be done in limited way with third party applications	Not included	Not included	Not included
App access rights Allow restricting mobile/desktop/third party applications access to filesystem or other data	Included	Included	Included	Not included	Not included	Not included	Included	Not included
Authentication
Enforceable 2-factor authentication	U2F/OTP/SMS Signal/Telegram notifications Supports multiple factors	U2F/OTP/SMS notifications Multiple factors	U2F/OTP/SMS notifications Supports multiple 2nd factor options	Not included Cannot be enforced, only supporting OTP	SMS Supports multiple factors	SMS	SMS/U2F/OTP	OTP/SMS OTP only via Duo Push
ML based suspicious login detection Uses machine learning technology to protect authentication	Included	Included	Included	Not included	Included	Not included	Included	Not included
LDAP/AD	Included	Included	Included	Included	Included	Included	Included	Included
Native SAML Native SAML is implemented directly in the application without a requirements on external software like Apache modules. Native SAML is compatible with all webservers and supports group memberships, flexible session management, multiple identity providers and app specific passwords.	Included	Included	Included	Not included	Included	Included	Included	Included
Auth via env variable Authentication through Apache modules allows eg SAML/ShibbolethADFS, OAuth, OpenID, CAS and more.	Included	Not included	Not included	Included	Not included	Not included	Not included	Not included
Kerberos	Included	Not included	Not included	Included	Not included	Included	Not included	Included
Storage
File storage (local/NFS)	Included	Not included	Not included	Included	Not included	Included	Not included	Included
Object storage (S3/Swift)	Included	Not included	Not included	Only support for outdated V2 authentication Only support for outdated V2 authentication	Not included	Included	Not included	Included
CIFS/Windows Shares	Included Also supports Kerberos	Not included	Included	Included	Not included	Included	Not included	Included
Sharepoint	Included 2013/2016	Not included	Included	Included 2013/2016	Not included	Paid only	Not included	Not included
Extensible storage	Included	Not included	Included	Included	Not included	Included	Not included	Included

Based on public information to our best knowledge, gathered July 1, 2021. We understand the world is constantly changing, if you see we missed a feature or made a mistake, let us know. You can use our contact form.

Note that end-to-end encryption in a browser is not the same as client-side encryption as it fails to protect adequately from the server (it does not offer ‘zero-knowledge’ protection). Security experts consider javascript encryption in the browser “harmful”.