Lately, I’ve been trying to distance myself from Google’s services, and thankfully, there’s no shortage of great open-source alternatives that make the transition easier. But one of the biggest hurdles in this whole process is figuring out what to do about cloud storage. Most people would naturally jump to OneDrive, especially if they use Windows or Office, but that never felt like the right fit for me.
Instead, I chose something far better. Something that’s fully open-source, runs on hardware I already own, and doesn’t require me to hand over my data to another giant corporation.
Why I didn’t choose OneDrive
I don’t want anything to do with Microsoft either
I already have my fair share of gripes with a lot of Microsoft products, and obviously, OneDrive doesn’t fall any short of that. Ever since I was forced to create a Microsoft Account with Windows 11, OneDrive has caused nothing but irritation. It’s clear Microsoft wants us to stop caring about local files, and I was constantly confused about what OneDrive was syncing and what it wasn’t.
Half the time, it duplicated the most random files possible, and the other half, I couldn’t even figure out what was moving to the cloud and what wasn’t. It’s genuinely the most lost I have ever felt while using a cloud platform.
Whenever I used an Office app, it would default to saving everything to OneDrive. I’m sure there are settings buried somewhere to turn that off, but it reached a point where it was genuinely annoying. I don’t want to waste time fixing problems I didn’t create.
Good riddance, though, because I’ve basically abandoned Windows and switched to Linux and macOS completely these days. That alone makes OneDrive a less-than-ideal choice. Yes, there are ways to access OneDrive from other platforms, but none of them feel great or native.
So with all of this, combined with the fact that I’d be paying for something that’s arguably inferior to Google Drive anyway, and the bigger reality that I don’t want my data sitting with either Google or Microsoft, I figured it was finally time to take a more hands-on approach and build my own solution.
What makes Nextcloud different
Nothing beats free (and open-source)
If you don’t know what Nextcloud is, it’s basically a platform that lets you host your own cloud server. While it’s mainly popular for file storage, it’s actually capable of much more. You can use it as an office suite, calendar, notes app, and much more. There is a whole marketplace of apps that essentially lets you recreate your own Google or Microsoft ecosystem without the overhead.
The biggest difference is that everything happens on your own hardware. You provide the storage, the machine, and the setup (more on that later), which means you get complete control over your data, your access rules, and how everything works. There’s no weird shenanigans or changes being pulled off by a corporation, and no aggressive nudges to upgrade you to a bigger plan.
Another huge perk is that there are no monthly fees. Nextcloud is completely free and open-source. Yes, there’s an initial setup cost if you need hardware, but chances are you already have everything you need to get a basic setup running.
And unlike OneDrive, you’re not really encouraged to use a specific platform. Nextcloud is practically designed to run anywhere, and as I mentioned, you get to decide exactly how you want to deploy it.
Whether you’re on Linux, macOS, or even a NAS, it adapts to your setup instead of forcing you into its own.
Setting up Nextcloud isn’t the easiest, but it’s worth it
You’ll need to know some Docker basics
Now, I’m not going to sugarcoat anything — setting up Nextcloud is definitely not as simple as signing up for a Google Drive account. You have to bring your own hardware, and depending on what you already have, there are a bunch of different ways you can build your setup.
Personally, I don’t rely on cloud storage for huge amounts of data, but I still need it for smaller things every now and then. So I repurposed an old laptop I had lying around and plugged in an external SSD to use as the main storage. It’s not glamorous, but it works perfectly for my needs, and I didn’t spend a single cent on hardware.
But if you need something more reliable with redundancy, you’ll probably want to invest in a proper NAS setup. You can technically build one out of a USB drive, but don’t expect it to be fast. A basic NAS with decent drives will give you way more stability.
To actually set up Nextcloud, you’ll need Docker installed. Once Docker is ready, you can spin up a Nextcloud instance with this command:
sudo docker run \
--init \
--sig-proxy=false \
--name nextcloud-aio-mastercontainer \
--restart always \
--publish 80:80 \
--publish 8080:8080 \
--publish 8443:8443 \
--volume nextcloud_aio_mastercontainer:/mnt/docker-aio-config \
--volume /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro \
ghcr.io/nextcloud-releases/all-in-one:latest
After that, all you have to do is open your browser and enter in a browser on the same machine. This will open up a UI for Nextcloud, and now you just need to follow the on-screen instructions to set up your admin account and storage locations.
Obviously, if you want to access your Nextcloud setup when you’re away from home, you’ll need some way to reach it from outside your local network. The easiest option is to use something like Tailscale. It basically creates a private VPN for your devices, so you can securely connect to your home network from anywhere without messing around with complicated port forwarding or DNS settings.
But if you’re aiming for a more complete, “proper” setup with a reverse proxy, automatic SSL, and all the bells and whistles, I’d highly recommend checking out TechHut’s Nextcloud AIO setup video.
Nextcloud is the right long-term solution
If you don’t want to jump into a full-scale setup right away, you can still get a lot of value out of Nextcloud. You can even run it as a hybrid cloud while you slowly migrate your data, letting you keep the convenience of traditional cloud storage while self-hosting at the same time.
And that’s really the beauty of Nextcloud. You can configure it exactly the way you want. It does come with a learning curve, but once you understand the basics, it becomes incredibly powerful.