Submitted 5 months ago by bytepursuits@programming.dev to selfhosted@lemmy.world
https://bytepursuits.com/opencloud-as-nextcloud-replacement
Hey friends. I finally fired nextcloud - and so should you.
My journey:
Random stuff --> OwnCloud --> Nextcloud --> syncthing + Radicale
I gave up with the constant changes during upgrades and increasing dependencies for features that we weren’t using.
Now my system’s lean, light, responsive and just works (on a Pi3)
Prosody’s next…
Fair enough, these are interesting points. I pay for ssd storage and host Nextcloud on it. It use to be quite sluggish but nowadays it’s fast enough for my needs so I don’t really see any reason to change. I use the office suite, the rss feed reader, memories to sync my pictures, task, and quite a few things actually. I dont need talk much for now but I might. So yeah, it really suite my needs for now.
Good that you added that security disclaimer
Thanks for putting this together. I have been dragging my feet on self-hosting NextCloud, and now it looks like that procrastination may just work out in my favor.
One question, can I just run this on localhost and access through my local network instead of using a reverse proxy? If so, how? That’s all I need, I don’t use a reverse proxy now and would be fine just using a self-hosted VPN to access it when away from my private network. The docs make it seem like there is pretty stringent requirements on having to use a reverse proxy and certs, etc which was the same ‘issue’ I had with NextCloud. I guess I’m the minority here, but curious if anyone can help answer.
You can absolutely use it without a reverse proxy. A proxy is just another fancy HTTP client that contacts the server on the original client’s behalf and forwards the response back to it, usually wrapped in HTTPS.
All you have to do is expose the desired port(s) to all addresses:
# ... - ports: - 8080:8080
…and obviously to set the URL environment variables to localhost or whatever address the server uses.
Thanks!!!
What’s wrong with Nextcloud? It’s not as snappy as google drive but it’s fine for small organisation IMO. I personally really enjoy it.
Nextcloud stopped being a fast, reliable file sync tool a long time ago.
It’s become a bloated “groupware suite” full of Talk, Office, AI, and half-finished apps…
while the core sync still chokes on large folders and locks files like it’s 2015.
The Core Problem PHP-FPM and mod_php are ancient architectures - every request spins up, runs, and dies. No persistent memory, no connection reuse, and no async I/O. Result: slow sync, race conditions, and constant “file locked” errors. Tons of open GitHub issues about sync bugs, upgrades, and no action from nextcloud
What they shoud do: Hyperf + Swoole
Swoole turns PHP into a high-performance async server - persistent memory, connection pooling, non-blocking I/O.
Hyperf+swoole can rival GOlang.
Hyperf builds on it: native WebSockets, coroutine HTTP, and microservice-ready architecture.
You get live sync, push notifications, and massive concurrency with a fraction of the resource cost.
Add TUS (resumable uploads) and you finally have reliable file transfer on bad connections.
I don’t want “Teams clone” bloat. We want reliable sync that just works. I’d rather self-host a lean, fast file system than manage ten half-integrated apps. Hyperf + Swoole is how you bring Dropbox-level sync to self-hosting without the pain.
Nextcloud could fix its image by: Refocusing on sync reliability and performance. Moving core services to a persistent, async engine (Swoole/hyperf, etc). Making “Nextcloud Core” modular - separate entirely from the groupware/ai/talk - I dont fucking need it. Until then, those who care about speed, concurrency, and modern PHP should look beyond the old PHP-FPM world.
You seem angry. It’s just too bad you couldn’t funnel this energy into learning and configuring nextcloud to your needs. It is actually pretty lean when you set it up properly. Anyhow, happy you found something you liked eventually.
This is a good summary. At this point I am too deeply invested in to NextCloud to switch to a different thing, as I’ve switched my whole family off OneDrive now and I just cba to go through that again. I can handle it being dogshit and I’ve got used to it’s bugs - a form of stockholm syndrome. I suspect a lot of people are similar to me - we use NextCloud because it’s the biggest name and has been around forever, not because it’s what we want.
Anyway, performance is clearly a problem, and has been since I started on OwnCloud 10 years ago. I wish the devs would do something to improve it but again, having used it for 10 years, I know that they won’t. When it finally blows up I’ll move to something else I guess.
How come I can’t see any comments? It says 17 but I can’t see them.
Classic !languagesettings@lemmy.zip
Probably language settings. Depending on your client you need to change those in the Lemmy WebUI. There’s something like preferred languages.
I can see comments in the inbox, but not when I click on the post… weird.
my client - I just use the browser.firefox. I also use voyager mobile app and similarly dont see comments.
languages are set to “undetermined”.
yeah tick in both english and undefined (or how it’s called), maybe others too
Interesting. Nextcloud does feel pretty sluggish and probably in need of a major overhaul of the backend. Still, it works quite well .
It needs to be running on postgres and redis. The AIO is your best bet
Nextcloud, tho a very capable package with just about all the bells and whistles one could ever need, is a resource eating beast. LOL
Is it? My instance only has a handful of users, but it runs on a Raspi 4 and RAM or CPU are never a problem
Interesting. Nextcloud does feel pretty sluggish and probably in need of a major overhaul of the backend. Still, it works quite well .
If all you want is file sharing, like the blog post author wants, I don’t understand what’s wrong with something like a plain old SFTP server.
I’m not aware of an SFTP client that works like the cloud drive connectors. Do you know of one that monitors local files/dirs for changes and automatically sends them? Or polls the server for changes and downloads then (if they’re on the allow list)? Keeps versions?
If literally all you’re doing is occasional file transfers, sure, SFTP is easy. That’s not how most people use cloud drive clients.
For me and my group, Nextcloud works fine and fast. We do more than file sync and share.
They are currently adding calendar support, which is the most feature for me. We are looking for work it’s integration.
I’m curious about opencloud. It’s flashy, uses go, and has everything that I’m actively using in Nextcloud. The license does make me a little cautious about it though. Apache v2 on the server side is unusually permissive. AGPLv3 on the web ui is cool, but it’s also not really helpful if you’re not required to publish server changes.
Can’t comment on the license, but I switched to it from NextCloud a few months ago and I’ve been generally very happy with it for where it is in the development process. It’s not perfect yet, but it’s also still earlyish.
The weaker (permissive instead of copyleft) license alone is a reason to be suspicious of both the project and OP. At this point, it’s just telegraphing plans to eventually go proprietary and enshittify.
and I would have gotten away with it if it wasnt for you meddling kids.
NO - but seriously completely gratuitous from my end. I’m fed up with nextcloud.
as to licensing - yeah I didnt even look at it, opencloud was forked from owncloud I figured it is something consistent. I like they use matrix for their chat.
as to enshittification - that is something nobody can predict but I have seen GPL3 went private many times: directus.io/…/changing-our-license-one-year-later or mongo I think was agpl3.
tbh yes - licensing is not something I looked into strongly.
Well, I wouldn’t go that far. Let’s not forget Nextcloud started as a fork for the same reason. The permissive license doesn’t stop us from keeping it alive, but it is something to be cautious of.
Looks interesting, written nicely! Gonna subscribe via RSS :)
You use a mesh vpn with a reverse proxy? How does that work?
I run opencloud containers straight on my NAS server running ubuntu LTS, I then expose container ports on tailscale only, and then I route it via nginx proxy manager through my public VPS via tailscale.
I’m not sure. Is it public facing or not? What’s the mesh vpn for?
and so should you.
Why should I? I couldn’t read it in the post. I use nextcloud because its easy and it has caldav which I use nextcloud 50% for. The other 50 percent is thinking I have a cloud if I someday need one.
I do something similar I use Pangolin (Which is an EXCELLENT project) as a self hosted alternative to cloudflareD tunels. I host it on a public VPS and then thru it tunnel web traffic to my public resources, that way I don’t have to expose my IP or have a static. Then I also use netbird as an overlay network not only to access my servers remotely but also to “join” two sites via a VPN (Backup server at my mom’s)
That sounds like you use the mesh vpn for managing the server, e.g. ssh, and you’ve got a server at home and route all traffic via the vps to hide your ip. Do i get it right?
OP’s setting sounded like he’s exposing his stuff publicly after routing through mesh vpn
I perdo6ate those posts with the “you should…” part. Let people use whatever they want.
[You should] Let people use whatever they want.
:D
Let people use whatever they want.
you can do what you want
Let people use post whatever they want.
This is awesome, I want it. But it’s way beyond my technical level. I wish there was a Proxmox helper script.
hietsu@sopuli.xyz 5 months ago
nightrider@lemmy.world 5 months ago
After extensive looking the only selfhosted one that I can find that fits the bill is Seafile (latest update) which has a metadata based file storage function. Bear in mind setting up docker compose is a PITA but once you get it working (subject to license restriction - only 3 on free ‘pro’ tier) it works great.
Only other option that hits the same is the software I’m trying to replace: SharePoint (shudder). As much as Microsoft sucks the document libraries with columns are blooming powerful when combined with power automate. Good luck hunting!