I’m looking to finally ditch Onedrive with a self hosted alternative, but I’m not sure what to go with. I want something with all of the files on a central server, with an Android client with the option to sync individual files for offline access as needed. Preferably the files should also be stored in plain format on the server to make backups easier and as a fallback if the service completely fails and I don’t have time to fix it. Linux and Windows clients are a bonus but I’m happy just using a web gui if that’s all that’s available. These are the options I’ve considered so far:
Seafile - This was the one that I thought fit my needs the best until earlier but apparently it has a weird disk layout which means the files are basically inaccessible by anything else?
Nextcloud - I had originally ruled this out because I don’t care about any of the additional features which people claim also slow it down and make it a bit of a resource hog, and I also don’t want to deal with forced https. However I think the community image may actually be what I want as it seems to be just the file server and works with just http? I am a bit confused about the different options for the database though. https://hub.docker.com/_/nextcloud/
Syncthing - Not quite what I’m looking for as you need to sync the entire thing, and I don’t like whatever weirdness is going on with the Android app at the moment
SAMBA share - Also not really what I’m looking for as there’s no offline syncing, but very easy to set up and basically nothing to go wrong
Are there any other options I should be looking into?
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OwnCloud Infinite Scale might be the option you missed?
Nextcloud was forked from the PHP Owncloud some years back, and they added all the apps and things. But Owncloud is like Nextcloud but focused only on the files.
I am a bit concerned that you’re talking about not wanting HTTPS and see it as a bad thing that something requires it. Given you can get free certificates these days, why would you not want a secure connection? Even if you’re accessing via a VPN to server tunnel, I see no reason not to have it.
Exposing https requires a lot more configuration and also carries with it security risks.
I don’t think it’s really true these days that it needs a lot of config. Maybe reverse proxies will do it for you automatically without much setup.
I am curious what the security risks are for HTTPS for a service that will already be accessible remotely?
Maybe reverse proxies will do it for you
Reverse proxies require configuration.
what the security risks are for HTTPS for a service that will already be accessible remotely?
Already accessible via VPN. Meaning it’s only accessible to those explicitly allowed to access it.
What is the security risk of adding HTTPS to a site going via VPN?
It exposes the server to the entire internet…
I hadn’t considered OwnCloud because I thought it was pretty much the same as NextCloud but mainly aimed at enterprise. Does it have any advantages over Nextcloud?
I haven’t got round to setting up https yet since I only access my server via my LAN or Tailscale. When I do get round to setting it up I might use a reverse proxy rather than configuring it for every service. I also need to work out how to do automatic certificate renewal and if that’s even worth doing, so I don’t want to be forced into half-assing it for Nextcloud before I’m ready to do it properly. With Nextcloud specifically I also don’t like the fact that you can’t change the domain after the initial setup, using the community edition via http seems to get round that problem as well
I also need to work out how to do automatic certificate renewal and if that’s even worth doing
This is what certbot is for. For example, with nginx, you just set up the webserver to be reachable via your domain.
You then install and run certbot, and it will aquire, install and configure, and then set itself up to auto-renew, a certificate. All with just one command.
With Nextcloud specifically I also don’t like the fact that you can’t change the domain after the initial setup
Yes you can?
I’ve done it thrice now.
Is this some limitation of the docker AIO stack?
How do you change the domain? That was one of the biggest things putting me off
Many of the people who worked at OwnCloud Infinite Scale are now at OpenCloud due to disagreements between them and the company which purchased OwnCloud.
Yes that was another thing I came across earlier, there seems to be more controversies around Owncloud than Nextcloud which kind of put me off considering how similar they seem to be anyway. And Opencloud is still a work in progress unless I was reading outdated information?
Isn’t a self-hosted onedrive literally just a networked hard drive?
I think people generally look for a phone app / ease of use type of thing
You are invited to join the CopyParty! This has a web UI accessible from the browser, also from mobile, files are stored directly on the filesystem (not encrypted or on a database) and you can mount it as a network drive on Windows and Linux. But it doesn’t let you sync files for offline use, at least not without the help of some auxiliary tools.
You won’t find anything simpler to install and configure than this.
FolderSync pairs nicely if you want some sync features on android.
On a desktop or laptop I’d just mount it as a drive.
If you really want automatic sync with offline availability, the Nextcloud desktop client has been solid for years now.
Copyparty is very cool, but it also confuses me a bit. It keeps giving me 403 forbidden errors when I try to rename or move files on certain folders.
I’m pretty sure it’s a permission problem, because the root folder is read only but the folders inside have permissions per user, but I never figured it out.
I still use it daily, 5/7 perfect software.
