Getting tired of the constant nagging to upgrade because your free 2 GB storage is almost half full? Do you want to use more devices than just 3 to synchronize your Dropbox files to? Do you dislike the fact that Dropbox is experimenting with AI and might or might not be scanning your files to train their AI model? Do you have some spare PHP web hosting space?
Well, you’re in luck. You might as well install Nextcloud on that PHP web host and get all the Dropbox features, without the restrictions.
Out of the box you get:
- Access to your files using a browser, of course.
- File synchronization to unlimited devices, with a desktop client for Mac & Windows.
- An app to access your files on iOS and Android.
- Share files and folders using links.
- Restore recently deleted files.
- All the storage you can provide is yours to use. 100 GB left on your web host? Why not dump some more files into that Nextcloud instance? You can even use any spare cloud space you have. Amazon, Google, Azure, you name it.
- Server-side file encryption built in.
So basically everything Dropbox has to offer, but on your own server.
You have a few options on how you can host your Nextcloud instance:
- Run it on your own server (shared hosting, spare VM somewhere, whatever).
- Run it on a box in your network which you can access from the internet. Your NAS might do, a Raspberry Pi, an old laptop. Plenty of options.
- Run it at a 3rd party hoster. That’s not going to be free, of course, so unless you really want to move away from Dropbox, you might also upgrade to their paid plan. Then again, you’re not escaping the AI stuff in that case.
You don’t have to worry too much about the minimum requirements if you’re going to be the only user. I’m running it on less than the recommended 512 MB memory, and it works fine.
What will it cost you?
- Some spare time to set things up, and maintain the instance. You’ll have to install updates frequently (for your own safety), but that can be done through the web interface, or by manually copying files from a zip you get from the site. It’s pretty straightforward, and it’s gone smooth every time so far.
- Whatever costs you have to run your own machine or hosting. Might be zero, might be more. Up to you.
Give it a try on a spare machine, or some spare hosting space. See if you like it, copy your files into it and start syncing. You can always go back to Dropbox if you don’t like it. Chances are you won’t though, because it works quite well out of the box, and it has a bunch of extras I’m not even mentioning here (Apps!). Ok, so I did just mention it.
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