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?
I’ve found Nextcloud to be fantastic, its why I started self hosting.
Ive run Nextcloud on a Pi4B with 4GB ram & external HDD with just one user. I also sync Joplin notes, which I use constantly. Additionally used Collabora Office on the phone for syncing office docs. i was happy with this set up for a long time, had no issues really, synced between a couple of desktops & a phone.
Eventually treated myself to a Pi5 8GB ram with NVMe & an Argon fanless case. Main reason for upgrade was an additional Nextcloud need - to share holiday/trip/event photos with multiple non tech savvy older family members via the Memories plug in. This set up has been absolutely rock solid, absolutely no issues & for my needs has been blazing fast. Memories is great too for quick & easy sharing whilst away. The family members love it (Nextcloud is exposed behind Nginx Proxy Manager, I send them a read only public link for Memories)
As they are quite intensive I recently migrated Immich & Paperless from Pi4B 4GB to a Beelink EQ14 but I see no reason at all to migrate Nextcloud from the Pi5.