I currently have the following services which I’d like to migrate elsewhere:
OneDrive
Google Drive
Google Photos (some photos doubled in OneDrive, too, but I will just delete those)
Bitwarden (potenitally)
Google Calendar (but may use the calendar at Mailbox.org)
I keep searching for solutions and I keep coming back to Nextcloud. On the one hand, it seems like it’s too big and too complex (even Nextcloud’s website defaults to business version and talks about collaboration), but on the other hand it seems modular and has all I need (Files + Virtual Files, Photos / Memories, Calendar and more).
I may one day want to self-host at home, but this is not the day yet, especially with the ridiculous storage prices. I think I’d rather go the cloud route first, but would like to have an option of switching to another provider or taking everything home.
I understand that with a VPS that’s a no-brainer because it’s essentially a rented virtualized server. But what about the Storage Share? What is easy to take out and what is difficult to take out? I guess files and photos would be as easy as downloading them to my machine (for example via SFTP, rsync, etc. – I’m on Linux). What about Calendar, if I used that? CalDAV, I guess, and sync to another calendar?
On one hand, using the VPS is a good learning experience, but also more prone to errors on my part. But I am not limited to only Nextcloud, I can spin up other services (for example Immich or even Vaultwarden), especially if I use Docker containers. But VPS will be more expensive, especially if I keep adding services.
Managed Nextcloud is easy to set up and there’s virtually no maintenance apart from installing some apps and managing my data. But I am limited to only what Hetzner offers and it may be troublesome to move away.
What am I missing?
Managed Nextcloud is definitely easier than hosting it your own. I bet they also have the hardware to guarantee good performance. With any luck Hetzner also offers AI features like face recognition and automated tagging.
But don’t go in there expecting a fully fledged Google Photos alternative. Even when Memories is much better than Nextcloud’s own Photos, it lacks many essential features like easy filtering of your collection. You basically have to sort your photos yourself.
Unless Hetzner offer something on top of Nextcloud file sync is done via Webdav, not sftp or rsync. But basically every OS has Webdav clients.
Calendar and Contacts are also synced via DAV. CalDAV and CardDAV. Works well for me on Android with DAVx⁵.
If I go with the VPS option I’d like to host Immich instead. But it seems to be hungry for memory, especially with the ML features enabled.