For years, I relied on Microsoft’s OneDrive — not for the Office 365 suite, but for its 1TB of cloud storage. It served me well for offsite backups and seamless syncing between my computers and phone. I even used the Personal Vault feature, though more out of curiosity than necessity. Later, I joined a friend’s family plan, making it even more cost-effective.
Nextcloud .. An Alternative?
But despite its convenience, reservations about pushing all my data to a Big Tech company increased. I had heard of NextCloud as a self-hosted alternative, but the idea of managing my own instance with all the risks of a failed update that might cut me off my data kept me from trying it.
Don’t get me wrong: I’m doing quite some #selfhosting already. But NextCloud would be quite essential and thus I didn’t want to be responsible for the robustness that I wanted.
Then I discovered Hetzner’s “Managed nextcloud: cheap cloud storage“—a fully managed NextCloud instance with 1 TB of storage for just €5 per month, billed monthly. No long-term commitment, no self-hosting risk? I decided to give it a try!
A clear upgrade over OneDrive
Right away, I realized this was the better deal. For the same price (or less, depending on your OneDrive plan), you get:
- 1TB of storage – identical to OneDrive’s offering.
- Full NextCloud ecosystem – access to hundreds of apps for productivity, security, and collaboration.
- NextCloud Talk – a built-in video conferencing tool that my friends and I have already tested successfully.
- European servers, no Big Tech – a major plus for privacy and data sovereignty.
Of course, no Word, Excel or Powerpoint — but that’s nothing I miss in my private life. LibreOffice is totally fine for me.
Easy Setup
Since Hetzner’s offering is fully managed, setup is dead easy. No server configuration, no security patches to worry about — just a ready-to-use NextCloud instance.
And after a couple of weeks of playing around with it now, I have decided to fully move over from OneDrive. And once that’s done, I’ll be canceling OneDrive for good.
Try it risk-free
If you’re also reconsidering OneDrive but hesitant about complexity or don’t want to self-administrate, Hetzner’s managed NextCloud is really worth testing. There’s no need to abandon OneDrive immediately — just sign up, explore the features, and migrate only if you’re convinced.
For me, the decision was easy: More control, better privacy, and more functionality that fit’s my needs — all for the same price. If that sounds appealing, give it a shot!
Comments
14 responses to “NextCloud on Hetzner is the OneDrive upgrade I didn’t know I wanted”
@blog There is also the Nextcloud Workspace managed offering (e.g. https://nextcloud.com/blog/nextcloud-workspace-microsoft-365-alternative-by-nextcloud-and-ionos/). I still have to test it, but things look promising.
@blog for sensitive data you can use also @cryptomator with any cloud provider
Ah right, I remember Cryptomator! I tested it … years ago but I had some issues that made me decide against it in the end. But – that#s long ago and my usage might have changed, too. But thanks for bringing it up again. I really had totally forgotten about it.
@blog do this instead – reverse proxy these services then you just use the vps for a connection
Hey, yeah I thought about it, too. But then still I would have to administer the instance. And especially for nextCloud I simply didn’t want to do it. AND it solves my offsite-backup-problem.
But that doesn’t mean that I change my mind in half a year :-D
@blog there is literally nothing to do with administering the instance (after initial setup)- the r proxy puts your data local, boosts privacy and security and you have no quotas or throttling etc. it puts the power back where it belongs with you – if provider flakes out you change one dns setting and back in business
@blog
Just found that Hetzner has servers in the US. Doesn't that mean that under Cloud Act they are required to provide data to US entities?
Hi, referring to the website https://www.hetzner.com/de/storage/storage-share/, the storage servers are hosted in Germany.
@blog I'm not sure that changes things. Or does it?
AFAIK it does. German company hosting data on servers in Germany. My experience so far says I’m safe. But feel free to check!
@blog i would deboost this if i could – you need the bigger picture but overall i approve – it is the right idea just not taken all the way like it should #werks
I would like to move away from Big Tech as well. But I heavily use OneDrive's download-on-demand. I guess you don't? Or is there an alternative with Nextcloud?
Ah my answer is twofold here:
My main files are on my synology NAS and I use the OnDemand files quite heavily.
Yet I do not have any practical experience with the Nextcloud On Demand files. But all I have read so far says: it’s there and it’s working. Here for example https://help.nextcloud.com/t/whats-the-status-of-virtual-drive-in-desktop-client/169964/4
If you rely heavily on it, I’d test thoroughly and/or migrate step wise. But I’d also be curious to know your results as well.
And don’t forget that, at list in Europe, Google & friends are “Data controller” while Hetzner is only a “Data processor” (using the terminology of the GDPR regulation). What they can legally do with your data is completely different.
And if you care also of “bad actor” there is Cryptomator that works super well with NextCloud