Take back control of your data by self hosting!

A repository of projects that we’ve used and tested, that pass muster so to speak. Most of these are fairly easy to moderate difficulty to build yourself, even for non-tech savvy users.

These are all Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) to download, install and use on your own hardware, or in a cloud compute instance. Run these locally on your network, or punch them out securely to the internet for remote access to all of your files.

Nextcloud

Nextcloud offers a self-hosted file storage and sync platform with powerful collaboration capabilities with desktop, mobile and web interfaces. Very popular, rich featured free and open source software for full collaboration, file storage and sharing, video chat, email, pictures, documents and much more. Moderate difficulty to deploy, but works with all platforms desktop and mobile for easily hosting your digital life, and replacing Google, Apple and Microsoft products that abuse our privacy.

Excellent scalability for home use with one or two people on a Raspberry Pi single board computer up through thousands of employees on an enterprise level.

  • Main features/use case:
    • Complete collaboration suite with file sync, sharing, calendars, contacts
    • Office document editing
    • Photo backup and sharing
    • Chat and video calls
  • Hardware requirements:
    • Can run on Raspberry Pi, NAS devices, home servers, VPS
    • Works on Linux, Windows, BSD
    • Minimum 2GB RAM recommended, scales up with usage

OwnCloud

(OwnCloud is a fork of Nextcloud with some differing features)

OwnCloud gives staff an easy, flexible and secure way to share files and folders. Safely involve contacts outside your organization with select documents. Share public links shielded by passwords and expiration dates. Say goodbye to slow VPN connections, unversioned documents attached to emails and shadow IT in public clouds of questionable security. OwnCloud is a real-time content collaboration platform.

  • Main features/use case:
    • File sync and sharing platform
    • Calendar and contact sync
    • Document collaboration (via OnlyOffice/Collabora)
    • File versioning
    • Mobile and desktop sync clients
    • WebDAV support
    • Activity tracking
    • External storage support
    • Simple plugin architecture
    • Focus on simplicity and stability over feature quantity
  • Hardware requirements:
    • Linux server (recommended) but can run on Windows
    • Apache or Nginx web server
    • PHP 7.4+ environment
    • MySQL/MariaDB/PostgreSQL database
    • Minimum 512MB RAM
    • 2GB+ RAM recommended for production
    • Can run on Raspberry Pi
    • Benefits from SSD but not required
    • Lighter resource requirements than Nextcloud

Note: While OwnCloud and Nextcloud share common ancestry, OwnCloud tends to be more focused on core file sharing/sync features, while Nextcloud has expanded into a broader collaboration platform with more integrated features.

FileBrowser

 

File Browser is a create-your-own-cloud-kind of software where you can install it on a server, direct it to a path and then access your files through a nice web interface.

Build your own home private server to host files that you can access and share from anywhere, on the internet, using your own custom domain. Super easy deployment and configuration. FileBrowser is a very basic but extremely useful tool to host any files you need to backup or access from anywhere online. This can be configured to run only on your local network also, if you don’t need online remote access. Extremely simple, easy user interface. You can create separate user logins for as many people as you want, and fine tune their permissions. You can also share files using a link similar to popular online cloud services.

**Try out their demo of FileBrowser here (use the username / password of demo / demo to login)

  • Main features/use case:
    • Simple web-based file manager
    • Basic file sharing and user management
    • Lightweight alternative to full file sync solutions
  • Hardware requirements:
    • Very lightweight – can run on minimal hardware
    • Works on any platform that supports Go
    • Can run on Raspberry Pi or basic VPS
    • <512MB RAM for basic usage

Seafile

Beyond just syncing and sharing files, Seafile lets you add custom file properties and organize your files in different views. With AI-powered automation for generating properties, Seafile offers a smarter, more efficient way to manage your files. Another simple but fairly easy file hosting tool to deploy and use.

  • Main features/use case:
    • File sync and sharing focused
    • High performance for large files
    • Block-level sync
    • Built-in file encryption
  • Hardware requirements:
    • Runs on Linux servers
    • Can work on Raspberry Pi but better on stronger hardware
    • 2GB RAM minimum recommended
    • Benefits from SSD storage

Etesync

Secure, end-to-end encrypted, and privacy respecting sync for your contacts, calendars, tasks and notes. Easy to use and open source – it seamlessly integrates with your existing apps so you won’t even notice you are using it! An excellent free and open source software, available across all platforms. Etesync is moderate difficulty to deploy, easy to use.

  • Main features/use case:
    • End-to-end encrypted sync for contacts, calendars, tasks
    • Focus on security and privacy
    • Not primarily for file storage
  • Hardware requirements:
    • Can run on Raspberry Pi or basic VPS
    • Requires Python environment
    • Light on resources – 1GB RAM sufficient

TrueNAS Core

TrueNAS® CORE (formerly known as FreeNAS®) is the world’s most popular storage OS because it gives you the power to build your own professional-grade storage system to use in a variety of data-intensive applications without any software costs. Simply install it onto hardware or a VM and experience the true storage freedom of open source storage.

A Network Attached Storage (NAS) option for home use, deploy on your own hardware and configure to backup and/or host your files.

  • Main features/use case:
    • Full-featured NAS operating system
    • Focus on data integrity with ZFS
    • Multiple protocols (SMB, NFS, iSCSI)
    • VM and container support
  • Hardware requirements:
    • Needs dedicated hardware
    • Minimum 8GB RAM for ZFS
    • 16GB+ RAM recommended
    • Requires multiple drives for redundancy
    • 64-bit CPU required

OpenMediaVault

OpenMediaVault is the next generation network attached storage (NAS) solution based on Debian Linux. It contains services like SSH, (S)FTP, SMB/CIFS, RSync and many more ready to use. Thanks to the modular design of the framework it can be enhanced via plugins. openmediavault is primarily designed to be used in small offices or home offices, but is not limited to those scenarios. It is a simple and easy to use out-of-the-box solution that will allow everyone to install and administrate a Network Attached Storage without deeper knowledge.

  • Main features/use case:
    • NAS operating system based on Debian
    • File sharing via SMB, NFS, FTP
    • Plugin system for extended functionality
    • Web-based management interface
    • Docker support
  • Hardware requirements:
    • Can run on Raspberry Pi and other ARM devices
    • Minimum 1GB RAM
    • 4GB+ recommended
    • Works on older/lower-end hardware than TrueNAS
    • Single drive okay (no ZFS requirement)

FileRun (not fully open source)

FileRun runs very fast on any hardware: Linux, Windows, VPS, Shared hosting, NAS, etc. Many similar features to Google Drive, but free and open source software.

  • Main features/use case:
    • Personal file management and sharing
    • Strong photo management features
    • Virtual file system support
    • User-friendly interface
    • Built-in media viewer
    • Mobile-friendly design
  • Hardware requirements:
    • Very lightweight
    • Runs on any PHP-capable server
    • 512MB RAM minimum
    • Works well on Raspberry Pi
    • Minimal CPU requirements

Pydio

Pydio Cells is a document sharing and collaboration platform that puts you in full control of your documents in a way Saas solutions can’t – combining fast performance, huge file transfer sizes, granular security, and advanced workflow automations in a single platform. (There are two versions, a FOSS ‘community edition’ and the enterprise version, this is only in reference to the free community edition).

Try a demo of Pydio here (some browers may break this)

Pydio Community

  • Main features/use case:
    • Web-based file sharing and management
    • Basic document preview capabilities
    • User and group management
    • File versioning
    • Public link sharing
    • Plugin system for extensibility
    • WebDAV support
    • Multi-language support
  • Hardware requirements:
    • LAMP/LEMP stack (Apache/Nginx, MySQL/MariaDB, PHP)
    • Minimum 1GB RAM
    • 2GB+ RAM recommended for better performance
    • Works on Linux servers
    • Can run on Raspberry Pi 4
    • Any CPU that can run PHP effectively
    • Works with basic HDD storage

Duplicati

Duplicati is a zero-trust backup from any operating system to any destination that you can manage from anywhere, for secure backups of your data.

  • Main features/use case:
    • Backup solution rather than file sync/sharing
    • Strong encryption for backups
    • Supports multiple backup destinations (cloud services, FTP, SSH, WebDAV, etc.)
    • Incremental backups
    • File versioning
    • Backup scheduling
    • Data deduplication
    • Compression
    • Command line and web interface
    • Email notifications
  • Hardware requirements:
    • Very lightweight
    • Runs on Windows, Linux, macOS
    • Requires Mono/.NET runtime
    • Minimum 512MB RAM
    • 1GB+ RAM recommended
    • Can run on Raspberry Pi
    • Low CPU requirements
    • Minimal local storage needed (depends on backup size)

Kasm Workspaces

Kasm Workspaces is quite a powerful tool for containerization of all sorts of applications. Browsers, apps, and even full desktop instances can be launched in its own container, isolated from everything else. A truly wonderful tool for many uses. Kasm is excellent for OSINT, cyber security testing, safely viewing malware and potentially unwanted applications, the list goes on. You just have to have your own! Kasm Workspaces deploys very quickly and easily using Docker on your own home server, or deploy it in a cloud. Local access only, or punch it out to your own custom domain for remote use anytime from anywhere.

Main features/use case for Kasm Workspaces:

  • Secure VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) via web browser
  • SaaD (Security-as-a-Service) deployment model
  • Team Collaboration and Remote Work
  • Application Isolation for Cybersecurity
  • Multi-tiered role-based access control
  • Composable Docker containers for on-demand workspaces
  • Full desktop or individual applications provision
  • Custom Branding
  • Desktop streaming via HTML5; no additional software or plugins needed
  • Session Sharing and Live Streaming for Collaboration
  • Integrates with popular identity providers via Oauth2 and SAML
  • Supports Secure LDAP for user import and synchronization
  • Hardware requirements:
    • Modern Linux distribution, i.e. Ubuntu 18/20, CentOS 7/8, etc.)
    • Minimum 4GB RAM
    • 2 vCPU or physical CPU cores recommended for production
    • Docker version 17.05 and Kasm Server package
    • Disk space depends on the number and size of applications
    • More robust hardware required for higher number of users
    • SSD is recommended for the best performance.
LibreOffice (Open Document Format) Support for each:

Full Support (through integrated office suites):
– Nextcloud (via Collabora Online or OnlyOffice)
– OwnCloud (via Collabora Online or OnlyOffice)
– Pydio Community (through plugins but limited compared to Nextcloud/OwnCloud)

View-only Support (can preview but not edit):
– FileRun (can preview ODT, ODS, ODP files)
– Seafile (basic preview support)

No Native OpenDocument Support:
– FileBrowser (basic file management only)
– Etesync (not focused on document management)
– TrueNAS Core (storage system only)
– OpenMediaVault (storage system only)

Important Notes:
– For Nextcloud and OwnCloud, the LibreOffice support requires setting up additional components (Collabora Online or OnlyOffice)
– The editing capability isn’t built into the base system but requires additional setup/installation
– Quality and features of document handling vary significantly between platforms
– Some systems might support these formats through additional plugins or external applications

More projects to come! Check back here periodically.

Which way? The bright world of transparency with FOSS? Or proprietary, abusive big tech options?