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ownCloud is a self-hosted open source file syncing and sharing option, from the Boston-based company of the same name.https://dudodiprj2sv7.cloudfront.net/product-logos/Dm/Km/3WV1CJIRRQP9.PNGEnterprise features on the cheapI use it to store my personal files as the free solutions (Gdrive and such) do not offer enough storage. We do not use it inside the organization but I think ownCloud would be a great fit for small to medium enterprise as it offers enterprise features and it's really simple to set up and operates. Of course, the main problem is that you need to host it but there is a lot of cloud-hosted instances of ownCloud that can be worth it IMO.,Great sync apps on Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS. (was even better then gDrive client for a while but they caught up) A lot of Security features including End-to-End encryption, server-side encryption Control on where your data is stored Plugin marketplace allows for unlimited features Incomparable transfer speed if hosted locally Always has the latest feature because it's open source Expiration date/timer on sharing (either to someone directly or on links),Requires you to manage the infrastructure, software updates, backups and security because it is self-hosted The picture viewer in ownCloud is not really snappy by default (You need to setup plugins or some kind of cache) No video viewer by default The web UI requires a cache setup to have reasonable load times (to be fair, it is recommended in the admin page) I stopped using the calendar and contacts plugins because after each update they would break,8,Software is free so if you are going for a hosted solution anyway, it's hard to beat One of the easiest way to make sure your data is secured without compromising on features You need to manage the infrastructure and software,Google Drive and OneDrive,Hyper-V, Altaro Hyper-V Backup, Arcserve Backup, FreeNAS, SysAidEnterprise grade cloud document platform, accessible!I use OwnCloud for my personal documents. I want to keep my data and the corporate data on a separate system since there is no reason to use expensive corporate resources for my own. With OwnCloud, I have the exact same enterprise level feature that we have with the corporate system but for my own personal needs. I share documents and folders with my friends and family, browse my online pictures, listen to music, edit documents, in a very secure manner.,Many plugins, for video, audio, documents, integrations, etc. Very secure, including end-user file encryption. Open, I can federate with my friends' OwnCloud and share/backup documents.,You host your own data, maybe it's better to use an hosted version of OwnCloud to keep the files at a different location. The WebUI can be very slow sometimes.,9,Since I don't use corporate space for my own data, I spare very expensive gigs of data! Because it's open source and self hosted, I can have an enterprise grade cloud for free. Slow Internet means slow performance. If you host your OwnCloud on a slow connectivity, you will have a lot of issues, and it can cost way more than a hosted version.,Dropbox for Business, Google Drive, OneDrive and CrashPlan,Hyper-V, Altaro Hyper-V Backup, Arcserve BackupOwnCloud Storage...is it worth it?As a web design company, we work with several clients and use OwnCloud to store and transfer design assets and large files. We use lots of photography and OwnCloud has the capacity to store these files for safe keeping.,OwnCloud has a nice filing system where users can create lots of different folders and subfolders to help keep things organized. OwnCloud has lots of space depending on your plan and it's great for holding files and storing things you wouldn't want to take up space on your desktop or an external hard drive.,The more files OwnCloud has, the slower it seems to be. Viewing files inside OwnCloud can be really cumbersome and I have found other tools to be much more user friendly in finding what I'm looking for. Viewing photography assets stored in OwnCloud is extremely slow and not as helpful as something like Google Drive or even DropBox would be.,4,Owncloud stores files for us and keeps documents safe in a cloud based environment. It takes a long time to use when it comes to finding documents or downloading, so it slows me down.,Google Drive and Dropbox,Hotjar, SEMRush, MozEasy to use and upload documentsOwnCloud is used as a way to upload, managed, and access documents across the district, especially when we are not in the same building. It is used across our organization and also used in our department.,Easy to upload and download documents Easy and efficient to use Easy to organize,I haven’t come across many issues.,9,Positive in that it provides and easy and quick way to view and share documents,,Google Drive, SurveyMonkeyownCloud is a reasonable document management solution for SMBWe use it in the whole organization as the main document server. All employees including the management have the ownCloud desktop sync apps installed. Virtual users own different main folders (e.g. SALES, FINANCE etc.) and these are shared to groups read-only, read-write. Each user gets, therefore, a different set of folders according to the needs of each employee etc. Some people use it on a mobile, too. It solves the key problem the company had when I joined it and no document server/cloud storage was present: each of the at-the-time few employees had its own set of files and folders and data were exchanged only via emails. Another important aspect is auto-backup of all company data to remote server. Easier collaboration on documents is also important.,Runs fine on a inexpensive Linux VPS with a few CPU cores and little RAM and is able to serve well for dozens of users. The scalability at almost no extra cost is perfect. Sync clients are available for all major platforms: MS Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux, and mobile apps on Android and iOS are available too and work very well. We use all these platforms and are able to exchange documents transparently. Initial setting up the environment for users - such as creating a few user groups, virtual users owning particular folders and assigning users to these groups, is quite easy and quick. Auto-sync of data to local devices on all platforms is also perfect, users don't have to manually select anything, default is to sync (or admin can set on the desktop clients how big folders are auto-synced).,Inability to easily collaboratively edit the same document by several people. Some advances have been made with Collabora (Libreoffice online) but it is still very sub-par compared to Office365 and desktop/online Office editing Sharepoint or OneDrive documents. Apps for Calendar and Contacts are not part of the basic core, and although now quite supported they cannot still be easily deployed in common email clients such as Outlook or Thunderbird, separate CalDAV and CardDAV plugins need to be installed. Embedding an email solution and plugins for major email clients so they can work just by entering username and password would be good. Risk of moving important folders/files to another location just by random drag-and-drop on Windows. Sometimes this breaks public links that cannot be restored anymore. Reverting such mistake by any of the users is impossible automatically. When some user deletes some data in a shared folder it is put into recycle bin of the owner of the folder. The user who deleted cannot himself/herself revert such action as he/she does not see the recycle bin (trash) of the owner. Also, there is no log in the recycle bin who deleted that file or folder.,8,The company grew from 4 employees in 2013 when ownCloud was initially deployed to about 40 in 2017 and still using it with a very similar setting without any major upgrade on the same Linux VPS. 95% of all company data are stored and shared via ownCloud successfully. No clear data about ROI but clearly the perfect adoption rate by all people and its ubiquitous use makes it an essential part of the company workflow.,Office365 and MS SharePoint,LibreOffice, Slack, Trello, Microsoft Office 365, Adobe Illustrator CC,No,7,Yes,When a user unshares a shared folder shared not to him exclusively but to a whole group of users, there is no way how this user nor admin can restore this shared folder to this user. Only a direct database modification can restore such action. We would not be able to know which fields in which tables and which commands in the SQL could achieve that. Fortunately, we received a direct guide from the devs what queries to perform and what modifications to do in specific fields of the db to overcome this issue.
  3. ownCloud Reviews
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ownCloud
27 Ratings
Score 7.9 out of 101
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ownCloud Reviews

ownCloud
27 Ratings
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Score 7.9 out of 101
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Reviews (1-9 of 9)

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Marc-Olivier Turgeon-Ferland profile photo
January 07, 2019

ownCloud Review: "Enterprise features on the cheap"

Marc-Olivier Turgeon-Ferland
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
I use it to store my personal files as the free solutions (Gdrive and such) do not offer enough storage.

We do not use it inside the organization but I think ownCloud would be a great fit for small to medium enterprise as it offers enterprise features and it's really simple to set up and operates. Of course, the main problem is that you need to host it but there is a lot of cloud-hosted instances of ownCloud that can be worth it IMO.
  • Great sync apps on Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS. (was even better then gDrive client for a while but they caught up)
  • A lot of Security features including End-to-End encryption, server-side encryption
  • Control on where your data is stored
  • Plugin marketplace allows for unlimited features
  • Incomparable transfer speed if hosted locally
  • Always has the latest feature because it's open source
  • Expiration date/timer on sharing (either to someone directly or on links)
  • Requires you to manage the infrastructure, software updates, backups and security because it is self-hosted
  • The picture viewer in ownCloud is not really snappy by default (You need to setup plugins or some kind of cache)
  • No video viewer by default
  • The web UI requires a cache setup to have reasonable load times (to be fair, it is recommended in the admin page)
  • I stopped using the calendar and contacts plugins because after each update they would break
OwnCloud is a great replacement to local SMB shares, in my opinion. It supports Webdav and it can be easily and safely published on the internet for remote access to the data without VPN. OwnCloud would also be great for a small to medium enterprise that can't afford the real enterprise alternatives, need way too much storage or need/want to control where their data is stored. I don't think ownCloud is well suited for big enterprises unless you really need to control/secure your data. I feel it would need a lot of investment to scale on a large user and data scale and stay responsive.
Read Marc-Olivier Turgeon-Ferland's full review
Tommy Boucher profile photo
December 28, 2018

ownCloud Review: "Enterprise grade cloud document platform, accessible!"

Tommy Boucher
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
I use OwnCloud for my personal documents. I want to keep my data and the corporate data on a separate system since there is no reason to use expensive corporate resources for my own.

With OwnCloud, I have the exact same enterprise level feature that we have with the corporate system but for my own personal needs.

I share documents and folders with my friends and family, browse my online pictures, listen to music, edit documents, in a very secure manner.
  • Many plugins, for video, audio, documents, integrations, etc.
  • Very secure, including end-user file encryption.
  • Open, I can federate with my friends' OwnCloud and share/backup documents.
  • You host your own data, maybe it's better to use an hosted version of OwnCloud to keep the files at a different location.
  • The WebUI can be very slow sometimes.
If you want to keep control of your files, for yourself or for your company, OwnCloud is the self-hosted cloud for you. There is no real competition when it's time for self-hosting. If you are looking for a hosted version, be sure to compare with the big players like Dropbox, Google and Microsoft. It's cheap, highly available, and secure.
Read Tommy Boucher's full review
No photo available
December 18, 2018

User Review: "OwnCloud Storage...is it worth it?"

Verified User
Score 4 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
As a web design company, we work with several clients and use OwnCloud to store and transfer design assets and large files. We use lots of photography and OwnCloud has the capacity to store these files for safe keeping.
  • OwnCloud has a nice filing system where users can create lots of different folders and subfolders to help keep things organized.
  • OwnCloud has lots of space depending on your plan and it's great for holding files and storing things you wouldn't want to take up space on your desktop or an external hard drive.
  • The more files OwnCloud has, the slower it seems to be. Viewing files inside OwnCloud can be really cumbersome and I have found other tools to be much more user friendly in finding what I'm looking for.
  • Viewing photography assets stored in OwnCloud is extremely slow and not as helpful as something like Google Drive or even Dropbox would be.
It's well suited if you are storing lots of files for a project and want to keep things organized by multiple projects. It's also nice because you can package up links and send them to clients without them having to have an account.
Read this authenticated review
Nicole Nixon profile photo
April 27, 2018

ownCloud Review: "Easy to use and upload documents"

Nicole Nixon
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
OwnCloud is used as a way to upload, managed, and access documents across the district, especially when we are not in the same building. It is used across our organization and also used in our department.
  • Easy to upload and download documents
  • Easy and efficient to use
  • Easy to organize
  • I haven’t come across many issues.
I have a giant Excel spreadsheet and a Notebook document I use to upload for someone else to look at. They are able to download and look at it as if we were sharing the same screen. I appreciate being able to upload large documents and not having to send it through an email in a compressed or Zip file.
Read Nicole Nixon's full review
Martin Malec profile photo
December 18, 2017

Review: "ownCloud is a reasonable document management solution for SMB"

Martin Malec
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
We use it in the whole organization as the main document server. All employees including the management have the ownCloud desktop sync apps installed. Virtual users own different main folders (e.g. SALES, FINANCE etc.) and these are shared to groups read-only, read-write. Each user gets, therefore, a different set of folders according to the needs of each employee etc. Some people use it on a mobile, too.

It solves the key problem the company had when I joined it and no document server/cloud storage was present: each of the at-the-time few employees had its own set of files and folders and data were exchanged only via emails. Another important aspect is auto-backup of all company data to remote server. Easier collaboration on documents is also important.
  • Runs fine on a inexpensive Linux VPS with a few CPU cores and little RAM and is able to serve well for dozens of users. The scalability at almost no extra cost is perfect.
  • Sync clients are available for all major platforms: MS Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux, and mobile apps on Android and iOS are available too and work very well. We use all these platforms and are able to exchange documents transparently.
  • Initial setting up the environment for users - such as creating a few user groups, virtual users owning particular folders and assigning users to these groups, is quite easy and quick. Auto-sync of data to local devices on all platforms is also perfect, users don't have to manually select anything, default is to sync (or admin can set on the desktop clients how big folders are auto-synced).
  • Inability to easily collaboratively edit the same document by several people. Some advances have been made with Collabora (LibreOffice online) but it is still very sub-par compared to Office365 and desktop/online Office editing Sharepoint or OneDrive documents.
  • Apps for Calendar and Contacts are not part of the basic core, and although now quite supported they cannot still be easily deployed in common email clients such as Outlook or Thunderbird, separate CalDAV and CardDAV plugins need to be installed. Embedding an email solution and plugins for major email clients so they can work just by entering username and password would be good.
  • Risk of moving important folders/files to another location just by random drag-and-drop on Windows. Sometimes this breaks public links that cannot be restored anymore. Reverting such mistake by any of the users is impossible automatically.
  • When some user deletes some data in a shared folder it is put into recycle bin of the owner of the folder. The user who deleted cannot himself/herself revert such action as he/she does not see the recycle bin (trash) of the owner. Also, there is no log in the recycle bin who deleted that file or folder.
Perfect for a smaller company having no solid document server. Without any major costs you can go from 3 to 30 to 60 users with the same hardware or VPS and if self-managed, no payment per user per month. Less appropriate when users absolutely require collaborative editing of documents. Pick Office365 or G Suite (Google Documents for work) instead.
Read Martin Malec's full review
Ignacio Gilart profile photo
January 19, 2018

Review: "ownCloud, the open source EFSS (Enterprise File Sync & Share) alternative"

Ignacio Gilart
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Reseller
Review Source
We use ownCloud across the whole organization. We manage file sharing in a secure way with employees, partners, and customers through our private cloud infrastructure. We have implemented our own ownCloud Solution based on an appliances format, so we can deploy ownCloud in a few minutes with enhanced features developed by ourselves. The information from several sources is replicated to the exact folder of ownCloud so it is available in real time by the suitable people with the suitable permissions.
  • Easy to deploy
  • Easy to manage
  • Cost-effective
I believe that ownCloud is suitable for any kind of company for normal file synchronization and file sharing. It is less recommended for companies that use very large files based on images.
Read Ignacio Gilart's full review
Joe Ciavucco profile photo
December 06, 2017

ownCloud Review: "Fantastic software for design agencies!"

Joe Ciavucco
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
We use OwnCloud to share work with clients. Before this we were using WeTransfer, but the issue is you can't go back and look at files.

Using OwnCloud meant we could host the files on our own server, therefore having full control over the usage, and then we could just simply set up users for clients and then files are just shared in their own folder within OwnCloud.

Owncloud also allows sharable links, so clients can easily send downloads to us through there.
  • File Sharing - getting sharable URL of a file for quick access
  • Users - we can make clients their own accounts so they can store their own files
  • Security - Its really nice knowing the files are hosted on our server, as we know it's secure!
  • I think the UI is a little outdated now
  • The usage on our server seemed quite large compared to others
  • I think adding a built in file editor would be super useful
It's perfectly suited for agencies, where customers and clients are constantly sharing files with each other. Owncloud allows for this, and it's really easy to go back and see what files were shared and when! Having an archive is really useful as we don't have to go back to the client and request it again!
Read Joe Ciavucco's full review
No photo available
March 31, 2017

User Review: "ownCloud above is above all others"

Verified User
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
ownCloud is currently used as an access point for mobile users to connect with the corporate office.
  • Fast access times
  • Easily managed
  • Scalability
  • Newest releases not supported in updated Ubuntu servers
  • Major issues connecting with Windows server shares on any version past 8.1
  • Unreliable admin user password resets
Easy to setup and maintain on linux systems but lacks usability if used in a Windows server environment when SMB shares need to be mapped.
Read this authenticated review
No photo available
February 01, 2016

User Review: "OwnCloud Efficient and Reliable"

Verified User
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
We use ownCloud to share docs within the organization as well as with outside vendors and consultants. It addresses the problem of sending larger docs to other team members in a way that is easy to access and download.
  • Ability to share docs with others. You can email a link, and share with people outside the company.
  • Share directly to another person's account within the company.
  • Creating folders of docs and ability to share is helpful.
  • It would be VERY helpful if there were a way to share videos without the other person having to download them.
  • It would be nice if a person can view docs without having to download them.
ownCloud is well suited for a company that needs to share many docs with one another.
Read this authenticated review

ownCloud Scorecard Summary

Likelihood to Recommend (27)
7.9
Support (1)
6.4

Feature Scorecard Summary

Versioning (6)
7.6
Video files (5)
6.3
Audio files (5)
6.3
Document collaboration (8)
7.1
Access control (8)
9.1
File search (8)
7.0
Device sync (8)
8.9
User and role management (8)
7.7
File organization (9)
8.5
Device management (6)
6.2
Performance (9)
5.4
Reliability (9)
7.0
Storage Reports (6)
7.5

About ownCloud

ownCloud is a self-hosted open source file syncing and sharing option, from the Boston-based company of the same name.
Categories:  Cloud Storage

ownCloud Technical Details

Operating Systems: Unspecified
Mobile Application:No