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ownCloud

ownCloud

Overview

What is ownCloud?

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

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Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

One key use case of ownCloud is its ability to facilitate easy collaboration on documents, solving the problem of exchanging files only …
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Popular Features

View all 13 features
  • Reliability (13)
    9.1
    91%
  • Performance (13)
    8.8
    88%
  • File organization (13)
    8.7
    87%
  • Document collaboration (12)
    7.8
    78%
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Pricing

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Standard

$5

Cloud
per month

Enterprise

$12

Cloud
per month

For Teams

$13

Cloud
per month

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services
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Product Demos

ownCloud Demo (Dropbox alternative) Cloud file sharing with data hosted in Canada

YouTube

demo IBM cloud Object storage with owncloud

YouTube

利用 QNAP NAS 及 ownCloud 打造高彈性檔案同步與共享系統

YouTube

Configuración de Owncloud en Servidor de Hosting Gratuito

YouTube

介紹與基本功能|利用 QNAP NAS 及 ownCloud 打造檔案同步與共享系統

YouTube

OpenTodoList for ownCloud - Early Demo

YouTube
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Features

File Sharing & Management

Features that allow collaborators to view, work on, and organize files.

8.5
Avg 8.4

Cloud Storage Security & Administration

Features related to security and administration for cloud storage platforms

8.5
Avg 8.6

Cloud Storage Platform

Features around the functionality of the cloud storage platform.

8.8
Avg 8.5
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Product Details

What is ownCloud?

ownCloud Technical Details

Deployment TypesSoftware as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo

Frequently Asked Questions

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

Reviewers rate Access control highest, with a score of 9.5.

The most common users of ownCloud are from Small Businesses (1-50 employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(36)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

One key use case of ownCloud is its ability to facilitate easy collaboration on documents, solving the problem of exchanging files only via email. Users in organizations can access and share documents across different departments through the ownCloud desktop sync apps. With virtual users having different main folders that can be shared with groups for read-only or read-write access, teams can collaborate seamlessly within their respective areas of expertise.

Additionally, ownCloud offers a secure and convenient way for users to access files on the go through its mobile app. This feature is especially beneficial for IT contractors and business professionals who need to access business information anywhere with an internet connection, even with limited functionality offline. The software's auto-backup feature also ensures that all company data is securely stored on a remote server, providing peace of mind for businesses.

For small to medium enterprises, ownCloud is considered a great fit due to its enterprise features and ease of setup. It allows businesses to manage file sharing securely with employees, partners, and customers through a private cloud infrastructure based on ownCloud. This makes it ideal for sharing work with clients, providing full control over file usage and the ability to set up individual folders for clients. Moreover, ownCloud provides full control over data, eliminating concerns about information misuse or industrial espionage.

In educational districts and research groups, ownCloud serves as a reliable solution for uploading, managing, and accessing documents across different locations. Its cloud services, file syncing capabilities, and the ability to share large files among team members make it an indispensable tool for collaboration. Additionally, web design companies utilize ownCloud to store and transfer design assets and large files, especially in photography projects. The software's easy sharing of files through sharable links and secure browsing of online pictures make it a versatile solution for various industries.

Personal users also find value in ownCloud due to its storage capacity, offering more space compared to free solutions like Gdrive. They appreciate the ease of file exchange with no password issues and the ability to set expiration dates for shared links. Furthermore, ownCloud serves as an access point for mobile users to connect with the corporate office, ensuring seamless integration of personal and corporate data while enjoying enterprise-level features for personal needs.

In conclusion, ownCloud offers a wide range of use cases across different industries. Whether it's facilitating collaboration within organizations, providing secure access to files on the go, or managing file sharing with clients and partners, ownCloud has proven to be a valuable solution. Its enterprise features, ease of setup, and full control over

High Scalability: Many users have praised ownCloud for its high scalability, with several reviewers mentioning that the software is suitable for businesses of various sizes. This indicates that ownCloud can efficiently handle a large number of users and adapt to different environments.

Cross-Platform Compatibility: Numerous reviewers appreciate ownCloud's sync clients for all major platforms, including Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux, Android, and iOS. This allows users to seamlessly access their files across different devices and operating systems.

User-Friendly Interface: Several users have mentioned that setting up the environment in ownCloud is easy and quick. They found it simple to create user groups, assign folder ownership, and manage user permissions. This suggests that ownCloud offers a user-friendly interface for managing user access and organizing files.

Inefficient Collaborative Editing: Some users have expressed that the collaborative editing feature in ownCloud is not as efficient as other platforms like Office365 or desktop online Office editing. They feel that the integration with Collabora Libreoffice online is still sub-par, impacting their productivity.

Absence of Calendar and Contacts Apps: Several reviewers have mentioned that the absence of Calendar and Contacts apps in the basic core of ownCloud makes it difficult to deploy them in common email clients such as Outlook or Thunderbird. They point out that separate CalDAV and CardDAV plugins need to be installed, adding complexity to the setup process.

Accidental Data Movement: There have been reports from users about accidentally moving important folders or files to another location through random drag-and-drop actions on Windows. This can break public links that cannot be restored, causing inconvenience for both users and recipients of shared content.

Users commonly recommend Owncloud for several reasons. Firstly, they suggest using Owncloud for home cloud storage and file sharing, as well as for companies with a system administrator or programmer with basic Unix skills. Additionally, users appreciate Owncloud's cross-platform compatibility, stability, reliability, and support for various file formats. Another common recommendation is due to the simplicity and ease of use of Owncloud. Users find it simple to set up and navigate, making it suitable for both personal and professional use. Furthermore, Owncloud is often praised for its affordable pricing, good backup services, and bulk file sharing capabilities. Lastly, users highlight Owncloud's secure and low-cost cloud file management. They find its user-friendly interface convenient for file storage and sharing purposes. Many users recommend integrating Owncloud into a company's internal cloud infrastructure to ensure data security. Similarly, freelancers can benefit from Owncloud if they have a reliable server with unlimited storage capacity. While recommending Owncloud, some users also suggest considering Nextcloud as an alternative option. They advise making regular backups and ensuring sufficient space on the web server when using Owncloud. Overall, users recommend Owncloud for its reliability, efficiency, and easy functionality in hosting files on-premises.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-11 of 11)
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João Almeida | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
The most important advantage for our research group is security and access control to our files, which cannot be guaranteed with 3rd party services

The sync client is great and outperforms OneDrive for sure and sometimes even Google Drive depending on the number and size of the files.

If you already have your own home-lab or server room, it's really not expensive to buy a couple hard drives and have TBs of storage. Compared to any other online solution, it's really not expensive.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
The paid cloud services are expensive if you need a lot of data. You're giving your personal and business information to a data-hungry organization. Local NAS solutions are too slow. We run ownCloud on an older business PC and the performance is outstanding, even for remote access, due to local syncing.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
ownCloud is better than Google Drive and Microsoft's OneDrive. I have not used Google Drive in some time now, so it may have improved. OneDrive has become better over time too, but my go-to is still ownCloud. Firstly, I prefer to have my data under my control. No other service can offer the level of control that ownCloud does. Setting that aside, in my experience Google Drive never quite got syncing right. Unless you have a very small collection of files and you're not synced across many devices, Google Drive fails to achieve a complete sync. The icon is always showing that Drive is syncing (and not up to date). I've had similar issues with OneDrive, but these days on Windows 10 OneDrive usually can achieve a complete sync across multiple devices, but it often hogs CPU and Network resources to do so, and it's still slower than OneDrive.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Dropbox Business, Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service), Google Drive and FreeNAS
I have a very similar experience between Google Drive and Dropbox. Both offer real-time sharing and collaboration. Google Drive limits external access and requires the recipient of shared files to have a Google account. In the case of both Dropbox and GoogleDrive, they limit the amount of storage on the free plan. OwnCloud offers as much storage as my server will allow, and this can be increased as needed. Right now, I have 2TB of storage without the cost or subscription.
FreeNAS is great as far as storing files and sharing the files locally on the network. It is possible to share files through FreeNAS as well, but there really isn't much in the way of collaboration. So while storage is great, working as a team is not really possible.
Amazon S3 is great for reliable and secure data storage. But, by itself, it isn't great for collaboration either. And there is substantial cost involved with large amounts of data storage. The AWS S3 power is truly unlocked when paired with ownCloud-- then it's like magic!
Marc-Olivier Turgeon-Ferland | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
The sync client is great and outperforms OneDrive for sure and sometimes even Google Drive depending on the number and size of the files.

If you already have your own home-lab or server room, it's really not expensive to buy a couple hard drives and have TBs of storage. Compared to any other online solution, it's really not expensive.
Tommy Boucher | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
ownCloud is one of the only self-hosted solutions worth it. It is open source and free, meaning that anyone with a Linux VM or an old laptop can host its own feature-rich cloud server. Many all-in-one firewalls will mix OwnCloud and CrashPlan, joining document management and backup. I backup my ownCloud using CrashPlan to my dad's computer so I can restore files in case of a crash.
Ignacio Gilart | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
ResellerIncentivized
I have used several products based on public (DropBox, Google Drive, Microsoft Drive, etc) and private cloud (Citrix). Most of them work on public cloud space so they could present problems with compliance. Also, it is usually difficult to protect the information contained in this environments. On the other hand, enterprise features are usually included in enterprise versions. The on-premise solutions as Citrix are very expensive when you have hundreds or thousands of users.
Martin Malec | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Due to the need to support many external workers it was mainly cost effectivity of open source solution: ability to allow external workers to access company files without the need to pay a license for each of them every month. Unfortunately, ownCloud does not offer until now as good collaborative editing of typical office documents so now we are complementing ownCloud with Office365 but for several months very little has been migrated and the vast majority of documents and projects is still on ownCloud.
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