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One key use case of ownCloud is its ability to facilitate easy collaboration on documents, solving the problem of exchanging files only …
Starting at $5 per month
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What is ownCloud?
ownCloud is a self-hosted open source file syncing and sharing option, from the Boston-based company of the same name.
Recent Reviews
Popular Features
- Reliability (13)9.191%
- Performance (13)8.888%
- File organization (13)8.787%
- Document collaboration (12)7.878%
Pricing
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
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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What is ownCloud?
ownCloud Technical Details
| Deployment Types | Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based |
|---|---|
| Operating Systems | Unspecified |
| Mobile Application | No |
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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(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!
- Business Problems Solved
- Pros
- Cons
- Recommendations
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
(1-4 of 4)Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
August 27, 2019
The ideal tool for sharing files across your team!
In our research group, we used ownCloud for cloud services such as file syncing as well as file sharing—even large files—with others members of the team. It allows us to store files and share them among different people and have our own individual folders. We don't need to worry about forgetting files, because we can always reach out over the net to retrieve them.
- Open plaform, one can federate with others' OwnCloud and share files.
- Easy to upload and download documents.
- Scalable and lightweight solution for cloud storing.
- The Web user interface can be a little be slow sometimes.
- No online video viewer by default.
- No online document editor.
84.28571428571429%
8.4
80%
8.0
86.66666666666666%
8.7
- Maintenance is very simple for Linux developers.
- Enhanced organization and increased productivity.
- It is a suitable option for institutions that pay cloud hosting and that can this way save money every month.
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.
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.
We use ownCloud in the export department of the organization to exchange files with our customers. Some users use it for their personal cloud to work from with all their files and media 100% in the cloud. It solves quick and painless file exchange with no password issues. The links can be set to expire after a certain time.
All data is on our own servers, we don't have to be afraid of misuse of our information/industrial espionage, etc. we are 100% in control of our own data.
All data is on our own servers, we don't have to be afraid of misuse of our information/industrial espionage, etc. we are 100% in control of our own data.
- 100% of our data is stored ONLY on our servers and workstation. No external hosting anywhere.
- Open source, no recurring fees for any amount of data we need.
- Feature rich browser based application.
- Mature desktop sync client for PC and Mac.
- The iOS app is sometimes slow or hangs
- The sync conflicts are displayed in detail in the client application, but you have to resolve manually
94.28571428571429%
9.4
90%
9.0
96.66666666666666%
9.7
- We had to invest some time to set up the Linux server and get the solution up and running. Maintenance is close to zero.
- We benefited from this setup as we can use the Linux server (lamp stack) for our internal web development and intranet as well.
- We cancelled our paid cloud hosting and are saving money every month.
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.
July 05, 2019
A Great DIY or Managed Cloud Service
I currently use ownCloud for cloud services such as file syncing, centralized calendar and contacts, as well as file sharing—even large files—with others. As an IT contractor, ownCloud has been great for enabling my access to business information anywhere I have access to the Internet (with limited functionality offline as well). I'm able to use my mobile device so I can schedule events that appear on my phone's calendar, as well as on my desktop/laptop machines. I don't need to worry about forgetting files, because I can always reach out over the net to retrieve them. If I save files on my laptop while with a client, I can access them on my office computer effortlessly. ownCloud is an elegant solution for much of my vital digital resources.
- File Synchronization
- Synchronized Contacts
- Synchronized Calendar
- File Sharing
- Online Document Editor (new feature)
- Web Media Player (new feature)
71.42857142857143%
7.1
56.66666666666667%
5.7
83.33333333333334%
8.3
- Increased Productivity
- Better Customer Service
- Enhanced Organization
- Google Drive and OneDrive
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.
I own a computer service and support company, and I also own a Photography business. OwnCloud -- now NextCloud -- has been an indispensable suite of applications that has allowed me to continue to serve my customers on both business fronts, and has allowed me to grow my business by being able to offer real-time sync and file shares as needed. I absolutely love ownCloud, and am very grateful that this project exists.
OwnCloud has enabled me to increase my services and my offerings, therefore increasing my bottom line without substantial cost increases and without monthly subscription charges. In my opinion, there are more features and more value in ownCloud than there are on paid cloud storage/collaboration platforms.
OwnCloud has enabled me to increase my services and my offerings, therefore increasing my bottom line without substantial cost increases and without monthly subscription charges. In my opinion, there are more features and more value in ownCloud than there are on paid cloud storage/collaboration platforms.
- Attention and dedication to making the product a world class product with continual product updates.
- Ease of use from an administration standpoint, and a very Clear UI.
- The price -- you can't beat free!
- Mobile applications are great.
- Integration with public S3 cloud providers like AWS S3 and Wasabi S3.
- 2FA authentication is supported and works great!
- Marketplace Add-Ons: I love this! For example, I can install an add-on that natively opens raw images. I am a photographer as well, and being able to quickly view the CR2 Raw Files direct from the camera is fantastic! This was made possible by a marketplace add-in.
- Embedded Media Players: Photos, Music, and Video files can be viewed and played right in the browser window.
- Sync application to keep local files on a computer updated with the files on the server.
- Access control and permissions -- shareable links!
- Backup and redundancy -- I wish there was a method right in the interface to completely back up the entire system. I use it on a VM, so I can snapshot and backup the VM, but there is nothing directly in the ownCloud interface to be able to do.
- Docker/Container/MVM Function. I would love to see ownCloud natively support docker or virtualizations where it could host and spin up a VM or run containerized applications.
100%
10.0
100%
10.0
100%
10.0
- The ability to offer more services and faster delivery of files -- this has given me the ability to sell my photography, as well as to provide a secure and easy way to share files. This results in a higher bottom line.
- Cost Effective -- ownCloud is free, and therefore is not costing me a bunch of money each month to offer file sharing and collaboration services.
- It runs on my own equipment -- I know the data is safe, and can use this as a selling point when bidding on a job.
- 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!
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!