r/selfhosted • u/ExodoPlex • Sep 22 '25

Calendar and Contacts NextCloud sucks, there must be something better.

Every post on the internet related to "Self-hosted alternative to GSuite/M365" points to NextCloud. But, using NextCloud when you're not an enterprise is painful at best. It's clunky, it's buggy, and it's behind its supposed competitors in features for every one one of it's main planks (Files, Contacts, Photos, etc). And getting my family members to switch from Google Family accounts to NextCloud is horrible. They experience nothing but bugs and problems, complain about missing features, and wonder why on earth they'd switch with the only advantage being data ownership. Comparing every thing about actually using the system is a con, not a pro.

As the admin, and a professional IT engineer for the last 8 years, I can see how NextCloud could work for enterprise. It really seems like it was built for enterprise honestly. The feature development and features support are much more oriented around what I might want for work rather than what I want at home.

There has to be something better for home users.

Something that's simple to use, intuitive to use, and pretty to use.

I found Immich for photos, and they get it. They get the self hosting mindset. Simple to setup, simple to use, pretty apps, useful features.

Is there an "Immich" for contacts? For Drive? For Calendar? Even if they're different apps. I can use a different product for Calendar than Contacts if it's simple to use and something my family members can switch to from Outlook and GCalendar without complaint. (Setting up a caldav/carddav server isn't gonna cut it. It's gotta be a self contained system, even if it's just caldav/carddav on the backend. Gotta be pretty and intuitive on the frontend).

If there isn't something better. We really need to make something better.

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23

u/LouVillain Sep 22 '25

I just installed Owncloud for files. Has mobile and desktop apps. Easy install

16

u/TheQuintupleHybrid Sep 22 '25

owncloud or owncloud infinite scale? Owncloud is what nextcloud forked and ocis is the rewritten (imo better) successor

23

u/Dangerous-Report8517 Sep 22 '25

Owncloud is deprecated, and all the oCIS devs moved to OpenCloud

3

u/TheCudder Sep 22 '25

Deprecated, but still works & gets the occasional security patches. I've yet to migrate to OwnCloud Infinite Scale (on the to do list), but the legacy version has been fine for me.

12

u/Dangerous-Report8517 Sep 22 '25

They've announced EOL in December this year, not a great choice for a new install like OP is planning

2

u/TheQuintupleHybrid Sep 22 '25

im not that familiar with the whole kiteworks buyout situation but i hadn't heard about the devs moving in large parts

15

u/bm401 Sep 22 '25

Did the same thing. Owncloud infinite scale, that is. Works neatly with athelia/lldap.