ownCloud — An open-source, self-hostable file sync, share, and collaboration platform, with a free Community edition and paid Enterprise and hosted tiers.
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ownCloud in 20 seconds
Best for: organizations that want a self-hosted or EU-hosted open-source alternative to Dropbox or Google Drive
Pricing: Free Community edition (self-hosted, unlimited users); Standard and Enterprise require 25+ users at custom quoted pricing.
- ownCloud's Community edition is free, open source, self-hosted, and supports unlimited users.
- ownCloud Standard and Enterprise editions require a minimum of 25 users on an annual contract at custom-quoted pricing.
- ownCloud.online (hosted SaaS) is based in Germany, with volume/educational pricing starting around €1.85/user/year.
- ownCloud is used by roughly 200 million people across on-premises, hybrid, and SaaS deployments.
- ownCloud holds a 4.3/5 rating from 60 reviews on Capterra.
Limitations: Standard and Enterprise pricing is not published and requires a sales quote.; Free Community edition support is limited to community forums, no SLA.; Two parallel architectures (ownCloud 10 and Infinite Scale) complicate deployment choice.
Top alternatives: Nextcloud, Syncthing, Dropbox, Google Drive, Seafile — full list
What is ownCloud?
ownCloud is an open-source platform for file synchronization, sharing, and content collaboration that organizations can self-host on their own infrastructure or run as a hosted SaaS product. It gives administrators full control over where data lives, which is the core pitch against cloud-only providers like Dropbox or Google Drive. ownCloud ships two architectural generations: the legacy ownCloud 10 codebase, and ownCloud Infinite Scale (oCIS), a ground-up rewrite that splits storage, backend, and frontend into separate services for real-time collaborative editing and better horizontal scaling. The Community edition is free, open source, and self-hosted with no user limit; Standard and Enterprise editions add support SLAs, advanced security, and branding for organizations with 25 or more users, billed annually at custom-quoted prices. ownCloud.online offers the same platform as managed SaaS hosted in Germany for teams that don't want to run their own servers.
ownCloud is an open-source file synchronization, sharing, and content-collaboration platform, now owned by Kiteworks, used by roughly 200 million people across on-premises, hybrid, and SaaS deployments. The free Community edition is self-hosted, open source, and supports unlimited users with community-forum support only; paid Standard and Enterprise editions require a minimum of 25 users on an annual contract and add 9x5 or 12x5 email/phone support, advanced security controls, and custom branding at custom quoted pricing. ownCloud also sells ownCloud.online, a Germany-hosted SaaS option for organizations that want managed hosting without running their own infrastructure, alongside volume and educational pricing starting around €1.85/user/year for large deployments. Its current architecture, ownCloud Infinite Scale (oCIS), is a rewritten three-tier system separating storage, backend, and frontend for real-time collaboration, distinct from the older ownCloud 10 codebase still in use at some deployments.
Standout feature: Fully self-hostable file sync and collaboration with an open-source Community edition that has no user limit, plus a rewritten Infinite Scale (oCIS) architecture for real-time collaborative editing at scale.
Biggest weakness: Paid Standard and Enterprise editions require a 25-user minimum and custom quoted pricing with no published rate card, and the transition between the legacy ownCloud 10 codebase and the newer Infinite Scale architecture means some deployments run on an older, less actively developed base.
Pros
- Community edition is free, open source, and self-hostable with no user limit.
- Full desktop and mobile client coverage: Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android.
- ownCloud.online offers Germany-hosted SaaS for teams that don't want to self-host.
- Infinite Scale (oCIS) architecture supports real-time collaborative document editing.
Cons
- Standard and Enterprise pricing is not published; both require a 25-user minimum and a sales quote.
- Support on the free Community edition is limited to community forums, with no SLA.
- Two parallel architectures (legacy ownCloud 10 and newer Infinite Scale) can make choosing a deployment path confusing.
- Self-hosting requires ongoing server maintenance and security patching that a fully managed cloud service doesn't.
ownCloud pricing
Free · verified from the vendor's pricing page
| Plan | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Community | Free | Free, open source, self-hosted; unlimited users, community-forum support only. |
| Standard | Custom | On-premises, 25-user minimum, annual billing; adds 9x5 email support with a 2-hour reaction time and customer portal access. Custom pricing. |
| Enterprise | Custom | On-premises or hosted, 25-user minimum; adds 12x5 email/phone support with a 2-hour reaction time, custom branding, and a 30-day free trial. Custom pricing. |
| ownCloud.online (hosted) | Custom | Managed SaaS hosted in Germany; single-user plans with 500GB storage, team plans from 5 users with 1TB base storage plus 200GB per additional user. Volume/educational pricing starts around €1.85/user/year for large deployments. |
What reviewers say
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