Nextcloud is the do-everything Microsoft Office alternative that beats all the open-source options

Published Aug 21, 2026, 8:30 AM EDT Aggy is a veteran writer and editor in the technology and gaming space. Having served as a Managing Editor for high-traffic digital publications, alongside being an editor and consultant for over a dozen sites. Aggy's published work spans a wide and respected array of tech and gaming outlets, including WePC, Screen Rant, How-To Geek, Android Police, PC Invasion, and Try Hard Guides. Beyond editorial work, Aggy's direct experience in the tech sphere extends to app development. Aggy has published two games under Tales and is always eager to learn and do more. He also likes working on computers and researching in his spare time. He knows about Windows, Linux, Audio, Video, and much more. Most people who switch away from Microsoft 365 end up trading one subscription for a pile of disconnected free tools. Nextcloud is actually so much better than that. Nextcloud replaces many services and apps, like file storage, document editing, video calls, shared calendars, project boards, and a lot more under your control. Nextcloud gives you complete control of your workspace You will need a few steps to get started If you've never used Nextcloud before, the idea that it is better than Microsoft Office sounds silly. This is still true if you have used it before, because you have to know how to use it to get it at that level. How you deploy Nextcloud shapes everything about who's responsible for it and where your data actually goes. If you can't take on everything, then you're mostly stuck with defaults that tend not to be as good. A lot of people use Nextcloud's All-in-One (AIO) setup to make this more manageable. AIO runs on Docker, where a single master container oversees everything else. So your file storage, the database, caching, backups, and so on are all directed by AIO. It handles updates automatically and has solid backup support built in, but you still need to understand containers, reverse proxies, port forwarding, and how to size your hardware properly. You pick a plan, click a button, answer a few basic questions, and the whole thing gets built for you. It's kind of like setting up a WordPress site or a smart home hub without ever touching the code underneath. Once you've got AIO running, log into the admin panel and go to the "Apps" section. From there, install either ONLYOFFICE or Collabora Online. AIO has both as optional containers you can toggle on right from the dashboard, so there's nothing extra to set up. If your team mostly works with Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files, ONLYOFFICE will feel the most natural and tends to handle formatting better. If you're leaning toward open formats or need broader support for older file types, go with Collabora. Either way, once it's enabled, anyone with access to a file can open and edit it in the browser right away. Make sure to install Nextcloud Groupware from the app store, which is really Calendar, Contacts, and Mail bundled together. Connect it to your existing email accounts through the Mail app's setup wizard, and you've got a unified inbox and calendar without needing Outlook or Gmail open in another tab. For project tracking, add Nextcloud Deck the same way, set up a board, and start adding cards. You can drag files from Nextcloud Files directly onto a card, and they'll attach automatically. Once those pieces are in place, the App Store is where you start tailoring things to how your team actually works. If you're already using Slack, Jira, Moodle, or SharePoint, search for them in the App Store. The official connectors let you pull in notifications and content from those tools without having to abandon them. Setting up Nextcloud takes some real work Pick the right tools to replace Microsoft Office Credit: Jorge Aguilar / How-To Geek Nextcloud bundles a lot of great everyday tools, so you're not jumping between a dozen different apps. The storage layer is Nextcloud Files, and it syncs across desktop and mobile, supports granular permissions, and offers end-to-end encryption for anything sensitive. Sitting right on top of that is Nextcloud Talk, a self-hosted chat and video conferencing tool. You can go from editing a spreadsheet to hopping on a call about it quickly, and nothing routes through outside servers. This one is probably the least important because you can always use Slack or Discord, but it's cool to have either way and is better than Microsoft 365. For keeping schedules straight, Nextcloud Groupware handles calendars, contacts, and email in a way that actually connects to how people work day to day. And for managing projects, Nextcloud Deck gives you a Kanban-style board where you can assign tasks, set deadlines, and attach the relevant files directly to the cards. What I really like about Nextcloud is how far you can extend it. It's hard to beat something like Microsoft Office because it covers so many bases, but the App Store on Nextcloud has multiple ways to make it feel more personal. You can get everything from AI assistants and password managers to medical imaging viewers and GPS track analyzers. You're likely going to like this better just because you can customize it to fit your own needs. Expect a learning curve before you replace Microsoft 365 Credit: Jorge Aguilar / How-To Geek I've used a lot of different self-hosted services, and Nextcloud is one of the more difficult to set up. Getting it up and running is nowhere near as simple as just signing up for Microsoft 365. However, you don't have to be an expert. My directions sound complicated, but they're very easy to follow. One other thing worth clearing up is how Nextcloud compares to something like LibreOffice, because they're usually lumped together but are really doing different things. LibreOffice is a great desktop office suite, but it's built for one person working offline. It doesn't have cloud sync, team chat, shared calendars, or project boards. Nextcloud is a completely different category of tool. If you need an offline version that is easy to run, use LibreOffice. If you want a true Microsoft Office replacement, Nextcloud is a smart choice. It's a web-based platform that brings all of those things together in one place. Nextcloud could be what you need Nextcloud isn't a weekend project you finish in an afternoon and forget about. You'll need to understand containers, manage updates, and think about backups before you ever open a spreadsheet in it. That's a real commitment, and it's fair to weigh it against just paying for Microsoft 365 and being done with it. However, if you've ever wanted a workspace where you own the data, control the features, and can do whatever you want, then Nextcloud is what you've needed. Nextcloud Cost Free Operating Platforms Docker, Linux, Windows, macOS Nextcloud is a self-hosted cloud storage provider that utilizes your own hardware and storage space. It offers full-featured cloud collaboration on files, documents, and more, giving you an enterprise experience without the cost.