Does anyone here use a decent free plan for hosting Nextcloud online? Or is it really worth paying or selfhosting? Thanks :)
Well someone has to pay for the server, the power, the storage, the network, etc. So if you find something free it will be very limited.
Chiming in to repeat the same as before commenters:
Nextcloud is only an option if you are trying to selfhost something that google and apple are giving you for free in exchange for your data. Is it secure there? somewhat. Is it private? Well, not so much but they’re not breaking any laws as far as we know.
Now there‘s nextcloud. It is only as private as you make it and only as secure as you make it. If you host it on a sketchy server out in the open, you can bet you will be compromised (your data lands in someone elses hand) or you will lose it alltogether.
So, think of nextcloud as the privacy twin of icloud and google cloud for the tech literate. If you‘re not ready to self host it, pay for the host or the electricity or don‘t know how to harden it against attacks, please use a big tech option.
Hetzner is a great VPS provider that can manage nextcloud for you, check this out: https://www.hetzner.com/storage/storage-share I think it’s a great upgrade on privacy with the administration and security being all covered by profesionals ;)
I recommend setting up a home server using any old PC or laptop you have. Not having a static public IP may not be an issue, but if you are behind CGNAT, and cannot forward ports, you can route your data through a free provider like Oracle or Google. Those free servers are very weak but will be good enough to just pass through the data. This way even if they randomly decide to shut down and delete your instance, your data stays intact. I also recommend using SSL/TLS pass through, instead of termination, for better privacy.
Hosting yourself is the only “free” thing you’re going to get. You may get a 1/2 core CPU on aws somewhere, but you’re going to exceed that. Even then storage is not free, and if you’re using someone else you’re renting it from them, so yeah it’s going to cost money.
