Does self-hosting Nextcloud lower your security?

Other cloud storage solutions like iCloud and Proton Drive have entire teams dedicated to the security of your data. But with self-hosting, it’s only you. You are the one responsible for keeping your data secure.

So doesn’t that put you at a disadvantage compared to other cloud storage solutions? Doesn’t that decrease the security of your data?

I don’t think that this is a yes/no answer.

For my answer, I’m going to go ahead and assume that you’re not using Nextcloud E2EE.

Where would you be hosting Nextcloud? a VPS? Your house?

Like you said, you’re responsible. You’re responsible for backups, you’re responsible for keeping the server secure.

By using an established E2EE service, not only are you arguably keeping your data safer (encrypted), but all of the load of securing everything is offloaded to professionals whose entire jobs is to handle that for a fee (your subscription).

There are only a few cases where I would ever consider Nextcloud over something like Proton Drive, and those cases definitely don’t include the average user.

Why are there suddenly so many threads on the same topic?

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Yeah I’m not.

Your house would be the best for privacy right?

What exactly are you referring to when you say “an established E2EE service”? Are you talking about Nextcloud’s E2EE? E2EE for self-hosting? Or services like Proton Drive?

Yes, it does seem more simple to just pay someone whose entire job is to handle that.

Does that mean that self-hosting at home is cheaper than paying for cloud services like iCloud or Proton Drive?

What might those cases be?

Services like Proton Drive or Tresorit. This can extend to generic cloud services like Dropbox, OneDrive and Google Drive if you use Cryptomator to encrypt everything before it’s uploaded.

I think this will depend on the hardware you’re using, how expensive power is in your country and other factors. Also, you may want to start thinking of time spent troubleshooting and maintaining your server as “costing you money”. Time is money, after all.

A small company with an IT professional who’s willing to look after the installation for hosting company-related data or a home user who doesn’t care about encryption (because the computer is in their home), knows what they’re doing (proper backups) and wants to have data accessible from elsewhere, which they can achieve by either exposing the server to the Internet or VPNing into their home network to access it. In that case, the setup will probably be a lot less expensive compared to paying for the same amount of storage (TBs of space) on other services, if I had to guess.