OnlyOfffice & Nextcloud as an alternative to Google's G Suite

OnlyOffice and Nextcloud together provide a self-hosted alternative to Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) and Microsoft 365 for organizations that prioritize data sovereignty, privacy, and control over their collaboration infrastructure. While neither product alone replicates every feature of Google's or Microsoft's suites, their combination delivers a capable, open-source platform for document editing, file sharing, and team collaboration.

Nextcloud is a self-hosted file sync and collaboration platform, originally forked from ownCloud in 2016 by Frank Karlitschek. Written in PHP with clients for Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android, Nextcloud provides file storage and synchronization, calendar and contact management (via CalDAV/CardDAV), task management, video conferencing (Nextcloud Talk), and a growing ecosystem of over 400 apps and integrations. Nextcloud Hub, the integrated collaboration platform, bundles these features into a cohesive product. Its key advantage over cloud services like Google Drive or Dropbox is that all data remains on servers that the organization controls, whether on-premises or on a chosen cloud provider.

OnlyOffice is an open-source office suite that provides web-based editors for documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. Its strongest selling point is excellent compatibility with Microsoft Office formats (DOCX, XLSX, PPTX), which is often cited as superior to what LibreOffice or Collabora Online offer for complex documents with advanced formatting, macros, or embedded objects. OnlyOffice supports real-time collaborative editing, comments, track changes, version history, and fillable forms, making it a functional equivalent to Google Docs for team collaboration.

The integration between OnlyOffice and Nextcloud is straightforward. Nextcloud provides the file storage, user management, and sharing infrastructure, while OnlyOffice's Document Server handles document editing. When a user clicks on a document in the Nextcloud interface, it opens directly in the OnlyOffice editor within the browser. Multiple users can edit the same document simultaneously, with changes synchronized in real time. The OnlyOffice connector is available as a Nextcloud app and can be installed with a few clicks from the Nextcloud app store.

Compared to Google Workspace, the OnlyOffice-Nextcloud combination has several advantages. Data remains entirely under the organization's control, eliminating dependence on third-party providers for data residency and privacy compliance. There are no per-user subscription fees beyond hosting costs, which can result in significant savings for larger organizations. The platform can be customized and extended through Nextcloud's app ecosystem and OnlyOffice's plugin architecture. Additionally, the software can be audited by the organization or third parties since the source code is publicly available.

However, the self-hosted approach comes with trade-offs. Organizations must manage their own server infrastructure, handle backups, apply security updates, and ensure high availability. While Nextcloud and OnlyOffice are both well-documented, the operational burden is real and should not be underestimated. For organizations without dedicated IT staff, managed Nextcloud hosting providers such as Hetzner, IONOS, or specialized providers like Nextcloud GmbH's own enterprise offering can reduce this overhead.

Google Workspace still holds advantages in certain areas. Its search capabilities across Gmail, Drive, and other services are unmatched. The integration between Google's services (Calendar, Meet, Gmail, Drive, Docs) is seamless and deeply optimized. Google's AI-powered features, including Gemini integration for drafting, summarization, and data analysis, are increasingly difficult for open-source alternatives to match. Google's global infrastructure also delivers consistently fast performance regardless of user location.

Microsoft 365 similarly offers deep integration with enterprise tools like Teams, SharePoint, and Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory), along with advanced compliance and e-discovery features that are important for larger organizations. Microsoft's Copilot AI assistant, embedded across its productivity suite, represents another area where proprietary platforms have moved ahead. The desktop applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) remain the gold standard for complex document creation.

For organizations that value data sovereignty above all else, the OnlyOffice-Nextcloud combination is the most mature self-hosted alternative available. It covers the core use cases of file sharing, document collaboration, calendar management, and video conferencing. While it may not match every feature of Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, it provides a credible, privacy-respecting alternative that continues to improve with each release. Critically, self-hosting means that no external entity -- whether a corporation or a regulatory body -- can unilaterally change terms of service, raise prices, or access organizational data. This degree of independence is difficult to achieve with any proprietary cloud suite or any arrangement that depends on the policy decisions of centralized authorities. Public sector organizations in Germany, France, and Sweden have deployed Nextcloud at national or regional levels, recognizing the practical value of controlling their own infrastructure rather than outsourcing it to dominant platform vendors.

G Suite, Office365, Microsoft