About Nextcloud
Nextcloud is a server for files, calendars, contacts and, with apps, chat and office editing. Desktop and mobile clients sync to it. Each app has its own maintainer and licence. Read those before you enable one.
Why it exists
Teams wanted shared files and calendars on a server they administer.
Who uses it
Organisations that hold their own files, and the admin who runs the server.
What it is used for
File sync, sharing links, calendars and contacts. Office editing needs a separate document server, such as Collabora or OnlyOffice, under that product's licence.
Open source behind the product
Nextcloud Enterprise is a paid subscription for support and some apps. The server in this repository is the AGPL community server. PHP is the application. MariaDB or PostgreSQL and Redis are the usual companions.
How to run it on a server
- Use the official All-in-One image or the community container guide, with a real disk for data.
- Prefer MariaDB or PostgreSQL and Redis. Do not treat SQLite as the production database.
- HTTPS and a trusted domain are required for the clients to sync reliably.
- Back up the data directory and the database together. Install only the apps you will maintain.
Follow the project's own guide for the version you install. Commands and file names change between releases.
How to contribute
nextcloud/server and the app repositories take bug reports and pull requests. Match the app you change to its own repository.
- Read the project's guidelines. Open the repository and look for CONTRIBUTING, the code of conduct and the README.
- Find something to work on. Browse good first issues or all open issues. Documentation and bug reports count.
- Make a small change. Fork the repository, work on a branch, and keep the change focused.
- Open a pull request. Say what changed and why, and link the issue. See open pull requests.
Contributions are accepted under the project's own licence (AGPL-3.0). Some projects also ask you to sign a contributor agreement. A doc fix or a reproduced bug is a real contribution.
Licence: AGPL-3.0
Strong copyleft. You can use and modify it, including commercially. If you run a modified version as a network service, you must offer its source code to users under the same licence.
This is a plain-English guide, not legal advice. Read the licence in the repository before you ship it or sell a service on top of it.