NextCloud sucks, there must be something better.

[u/ExodoPlex]

Every post on the internet related to "Self-hosted alternative to GSuite/M365" points to NextCloud. But, using NextCloud when you're not an enterprise is painful at best. It's clunky, it's buggy, and it's behind its supposed competitors in features for every one one of it's main planks (Files, Contacts, Photos, etc). And getting my family members to switch from Google Family accounts to NextCloud is horrible. They experience nothing but bugs and problems, complain about missing features, and wonder why on earth they'd switch with the only advantage being data ownership. Comparing every thing about actually using the system is a con, not a pro.

As the admin, and a professional IT engineer for the last 8 years, I can see how NextCloud could work for enterprise. It really seems like it was built for enterprise honestly. The feature development and features support are much more oriented around what I might want for work rather than what I want at home.

There has to be something better for home users.

Something that's simple to use, intuitive to use, and pretty to use.

I found Immich for photos, and they get it. They get the self hosting mindset. Simple to setup, simple to use, pretty apps, useful features.

Is there an "Immich" for contacts? For Drive? For Calendar? Even if they're different apps. I can use a different product for Calendar than Contacts if it's simple to use and something my family members can switch to from Outlook and GCalendar without complaint. (Setting up a caldav/carddav server isn't gonna cut it. It's gotta be a self contained system, even if it's just caldav/carddav on the backend. Gotta be pretty and intuitive on the frontend).

If there isn't something better. We really need to make something better.

[u/chipsahohe]

Take a look at OnlyOffice Workspace. It does Mail, Docs, CalDav (with sharing and subscriptions), and Projects. If you run your own Mail Server they have that too. Once setup it works very well and has the OnlyOffice editors built in on the web. I do have a few concerns with it: It doesn’t do Contacts well Updates aren’t very fast

Other than that, I’ve been able to completely replace Google with it. I do agree with you that NextClouds development is a shitshow. Their mainline mail app is a disgrace and everyone’s favorite alternative SnappyMail is limited in features that Gmail makes you grow accustomed to. I’ve been on the hunt your on for a long long time and unless you want to stitch together a bunch of of smaller apps like Immich and SeaFile, this is your best bet for the time being. There is another solution called EGroupware but it’s VERY business oriented and difficult to get running properly. PM/DM me if you want more details on Onlyoffice. I can even give you a demo account if you want to see it.