Oracle recently changed their free VPS allowances, taking down my Nextcloud instance. I’m moving my file sync to a local machine but was wondering if anyone had any experience with alternatives, as Nextcloud AIO was a major pain in the ass to set up last time.
I used it for sharing WIP music projects so having a web interface where I can listen to audio files from a browser was really convenient. It seems however, that all apps offering this feature are just as heavy as NC.
I tried installing cloudreve, but the web media player seems borked on firefox.
Does anyone know any good alternatives, preferably ones which can run off a single docker compose file?
Been using Seafile for years, it’s fantastic.
As always, I want to note that seafile is not compatible with existing files, you can’t just point it at a directory, you have to upload them to seafile, and then you can only access them via seafile (at least that’s how I understand it, correct me if I’m way off base).
Instead of installing a massive all in one solution, why not install individual services specifically to cover your requirements? Navidrome for music consumption, synching to actually sync files, WebDAV and OnlyOffice for office docs, VLC, Kodi or jellyfin for video consumption, immich for photos, etc.
It will end up being much lighter and more specialised
ultra minimal but might do everything you need
copyparty + syncthing
This comment led me to investigating copyparty for myself. It looks good.
Do you know if you can specify existing folders?
what do you mean?
i use it in the most basic way… when I need to quickly access a folder on one my servers I cd into it, copy party, access it on my PCs browser and go, then I quit copy party
I was just wondering if I could point it to folders that already exist on my server. In particular, my Syncthing folder.
Ah yes sure you can do that.
If you install it as a simple package you just cd into the folder you want and run the command ‘copyparty’ otherwise you can simply use docker compose and set it up that way: https://jaredheinrichs.substack.com/p/how-to-setup-copyparty-using-docker
there you can just point the path of your syncthing folder into the /media directory inside the docker container
Excellent, thanks!
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:
Fewer Letters More Letters DNS Domain Name Service/System SMB Server Message Block protocol for file and printer sharing; Windows-native VPN Virtual Private Network VPS Virtual Private Server (opposed to shared hosting)
[Thread #93 for this comm, first seen 2nd Sep 2026, 15:20] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]
Strong recommend for Seafile. It’s way faster than nextcloud, it has a good web ui, and nice clients on all platforms.
I can not express how much faster than nextcloud it is.
Obviously open source too.
Opencloud is pretty decent no extras just file sync with a web UI and android app.
Owncloud, Opencloud, Sync-in, and Seafile are some lighter-weight options I know of with docker builds.
Owncloud is very handy for sending things to people in a pinch. I have it running in Yunohost on my VPS.
Copyparty. It’s not pretty but it’s lightweight and does a lot. Including the “single docker compose” setup you’re after.
i find the phi95 dark theme actually very pleasing :D
Haha, I actually use the regular phi95 theme, mostly because it is a little nostalgic. :)
Not web based but you could always use Samba
