Use the signup form to request a new server. After confirming your requirements, Nextcloud Hosting creates a Virtual Private Server (VPS) for you in a local data center (Johannesburg or Cape Town), using a 3rd party hosting provider. The Nextcloud open source application is installed into this VPS, and an account is created and sent to you (with optional admin access). The process of creating the server could take up to 2 business days, but is usually within 1 business day. You are billed monthly for the server and you can cancel at any time after which your server will run till the end of that payment period.

There are several reasons to avoid using an overseas tech company like Google for your private data: they can disable your account for various reasons and you usually have no recourse; the free services use an advertising model that requires collecting your data to profile you and your users (see Surveillance Capitalism); they provide user data to their government for surveillance (see PRISM and data brokers); they use your data to train their generative AI models; for PoPI Act compliance you need to limit cross-border and cross-organization transfer of personal or customer data; and you benefit from South Africa's strong consumer protections and assist the local economy when using a local business

Yes, see the Nextcloud migration guide.

Yes, see the instructions for Android and for iOS. You can also connect various desktops like MacOS, Windows, and Linux.

Yes, you can upgrade your server specs at any time. The process of upgrading your server requires that the server be put into maintenance mode, and migrated from the old server to the new server. This can take some time, especially when the size of the user files is large, and thus will incur some down time.

You can request larger storage when signing up. If you wish to upgrade the storage on an existing server, this can be done in place (if you don't need additional CPU/RAM), or we can migrate you to a new server. Another option is for you to attach external storage (see Nextcloud external storage) if you already have a shared drive elsewhere.

We offer support during business hours on a best-effort basis, and give priority to queries regarding server uptime/problems. You can also talk to us for guidance on how to best make the server work for your needs. We are also considering offering training on Nextcloud for employees and users, so please get in touch if this interests you.

If you have queries related to Nextcloud usage or issues relating to it's various apps, please search the Nextcloud support forums. If you are a larger organization and need enterprise-level support, you can consider subscribing to Nextcloud Enterprise

Yes, we can provide the IP address of the server once it's running and you can point your domain to it.

There are several security measures in place, such as hardening of the server, running services in sandboxes with minimal permissions, firewall, applying security updates, etc. In addition, Nextcloud provides various security measures of it's own (such as brute-force protection and suspicious login detection). That said, any user's account that is compromised (for example with a keylogger on their device) could enable a hacker to gain access, so users still need to take care to avoid being compromised. Enabling two-factor authentication will greatly limit this risk. Ransomware is also a key concern, as encrypted files will end up getting sync'd to the Nextcloud server (and subsequently to other devices), so regular and archived backups of your own are important for recovery. We can work with you to significantly improve your server security, for example by limiting access to within the country only (most attacks originate from other countries).

Files are not encrypted on the server by default, since encryption reduces performance of the server, takes up more space (around 35% more than unencrypted files), and lost private keys can lead to data loss. You can enable server encryption or selectively enable end-to-end encryption of sensitive files or folders.

The admin user on the server can install apps. It should be noted that:

• Not all apps are supported: many apps, such as Collabora Online or Face Recognition, require additional services to be installed on the server manually. This is not a problem if you are installing to a local PC or server, but a VPS server may not be able to support the resources required for these services.
• Many apps are untrusted: Unlike the Google Play Store or Apple App Store, the Nextcloud App Store does not inspect 3rd party apps for malware, so it is risky to install apps unless they are in the "Featured" category.
• Apps lead to slowdowns and possible server downtime: Most apps add JavaScript bundles to each page load, making the site slower to load. In addition, many of them run background processing that places a load on the server, for example the Photos app generates thumbnails which can place a huge load on the server when a new album is uploaded. Whenever any user accesses the Photo app, they get a page with a huge amount of thumbnails, and each thumbnail must be checked by the server for viewing permission, which places a huge load on the server. For this reason, the Photos app is not enabled by default (photos are still viewable and sharable via Files).

These features require additional server components and resources to run, which would drastically increase the cost of the server, and most customers don't require these. Keep and eye out though, we are working on solutions to enable these for our customers in future.

Yes, see the Nextcloud migration guide. A backup of your server (config, database, and optionally user files) can be provided to the server owner on request.