Nextcloud vs Syncthing: which one to choose in 2026?
Both are open source alternatives to Dropbox. We compare license, tech stack and features to help you decide which fits your team best.
| Nextcloud | Syncthing | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Storage | Storage |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MPL-2.0 |
| GitHub stars | 27k | 65k |
| Tech stack | PHP, MariaDB/PostgreSQL | Go |
| Replaces | Google Drive, Dropbox | Dropbox |
Syncthing has more GitHub stars, which usually indicates a larger community (not necessarily that it's the best option for your use case).
Nextcloud
File cloud and collaboration, an alternative to Google Drive.
Pros
- The widest ecosystem of self-hosted productivity apps
Things to consider
- Can feel heavy on small instances running many apps
Syncthing
Encrypted P2P sync between devices, a decentralized alternative to Dropbox.
Pros
- Doesn't depend on any third-party cloud server
Things to consider
- Not centralized storage: each device keeps its own copy
Key features
Nextcloud
- Cross-platform file sync
- Collaborative document editing (Collabora/OnlyOffice)
- Calendar, contacts and video calls (Nextcloud Talk)
- Hundreds of official and community apps
Syncthing
- P2P sync with no central server
- End-to-end encryption by design
- File version control