Citadel vs Nextcloud
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted apps from related categories
— licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one
replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Compare Citadel with
choose an app… Calcom Calendar Docker Mailserver Mail-in-a-Box Stalwart Mail Server mailcow CryptPad Mailu ONLYOFFICE Docs Maddy Mail Server Mox Rallly Colanode Radicale Easy!Appointments Collabora Online Baïkal OnlyOffice Community Server SOGo WildDuck Twake Workplace iRedMail ZenTao Nextcloud Deck Cozy Dovecot Nextcloud Groupware Apache James Twake Drive Exim Davis Openmeetings LibreOffice Online Cyrus IMAP Postfix Calligra Suite EGroupware Group-Office Horde Groupware DAViCal Kolab Groupware Kontact Feng Office Kopano Groupware Core Tine Courier Mail Server Cozy Contacts
Compare Nextcloud with
choose an app… Immich Syncthing LocalSend MinIO Rclone copyparty Puter PhotoPrism croc Spacedrive File Browser Restic SeaweedFS Cloudreve Ente Photos DeepFace Magic Wormhole Snapdrop gallery-dl Docker Mailserver Kubo (IPFS) Ceph transfer.sh Mail-in-a-Box ProjectSend alt: Vert.sh File converter Seafile Duplicati Filestash Stalwart Kopia Color Thief BorgBackup darktable SFTPGo PairDrop ShareDrop Dufs Thumbor qrcp Nextcloud All-in-One Velero FilePizza OctoPrint ownCloud LibrePhotos CryptPad miniserve FileBrowser Quantum Mailu bup Conduit File Sync Backrest Resilio Sync alternative Onionshare ONLYOFFICE Docs wger Photoview closet GoToSocial NoNo upspin imaginary Maddy Mail Server h5ai Tiny File Manager Send Google Photos Takeout Helper OpenCloud Mox WebDAV Server Go Duplicacy Unison Flying Carpet Papra CKAN SparkleShare elFinder Pingvin Share gocryptfs Kinto pgBackRest Syncthing Android Wrapper bitmagnet Nextcloud Desktop Sync slskd Updog Collabora Online Zipline OnlyOffice Community Server FileGator PicoShare RcloneView gohttpserver Gokapi LubeLogger Chibisafe Mazanoke Syncthing-Fork Directory Lister Peergos Palmr Reitti CryFS Pydio Cells Mainsail SOGo OpenCloud Files Enclosed git-annex ProjectSend Zenko CloudServer bittorrent-tracker Apaxy PsiTransfer Plik Firefox SyncStorage Nextcloud companion go-filecoin none WebDAV-Aria Syncany Sync-in HortusFox FreeFileSync Garage Linx Slink Sharry rmfakecloud Morphos server Picsur rsync.net alternative Stash NoDuplicate HomeHub Uguu rustypaste Nextcloud Groupware XBackBone Zen scanservjs Gossa Threema Web FileRise Twake Drive Pomf Readur Poznote Webtor LibreOffice Online QuickShare ownCloud Web DumbDrop Wingfit Local Content Share Cryptomator CLI 015 IFM mikochi Open Web Calendar ThinkDashboard Davros Calligra Suite goploader Lufi EGroupware Files Sharing Group-Office Filebin Tracim Kleeja Z-Push PrivyDrop Flare Nephele File Drop Cryptomator Hub hash-calendar ZeroNote Pydio Cells Sync Shifter Passky Client Pydio Cells Client elixire Tine Dropgate Server IPFS Podcasting Digirecord Feber FileRun GoSƐ Jirafeau LibreOffice pacebin Resilio Sync ResourceSpace Samba slcl Surfer Yetishare
Feature Citadel Nextcloud Category Groupware File Sync & Storage License GPL-3.0 AGPL-3.0 Language C PHP Setup difficulty Medium Medium Min. RAM 512 MB 512 MB Deployment bare-metal, source docker, bare-metal, snap GitHub stars ★ 100 ★ 36,362 First released 1987 2016 Replaces Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft 365 Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft 365
Why pick each one
Choose Nextcloud if… Feature-rich and extensible Active development and large community Integrates calendar, contacts and office Nextcloud details
Frequently asked questions Is Citadel or Nextcloud better? Neither is universally better. Nextcloud has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Citadel and Nextcloud free and open-source? Yes. Citadel is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Nextcloud under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Citadel and Nextcloud with Docker? Citadel: check the project docs for container support. Nextcloud: yes.