Collaboration and files
Nextcloud or Microsoft 365: which suits your organisation?
Short answer
Choose Microsoft 365 if your organisation relies on Outlook, Teams and the Office desktop apps, or manages laptops with Intune. Choose Nextcloud Hub if you want to know where your data lives, want no lock-in and mostly share files and work together in the browser. Many organisations combine the two: Microsoft 365 for mail and Office, Nextcloud for files and sharing with outsiders.
What is the difference in one sentence?
Microsoft 365 is a subscription to software and storage at Microsoft. Nextcloud Hub is open source software you run yourself, on a server you choose. With Microsoft you rent the whole thing. With Nextcloud you decide where it lives and who manages it.
What is in each of them?
On paper they look alike. Both have files, office software, chat, video calls, mail and calendar.
| Part | Microsoft 365 | Nextcloud Hub |
|---|---|---|
| Files | OneDrive and SharePoint | Nextcloud Files |
| Office software | Word, Excel and PowerPoint, online and on the desktop | Nextcloud Office, in the browser |
| Chat and video calls | Teams | Nextcloud Talk |
| Mail, calendar, contacts | Outlook and Exchange Online | Nextcloud Mail, Calendar and Contacts |
| Device management | Intune (in some plans) | Not built in |
| Where it runs | Microsoft’s data centres | Wherever you or your provider put it |
The biggest practical difference is the desktop apps. Someone who spends the day in Excel with macros and links will always miss something in a browser version. Someone who mostly shares documents, writes together and holds meetings will hardly notice.
Where does your data live?
This is usually the question the conversation starts with.
Microsoft keeps the data of European customers in data centres inside the EU. That is a real commitment. At the same time Microsoft remains an American company, and American law such as the CLOUD Act can require it to hand over data, even when that data is stored in Europe. Whether that is a problem for your organisation depends on what you store and who your clients are.
With Nextcloud you choose the place yourself. We run JevanaHub, our managed version of Nextcloud Hub, on hardware we own, in a data centre in Hengelo. There is no American cloud company in between. If a client of yours asks where their data is, you can give the exact answer.
What does lock-in mean here?
How hard is it to leave? That is lock-in.
With Microsoft 365 you can take your files and mail with you, but the way everything fits together (Teams channels, SharePoint sites, permissions, integrations) does not move to another supplier. You can only move to another company that sells Microsoft 365.
Nextcloud is open source. Any company that runs Nextcloud can take over your environment, data and configuration included. Being able to leave is why you stay.
When do you choose Microsoft 365?
- Your people work a lot in Word, Excel and PowerPoint on the desktop, with macros or links to other software
- You want to manage and roll out laptops centrally with Intune and Autopilot
- Your clients and partners work in Teams and expect you to as well
- You use software that only works with Microsoft
When do you choose Nextcloud?
- You want to know which hardware your data is on, and who can get to it
- You share a lot of files with people outside your organisation
- You do not want to be tied to one supplier
- You mostly work in the browser: documents, discussion, planning
And if it is a bit of both?
Then you combine them. That is not a compromise; it is often the sensible choice.
A split we see often: mail, Teams and the Office apps stay in Microsoft 365, because everyone works with them. Files, sharing with outsiders and sensitive documents move to Nextcloud, on hardware in the Netherlands. Your people notice little difference, and the data that matters sits where you want it.
We advise what fits, even if that means staying with Microsoft 365. We look after both: Microsoft 365 with Intune under workplace and collaboration, and Nextcloud as JevanaHub on our own hardware.