Nextcloud vs SharePoint
Nextcloud is a European alternative to SharePoint: same cloud & hosting use case, headquartered in Germany and governed by EU GDPR, while SharePoint (Microsoft) is based in the United States.
By the EU Alternatives team Last updated
Achieve data sovereignty with a self-hosted content collaboration platform. Features file sync, chat, video calls, groupware, and an online office suite.
- Jurisdiction
- EU / EEA
- Primary privacy law
- EU GDPR
- US CLOUD Act exposure
- No
- Open source
- Yes
- Free tier
- Yes
SharePoint is Microsoft's document management and intranet platform, bundled into Microsoft 365 subscriptions and used by most large organisations for file storage, team sites and workflows. Microsoft is headquartered in the US, so data held in SharePoint falls within reach of the US CLOUD Act.
- Jurisdiction
- United States
- GDPR by default
- Requires DPA + TIA
- US CLOUD Act exposure
- Yes
Nextcloud vs SharePoint at a glance
| Nextcloud | SharePoint | |
|---|---|---|
| Headquarters | Germany | United States |
| Data jurisdiction | EU / EEA | United States |
| Primary privacy law | EU GDPR | Requires DPA + transfer assessment |
| US CLOUD Act exposure | No | Yes |
| Best for | Teams that need cloud & hosting built for European data-protection requirements | Teams already invested in the Microsoft ecosystem |
Choose Nextcloud if…
- You want a provider governed by a European privacy regime
- GDPR or public-sector data-protection requirements apply to you
- You want to start free and scale up later
- Open-source code and self-hosting matter to you
- You'd rather back the European tech ecosystem
Stick with SharePoint if…
- You depend on integrations only available in the Microsoft ecosystem
- Your organisation has no EU data-residency constraints
- Migration costs outweigh the jurisdiction benefits for now
About Nextcloud
Nextcloud is Germany's most widely deployed open-source collaboration platform, letting organisations run their own private cloud for file sync, video calls, email, and document editing on their own servers. With 400,000+ active deployments reaching tens of millions of users, it is the definitive European alternative to Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace.
The platform combines Nextcloud Files (storage and sync), Nextcloud Talk (chat and video), Nextcloud Groupware (calendar and contacts), and Nextcloud Office (real-time document editing) in a single installation. A REST API and 300+ marketplace apps extend it with LDAP, SAML, SharePoint, and hundreds of third-party integrations.
Key benefits:
- File sync and share across Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android clients
- Nextcloud Talk for end-to-end encrypted video calls and chat with no external service
- Nextcloud Office with real-time collaborative document, spreadsheet, and presentation editing
- Built-in AI assistant running locally with no data leaving your infrastructure
- 300+ marketplace apps for CRM, project management, e-signing, and more
- Full self-hosting on bare metal, VMs, Docker, or Kubernetes
- Enterprise edition with professional support, compliance tooling, and SLA guarantees
Developed and maintained by Nextcloud GmbH in Stuttgart, Germany, all data stays on infrastructure you control, with no third-party cloud involved. The platform is GDPR-native, supports HIPAA-capable configurations, and is used by major EU governments, universities, and public institutions that mandate on-premises data sovereignty.
Trusted by Siemens, the German Government, and thousands of public sector organisations across Europe, with 20,000+ GitHub stars and an active global community.
Why choose Nextcloud over SharePoint?
The decisive argument is data jurisdiction. SharePoint is headquartered in the United States, which means personal data processed through it can be subject to non-EU legal regimes: the US CLOUD Act, FISA 702, or similar laws depending on the provider. After the 2020 Schrems II ruling, EU organisations must carry out a transfer impact assessment for every such data flow.
Nextcloud removes that overhead. As a Germany-based provider, it operates under EU GDPR, and data stays inside the EU/EEA by default. For regulated sectors such as health, public administration, and finance, that's not a nice-to-have but a requirement. For everyone else, it's concentration-risk insurance: you avoid depending on a single jurisdiction that can change the rules without warning.