Goodbye Google Drive: My self-hosted Drive and Docs replacement
I have tried enough setups at this point to know the pattern.
Nextcloud on my NAS, Cloudreve on Railway, Filebrowser as my daily driver, Syncthing. I have spent a lot of time with all of them.
Some were unstable and frustrating to maintain. Others were solid, but missing key features. None of them managed to bring everything together into something that felt complete and reliable for daily use.
About a year ago, I made the switch from Google Photos to Immich, and that changed how I look at this space. It proved that a self-hosted setup can actually replace a Big Tech service if the experience is good enough.
Now it is time to do the same for Drive and Docs.
I will share my exact setup later in the article so you can try it yourself in just a few minutes.
Because this time, I am done testing. I am switching.
Overview
- The problem with most Google Drive alternatives
- What I tried and why it did not stick
- Why I landed on Seafile + ONLYOFFICE
- The trade-offs
- Try this setup yourself in minutes, for free
- This is just the beginning of something bigger
- Final thoughts
The problem with most Google Drive alternatives
Replacing Google Drive, Dropbox, or OneDrive is not just about storing files. That part is easy.
What actually matters is getting three things to work together in a way that feels seamless:
- File storage
- Sync across devices
- Browser-based document editing
Most self-hosted cloud storage tools get one or two of these right. Very few get all three working together in a way that feels like a single product.
That is where most setups break down.
What I tried and why it did not stick
Nextcloud
Nextcloud is the obvious choice when looking for a self-hosted cloud or Google Drive alternative. It is popular, widely recommended, and tries to cover everything.
For me, that was part of the problem.
It feels more like a full ecosystem than a focused tool, and one of the reasons I am moving away from Google is exactly that kind of all-in-one platform. I do not want another system trying to do everything at once.
In practice, I ran into a few recurring issues:
- The UI feels overloaded
- Too many settings exposed to the user
- Features I actually needed were not reliable
The breaking point was iOS photo backup silently stopping. No warning, no clear error, and I never managed to get it working again.
I also ran into version mismatches between iOS and the server, and repeated instability with the Collabora integration. Containers restarting, services crashing, things behaving unpredictably.
To be fair, this is most likely on me. I probably did not set it up in the best possible way. Maybe my hardware or OS was not a great fit. I spent an unusual amount of time trying to make it stable, far more than I would expect for something that should be a core part of my setup.
That alone is a red flag for me going forward. I do not want my cloud storage to be a debugging project.
Cloudreve
Cloudreve was a pleasant surprise in some ways.
The UI is easily one of the nicest I have seen. It feels modern and polished, closer to a commercial product than most self-hosted tools.
But it did not fully solve the problem.
- It leans into integrations I do not need
- No proper office suite integration
- Some features feel out of place for a personal setup
It got close, but "almost" is not enough when you are trying to replace something you rely on daily.
If you are curious about Cloudreve, visit the deploy template page.
Filebrowser
Filebrowser is what I am currently using every day, and I am not dropping it.
It is excellent at what it is built for:
- Browsing files
- Uploading and downloading
- Creating share links (with expiration and password protection)
- Managing a large filesystem on a NAS
But that is also where its scope ends.
There is no sync layer, no collaboration, no document editing. It solves a different problem, just not the one I am targeting here.
It is a great tool, but it is not a real alternative to Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, or iCloud.
Honorable mention: Syncthing
One tool that absolutely deserves a mention here is Syncthing.
I have been using it to synchronize saved game data across multiple devices, for example between my desktop and handheld devices, and it has been rock solid. No manual copying, no thinking about versions, it just makes sure the latest save is always available wherever I pick up the game.
That kind of reliability is rare.
For pure file synchronization, Syncthing is honestly one of the best open-source tools out there. It is fast, peer-to-peer, and does not rely on a central server in the same way most cloud solutions do.
But it solves a very specific problem.
There is no real user interface for browsing files like a cloud drive, no sharing layer, and no integration with document editing. So while it is excellent for keeping folders in sync, it is not a replacement for something like Google Drive and Docs.
Still, for what it does, it does it extremely well, and it is definitely a tool worth having in your stack.
Why I landed on Seafile + ONLYOFFICE
This is the first setup that actually feels complete.
Not because it has the most features, but because it focuses on the right ones and connects them properly.
Seafile
Seafile handles the file side of things, and it does it really well as a free to use, self-hosted cloud storage solution.
It gives you:
- Fast and reliable sync
- Clean file organization
- Proper sharing, including password-protected links
- A stable experience without random issues
What I like most is that it stays in its lane. It does not try to become an entire ecosystem. It is a focused tool, and that shows.
ONLYOFFICE
ONLYOFFICE is what turns this from storage into a real self-hosted office suite workflow.
Most self-hosted document editors feel slightly off. Either the UI is clunky, or collaboration does not work properly, or file compatibility becomes a problem.
ONLYOFFICE avoids all of that.
- Real-time collaboration works
- The UI feels modern and familiar
- Supports Word, Excel, and PowerPoint formats
- Comments and track changes behave as expected
The integration is the key part. Files live in Seafile, and when you open them, they launch directly in ONLYOFFICE in the browser.
No downloads. No friction. No extra steps.
AI support as a bonus
This was not something I was actively looking for, but it ended up being a really nice addition.
ONLYOFFICE also supports AI integrations if you want them. You can connect your own provider using your own API key and use LLM features directly in the editor for things like translation, grammar, and writing assistance.
The important part is that it is not tied to a specific provider.
You can choose whatever AI service you trust, or if you have the hardware, even run your own. That is very different from something like Google Docs, where you are locked into their AI and pricing, and where it is not always clear how your data is used.
If you want AI features with more control over which provider handles your documents, this is a much more privacy-focused, self-hosted approach.
The trade-offs
This setup is not perfect, and it is worth calling that out clearly:
- Seafile UI is good, but not the most modern
- Cloudreve still wins on visual polish
- It is SSR-based, which is not my personal preference, though others may see that as a plus
- I did run into some minor cache-related quirks
But none of these issues blocked me from actually using it daily.
That is the key difference.
Try this setup yourself in minutes, for free
If you want to try a self-hosted alternative to Google Drive, Dropbox, or OneDrive with browser-based document editing, I have made it very easy to do so.
I put together a Railway template that sets everything up for you. No manual configuration, no wiring services together, no figuring out how to make Seafile talk to ONLYOFFICE.
What you need
- A Railway account (signing up with GitHub is recommended)
That is enough to deploy and try it. New Railway users can test this stack on the free trial, which currently includes enough credits and supports up to 5 services per project. If you decide to keep it running long-term, you will need at least the hobby plan, at 5$/m.
Deploy
The template deploys the full stack with the integration already configured, so you can go straight to uploading files, opening documents, and testing the workflow in the browser.
Give it a few minutes to finish deploying, upload a couple of files, open them in the editor, and you will quickly get a feel for whether this setup works for you.
That's it. Go to your public URL as shown in the screen above, log in with your autogenerated credentials, and you're in! You can create a proper personal user if you want to, from the settings menu.
This is just the beginning of something bigger
This setup is part of a bigger project I am working on: My Own Suite.
The goal is to build a full alternative to the typical Big Tech stack, but in a way that is actually approachable. Not just for homelab setups, but for normal users who just want their own services without the complexity.
Seafile and ONLYOFFICE cover files and documents. Other pieces are being added over time to complete the picture.
If you are interested, you can read more here:
Final thoughts
After two years of trying different setups, this is the first time I feel confident enough to actually switch.
Not just test. Not just experiment.
Switch.
That is a big difference.
This might finally be the point where I can say goodbye to Google Drive and similar cloud services for good.
If you have any questions or thoughts, feel free to leave a comment below. Thanks for reading!