Key facts
- Personal and family use fits the £1 a day + VAT plan
- Team and business use goes on a quoted managed VPS
- Background jobs run by cron every 5 minutes, as Nextcloud recommends
- PHP memory_limit of 512M, as Nextcloud recommends
- Calendar (CalDAV) and contacts (CardDAV) sync with phones and desktop apps
- Data stays with a UK company, with daily backups
- Nextcloud Office and Talk need a VPS
Personal Nextcloud or team Nextcloud?
Nextcloud is a self-hosted alternative to Dropbox, Google Drive and Google Calendar. How you'll use it decides where it should live:
| Use | Where it fits |
|---|---|
| One person or a family: files, photos, calendar, contacts | dijitul Complete Hosting, £1 a day + VAT |
| A sole trader replacing a consumer cloud account | dijitul Complete Hosting |
| A team sharing folders day to day | Quoted managed VPS |
| Editing documents in the browser with Nextcloud Office | Quoted managed VPS |
| Video calls with Nextcloud Talk | Quoted managed VPS |
| Large photo or video libraries | Quoted, sized to your storage |
Storage on the standard plan suits personal use. If you need more, tell us how much and we'll quote.
How we set up Nextcloud on the plan
- PHP: a current PHP 8.x version supported by your Nextcloud release, with memory_limit at 512M as Nextcloud recommends.
- Extensions: zip, gd, curl, mbstring, intl, xml, bcmath and gmp, plus Imagick for previews and OPcache tuned to Nextcloud's advice.
- Background jobs: set to Cron in Nextcloud's settings, with cron.php run every 5 minutes as a Plesk scheduled task.
- Data directory: outside the web root, so files can't be fetched directly.
- Database: MySQL or MariaDB with 4-byte support for emoji in file names.
- Security: HTTPS only, strict headers, and two-factor authentication recommended.
The aim is a clean Security and setup warnings page in Nextcloud's admin area.
Syncing your phone and computer
Once it's running, install the Nextcloud desktop client to sync folders, and the mobile app to upload photos. Calendars and contacts sync over CalDAV and CardDAV, which work with iPhone and Mac settings, Thunderbird and, on Android, apps such as DAVx5. That's usually the moment people realise they no longer need a paid consumer cloud subscription.
Team Nextcloud on a managed VPS
For a team, Nextcloud needs more than a shared server can sensibly give. On a quoted managed VPS we add Redis for file locking and caching, a separate document server for Nextcloud Office, and the extra services Nextcloud Talk needs for reliable calls. Storage is sized to your data, and backups cover the database and data directory together so a restore is consistent. We look after updates to the server and to Nextcloud itself, and test major Nextcloud upgrades before applying them, because some apps lag behind new releases.
Moving from another Nextcloud or cloud service
From an existing Nextcloud, we move the database and data directory together and run occ maintenance commands to tidy up. From Dropbox or Google Drive, the simplest route is to sync everything down and let the Nextcloud client upload it. Calendars and contacts export as .ics and .vcf files and import cleanly. Personal data stays with a UK company: see GDPR-compliant hosting. Order for personal use or email info@dijitul.uk for a team quote.
Frequently asked questions
Where can I host Nextcloud in the UK?
dijitul hosts Nextcloud in the UK. Personal or family use fits dijitul Complete Hosting at £1 a day + VAT, with cron background jobs and daily backups. Teams needing more users, larger storage, Nextcloud Office or Talk get a quoted managed VPS with Redis and the extra services those need.
Can Nextcloud run on shared hosting?
For light personal use, yes, if the host provides a current PHP version, a 512M memory limit, the required extensions and cron every 5 minutes. Team use, Nextcloud Office and Talk need more resources and services than shared hosting provides, so they belong on a VPS.
Is self-hosted Nextcloud a good replacement for Google Drive?
For many people, yes. Nextcloud syncs files, photos, calendars and contacts across devices, and your data stays on a server you choose. You give up some polish and collaboration features. Hosting it with dijitul means someone else looks after the server and backups.
Why does Nextcloud say background jobs haven't run?
Nextcloud's default AJAX mode only runs background jobs when someone has the web interface open. Switch to Cron in Basic settings and run cron.php every 5 minutes from the server. dijitul sets this up as a scheduled task in Plesk.
How much storage do I need for Nextcloud?
Add up the files, photos and videos you want to sync, then allow room to grow, plus space for file versions and the trash bin. Personal use fits the standard dijitul plan. For larger libraries or teams, tell us your numbers and we'll quote a VPS with suitable storage.
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