No matter where you live, cloud storage isn't cheap. The more you need, the more you pay. If you are in the US, you may need to pay up to $100 annually for 1TB, depending on the cloud storage service.

This isn't a bad investment by any means. However, if you are paying for storage alone, I no longer recommend spending that much money yearly. There are better options.

I realized this much later because I was slow to learn how to self-host using Docker. After a few days of self-hosting, I realized I would've saved money if I had tried it earlier.

I would've stopped paying for the cloud storage subscription sooner had I known this trick earlier.

However, it's better late than never, and I finally stopped paying for cloud storage a couple of months ago after I self-hosted Nextcloud.

Here is why I quit my cloud storage subscription and embraced Nextcloud.

Nextcloud is an all-in-one personal cloud platform

You get much more than storage

While storage was a major factor, I didn't pay a subscription fee for that alone. My Microsoft 365 subscription included 1TB of cloud storage along with some popular productivity tools like Excel, PowerPoint, and more.

I was never a power user of Microsoft's productivity suite, so I needed them only occasionally. I was a casual user of those software tools. This was my biggest motivation to switch to a platform that isn't as popular as Microsoft's in the productivity space.

I came only for storage, but what I got was a full-blown personal cloud. In addition to storage, it offers alternatives to many Microsoft 365 apps, including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

Don't mistake Nextcloud's office suite as something basic. It lets you create and edit documents and use advanced features like real-time collaboration.

It also offers alternatives to Gmail, Tasks, Google Calendar, and many Google apps that I rely on daily.

Nextcloud also has a photo viewer tool that I love. It can't replace the Google Photos app the way Immich does, but it's good enough for basic photo backup and management.

However, these aren't the biggest reasons I switched. It's not even about getting 1TB of cloud storage without paying a subscription fee.

Nextcloud doesn't have a fixed storage quota like Google or Microsoft do

The sky is the limit

The single biggest reason I tried Nextcloud and instantly decided to keep using it was freedom. Nobody dictates to me how much cloud storage I should get.

It doesn't have a quota like popular cloud storage providers such as Google and Microsoft. Instead, it's up to you how much you want.

This is possible because you host Nextcloud on your own machine, not on anyone else's, via Docker. This means the storage available on your machine is how much you can store.

If your PC has 2TB of storage, your Nextcloud cloud storage can be somewhere close to that. You can add more storage to your system, and your Nextcloud storage will grow with it.

I'm currently self-hosting Nextcloud on my spare PC, which has 1TB of storage. But I can certainly add more later.

However, I won't always use my PC for self-hosting Nextcloud. Instead, I plan to use a network-attached storage (NAS), as it's built for round-the-clock operation.

This will solve the problem of not getting access to everything I saved in Nextcloud when I turn off my PC.

Nextcloud allows you to access it from your phone

Both Android and iOS are supported

I tried the Android and iOS versions of the Nextcloud app, and I was blown away by how good those two were. On Android, it supports Material You. That's how much attention to detail had gone into this.

I use the Android app for more serious reasons than Material You. The app supports passcodes, camera auto-upload, widgets, and a dedicated Activities tab and Favorites.

Whatever you upload from your phone or PC ends up in your private cloud. You can access those files from anywhere where you can run Nextcloud, exactly what you'd expect from a cloud service.

I'll never pay for a cloud storage subscription again

Self-hosting isn't for everyone, and that's probably the biggest weakness of my Nextcloud setup. It requires time and patience, as you might run into several errors while setting it up.

Mine wasn't smooth, either. However, it was worth it because I will no longer pay a fee for something available for free. There is no real incentive for me to go back to using cloud storage the old way, thanks to Nextcloud.

It's currently one of my favorite self-hosting apps on my phone.