ownCloud vs OpenCloud

If you run ownCloud Infinite Scale (oCIS) today, OpenCloud will look very familiar, because it is built on the same code. In January 2025 the Heinlein Group announced OpenCloud GmbH and said OpenCloud "is based on the cloud-native open source software ownCloud Infinite Scale", which it is now developing further. Both are Go servers under Apache-2.0, both run without a database, both have Spaces and an OpenID Connect login, and both run as one container that can take Collabora for office editing. So the question for an existing install is not whether OpenCloud can replace oCIS. It is what changes, which of the two roadmaps you would rather follow, and what a move actually costs. That last part is the bigger job than the version number suggests.

What stayed the same

The design is the same one ownCloud built for Infinite Scale. It is a set of Go services in one binary (ocis server or opencloud server), with the config under /etc/ocis or /etc/opencloud and the data under /var/lib/ocis or /var/lib/opencloud, and the same pattern of a one-time init that writes the config and the admin password. Neither project needs MariaDB, PostgreSQL or Redis. Sharing works through Spaces and share links on both, and both ship a built-in identity provider for small installs, with Keycloak as the step up.

The upstream RAM figures are the same at the bottom end. oCIS lists 512 MB "for simple testing purposes" and recommends 4 GB for anything more. OpenCloud lists 512 MB and a single 1 GHz core for a bare-metal install of up to 10 users (its example is a Raspberry Pi 3), and 8 GB for up to 1,000 users.

What OpenCloud changed

Files are stored as a normal folder tree by default

This is the difference you will notice as an admin. oCIS's default user storage driver is still ocis, which keeps blobs and metadata in the decomposed layout. OpenCloud describes that layout as "a technical folder structure that has limited meaning for admins". oCIS has had a posix driver since 6.0.0, but it is not the default. Since OpenCloud 2.0.0 the default has been PosixFS. It "saves OpenClouds files and folders in a folder structure how the user sees that in the web interface", and keeps metadata in extended attributes. In practice:

• ls on the data directory shows users' actual folders, and a filesystem snapshot of a stopped instance is a complete, readable backup.
• The filesystem must support extended attributes, and network storage must be fully POSIX-compliant (NFS v4.2 or later, mounted with noac).
• The tree belongs to OpenCloud. You may change files by hand only while it is stopped, and without losing the extended attributes. An opt-in "collaborative mode" watches the filesystem for outside changes, at a real cost in resources.

Release streams and the compose repository

OpenCloud has three release types. Rolling comes every three weeks and is community-supported, "for enthusiasts". Production comes about every six months. LTS, with two years of backports, is only for customers on a professional or premium subscription. There are separate images, opencloudeu/opencloud-rolling and opencloudeu/opencloud. The docs' single-container quick start uses the rolling image, and the opencloud-compose repository tracks rolling on main and production on its stable-* branches. For a production server, pick the stable branch on purpose. The oCIS equivalent is owncloud/ocis against owncloud/ocis-rolling, which ownCloud labels "not for production".

The recommended OpenCloud install is that compose repository: an .env file plus modules you switch on in COMPOSE_FILE. Traefik handles Let's Encrypt, and there are modules for Collabora, Keycloak with LDAP, an external IdP, Apache Tika full-text search, ClamAV and monitoring.

Additions

• Calendar and contacts. A Radicale module gives every user a CalDAV and CardDAV server behind OpenCloud's login, with no web UI. You use desktop or phone clients with an app token. Upstream supports it on a best-effort basis only, outside its enterprise support. We found no equivalent in the oCIS repository.
• Office. Collabora is the supported editor. A community Euro-Office module exists, which upstream says it does not officially support.

Licensing and who maintains it

Both server repositories are Apache-2.0. The oCIS README adds that "some builds of stable ownCloud Infinite Scale releases provided by ownCloud GmbH are subject to an End User License Agreement". Read that agreement if you use ownCloud's official stable images. OpenCloud's FAQ says the source is Apache 2 and that the software is free for commercial use. The company earns from support subscriptions. oCIS is maintained by ownCloud GmbH, and OpenCloud by OpenCloud GmbH, part of the Heinlein Group.

Moving an oCIS install to OpenCloud

OpenCloud documents no in-place upgrade from oCIS. Don't plan on pointing an OpenCloud container at an oCIS data directory. The documented route is to copy files over WebDAV with rclone, user by user:

1. On oCIS, enable app tokens (START_ADDITIONAL_SERVICES="auth-app", PROXY_ENABLE_APP_AUTH="true") and create one per user with ocis auth-app create --user-name=<user> --expiration=72h. Do the same on the new OpenCloud instance with opencloud auth-app create.
2. Obscure each token with rclone obscure and add a WebDAV remote per user and per side to rclone.conf, pointing at /remote.php/webdav.
3. For a large import, first add activitylog,search to OC_EXCLUDE_RUN_SERVICES on OpenCloud, so indexing does not compete with the copy.
4. Run rclone copy <ocis-user>:/ <opencloud-user>:/ for each user.
5. Re-enable those services, run opencloud search index --all-spaces, and delete every token.

Upstream is explicit about what this carries across. Personal-space files migrate. Shares, public links, project spaces, trash, file versions and metadata do not. For a household that is an afternoon. For a team built around project spaces and shared links, you are rebuilding the sharing model by hand: recreate the spaces, copy their contents, and send new links to everyone who had one. Users also move to OpenCloud's own desktop client (Windows, macOS, Linux AppImage) and its Android and iOS apps. Run the two servers side by side until the copy is checked, and back up oCIS first, including ocis.yaml.

Which should you run?

Stay on (or pick) ownCloud Infinite Scale if…

• You have an oCIS install with real sharing on it, meaning project spaces, public links and file versions people rely on, and it is doing its job. The move is a lossy file copy, and staying costs nothing.
• You buy support from ownCloud, or your organisation standardised on it.

Move to (or pick) OpenCloud if…

• You are starting fresh. You get the same architecture with a storage layout you can read and snapshot directly, and a compose setup with Collabora, Keycloak, search and CalDAV/CardDAV modules ready to switch on.
• Your oCIS install is small, mostly personal files, and you want off the EULA-covered builds or onto OpenCloud's release cadence.
• A readable folder tree on disk matters for your backups or for other tools that read the data.

Neither choice is wrong, since they are close relatives. The cost of moving is in the shares and history you leave behind, not in the software. If you are also weighing the PHP platform, see Nextcloud vs OpenCloud and Nextcloud vs ownCloud.

Running either on a VPS

Both run in a small container on a small VPS, and the upstream floor is 512 MB for either. ownCloud Infinite Scale can start as one docker run. OpenCloud is normally run from its compose repository, which wants a DNS name per service it exposes. For either, put the config and data directories on host paths you back up, not on Docker's internal volumes.