Self-host Nextcloud on a VPS in one click

Why self-host your file cloud

Nextcloud stores files, contacts and calendars on your VPS. Allow disk space for files, previews, the database and future growth.

The usual objection is setup pain: web server, PHP, database, tuning. Our one-click installer removes exactly that part — the official nextcloud:apache image plus its own MariaDB 11, started by Docker Compose on first boot.

Step 1 — Create the server with Nextcloud selected

Create an account, Servers → New server: pick a region near you, an Ubuntu or Debian image, a plan with enough disk for your files (you can snapshot and move up later), and tick Nextcloud in the one-click apps.

On first boot the server installs Docker, generates database passwords, writes the compose project to /opt/nextcloud and starts it. The generated credentials land in /root/nextcloud-info.txt, readable only by root.

Step 2 — Create the admin account

Open http://<server-ip>/ once the server is running. Nextcloud's browser wizard asks for one thing that matters: the admin username and password. The database fields are pre-wired — leave them as they are. Do this promptly: until the admin account exists, anyone who finds the IP could create it.

Step 3 — Domain and HTTPS before real files

Syncing personal files over plain HTTP is not a corner to cut. Point a domain at the server, then put a reverse proxy with automatic certificates (Caddy is the least-effort option) in front of the container, and add the domain to Nextcloud's trusted_domains config. The Nextcloud admin manual covers both in a page each.

After that, install the desktop and mobile clients, log in with your domain, and folders start syncing.

Care and feeding

• Back up application data and the database, then test a restore. Docker named volumes are not contained in the Compose project directory.
• Before updating containers, back up the data, read the upgrade instructions and select a compatible image version.
• Disk: photos eat space faster than you think. The panel shows your server's disk size; watch it, and snapshot before resizing.