Looking for stable managed Nextcloud: CardDAV/CalDAV sync + file sharing

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Hi,

After testing a few managed Nextcloud providers and doing some self-hosting experiments, Iā€™d like to sanity-check my conclusions and ask for advice before committing long-term.

USE CASES

I have two concrete use cases:

1) Personal CardDAV / CalDAV

Requirements:

  • One stable ā€œsource of truthā€ for contacts and calendars.
  • Sync across Linux, Windows, Android, and iOS.
  • Works with common clients (eM Client Windows, Betterbird Linux, Apple contacts/calendar, Android DAV clients).
  • Open standards (CardDAV / CalDAV), no vendor lock-in.
  • Reliable export/import so backups and restores actually work.
  • I highly prefer managed Nextcloud over self-hosting.

Constraints / observations so far:

  • Nextcloud version differences do matter in practice (imports from much newer versions can misbehave on much older ones).
  • Older Nextcloud versions can be stable, but version lag should be clearly communicated.
  • Performance matters only if it is surprisingly poor (for my use case at least).

2) Small business client (about 50 users)

Primary use:

  • Replace using huge email attachments (current setup is not sustainable), so: share 1ā€“5 files per interaction (typical file size for each file is 10ā€“100 MB).

Nice-to-have, but not critical:

  • CardDAV / CalDAV for users.
  • Backups.

Constraints:

  • Reliability and ease of use (for the less tech savvy users) matter more than feature richness.
  • Cost needs to be reasonable (ā‚¬X per month is awesome, ā‚¬XX per month is acceptable, max).
  • Managed service highly preferred (no self-hosting).

QUESTION(S)

  1. Does using one managed Nextcloud provider for both use cases make sense, or is it more realistic to split them (one provider for personal DAV sync, another for client file sharing)?
  2. Are there specific managed providers or configurations that are known to work well for CardDAV/CalDAV across mixed platforms?
  3. For the file-sharing use case, is managed Nextcloud still the right tool, or would you recommend something simpler that still avoids email attachments?
  4. Are there best practices around backups and version compatibility that I should explicitly require from a provider?

Iā€™m not looking for the ā€œlatest features,ā€ but for boring stability and predictable behaviour.

Any practical experience or pointers appreciated.

Relja

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We offer Managed WordPress, so you donā€™t have to worry about backups and updates. As for other tools, we likely canā€™t provide any advice, as this forum is specifically for Nextcloud. When it comes to Managed Nextcloud, we are a reliable partner with hosting made in Germany!

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Here are my findings so far - in case it helps anyone else with a similar dilemma. Any additions or corrections are welcome, these are my conclusions based on my testing and first-hand experience so far (I was hoping to invest time and effort now, and hopefully have less problems in the long run):

Previous stable Nextcloud versions seem safer than latest and greatest (30 and 31 at the time of writing, as opposed to the current 32) - in terms of stability, bugs etc. Managed Nextcloud providers seem to use this philosophy and probably with a good reason.

Related to the above - importing from (or to) a version that is too old (I tested with 24) is not a good idea - at least for CardDAV contacts.

Many Official Partners listed on the Nextcloud partner page seem competent when it comes to Nextcloud management, but the unlisted Hetzner also seems to be fine (havenā€™t tested any other unlisted providers yet).

Mostly EU companies (mostly German). For me thatā€™s a plus, but folks on other continents might want to filter the servers near them. Also, many sites in German only - used Google translate a lot (a bit ironic :slight_smile: ).

Some companies offer free packages/offers. These are usually limited in terms of size, available apps, options and number of users. They can be perfectly fine for personal use - but not for multiple users (thatā€™s reasonable, but worth noting just in case).

Automated data only backups (like saving each users CardDAV .vcf export) is tricky. Hetzner offers only full account backups (you can get raw data with a ticket request, or one-click restore a snapshot made every 6 hours), and I havenā€™t tested paid offers from other providers to see if theyā€™re any different.
Decided to not die on this hill, because Hetzner Storage Box has been rock-solid for me over the years, and I hope to not regret this. :slight_smile:

For more details - these are my working notes (still a work in progress).

Hope this helps anyone - and hope to get more info or corrections if I got anything wrong.

Relja