TOTAL newbie questions

🗃️ Hosting providers
1

Hi everyone
I admit to being overwhelmed by this site. I am totally new to this part of the world.
I want to use Nextcloud to allow me to have some storage and utilize features such as contacts so that I can sync this up with my devices such as mobile.

I know that to get contacts I need to use the Nextcloud app and I was under the impression that signing up for a free account with most providers would let me download said app. So I took the advice of Nextcloud and signed up for a private account and let them select the provider. The choice was tab.digital where I have opened up a new account.

I can set up contacts with this account but when I look at their plans it looks to me that I need to go their ‘Nextcloud Private Cloud’ to be able to install apps which I assume is the contacts app.

I am totally bamboozled by what I need to do. It started out pretty simple but now I have no idea. I am not against paying for what I need but I don’t want really need that much and the option above is about 70 euros.

This question may well get laughed at, but if someone is able to tell me for example, if I need to be on a paid option to get contacts that would help.

Thanks

2

They have providers with a free test account. Contacts is a among the basic apps, that should not require any extra option (and it does not need many resources). Most people here use their own server, so I cannot recommend a provider, just take a look at different ones, and if that function is not included in the basic package and it is not available for test accounts, I would not consider this provider.

For syncing, on iOS it is possible without an app (just via carddav), android needed an app (davX5). The Nextcloud app is mainly for files, and you can sync the photo gallery from your phone onto your cloud.

3

Thanks for the reply.

The thing is that I’ve been checking things out and I don’t see the ability to use this app listed with the providers I looked at (in fact I found it hard to find providers listed somewhere). I will go and look further but this was a path that I trod.

I have my own server so want to go that way, but my needs are small. But thanks for taking the time to reply. I’ll investigate further.

4

@Scoutie As @tflidd already pointed out… contacts is basic and shouldn’t cause any trouble. Who knows what runs through tab.digital’s minds?

anyways: I never tried myself syncing data with an external cloud but those guys here (the good cloud) seem to offer a free-account with contacts and I couldn’t find any restrictions about syncing with mobile devices… so maybe you want to give them a try?

(though, of course, other restrictions might appear with their free accounts)

other than that @devnull might be able to give out more hints about good and free providers (I just pinged him)

5

I think you have to differentiate between free Nextcloud, which do a lot of customization and end up being more or less just a file storage (MagentaCLOUD and Shadow Drive). Other providers such as https://cloud.tab.digital offer normal free Nextcloud accounts. Restriction ist mostly only the the storage e.g. 8 GB free.

6

Yeah but in order to make money it they cannot include it, because contacts will hardly ever exeed the storage limit they offer on their free plan :wink:

Well € 70 a year is fair for what they offer imho. You could of course also invest the 70 eures in a rasperry pi and host it yourself. :wink:

7

Hi there,

I saw there were what questions about our free hosting service and the differences with paid subscriptions.

Frank wrote an article about this:
https://thegood.cloud/en/articles#free-account-vs-paid-subscription-what-are-the-differences

8

Hi
Thanks for the link to that article. I have created an account with the good.cloud. It appears to be easier for me to understand which is all I’m after. So thanks for the link.