ownCloud Classic

What ownCloud Classic does

ownCloud Classic is the PHP server that ownCloud has developed for years, now called “Classic” to separate it from the newer ownCloud Infinite Scale. It stores, syncs and shares files, with desktop clients and Android and iOS apps, and also provides WebDAV, CalDAV and CardDAV servers. A plugin architecture lets apps such as Activity, Calendar and Contacts extend it, and external storage backends bring other file servers into the same interface. There is user and group management and a REST API for integrations.

Office documents can be edited by connecting a web office suite; owncloud.com lists Collabora Online and Microsoft Office Online among its integrations.

Security and encryption

ownCloud Classic includes server-side encryption. When it is enabled, the server encrypts files before writing them to local or remote storage and decrypts them when serving them. The documentation is clear about what that does and does not cover:

• Only file contents are encrypted, not file names or directory structure.
• Keys are kept on the ownCloud server, so encryption protects data held by an external storage provider but not against a compromised server or the ownCloud administrator. The documentation recommends disk or file-level encryption when no external storage is used.
• It cannot be used when S3-compatible object storage is the primary storage.
• Encrypted files grow by an 8 KB header plus 100 bytes for every 8 KB block, and quotas are based on the unencrypted size.
• Encryption keys must be backed up, because losing them means losing data.

There is no client-side end-to-end encryption in this module. Security reports go through a YesWeHack bug bounty program.

Self-hosting ownCloud Classic

From version 11, ownCloud Classic is supported only as a Docker deployment. The host needs Docker Engine 20.10 or later, Docker Compose v2, a 64-bit x86_64 processor and at least 512 MB of RAM, with 1 GB or more recommended. The web server, PHP runtime and database run inside the images ownCloud provides, so the host needs no PHP setup. The README lists MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL and SQLite as supported databases. Memory needs vary a lot with users, files and activity, and VMware hosts should avoid overcommitting cores or RAM for 1,000 or more users.

Hosted version

ownCloud does not list its own hosted Classic service. owncloud.com promotes ownCloud.online, a German-hosted SaaS operated by BW-Tech GmbH. Enterprise support is sold by ownCloud, which has been part of Kiteworks since 2023.

License

The repository is AGPL-3.0. Its README says the Kiteworks Open Source Program Office, launched in May 2026, intends to move ownCloud repositories to Apache 2.0 once contributor agreements and dependencies have been audited, and that this repository is still AGPL-3.0 for now.

Limitations

ownCloud’s development focus has shifted to Infinite Scale, so Classic is the older of the two lines. Server-side encryption is limited as described above. The Docker-only support policy in version 11 may not suit admins who prefer distribution packages, and the planned relicensing means the license could change.

Who it suits

ownCloud Classic fits existing ownCloud installations and admins who want a long-established PHP server with WebDAV, CalDAV and CardDAV in one place. New deployments should also look at Infinite Scale, OpenCloud and Nextcloud.