A Google Workspace Alternative With Your Data Where You Choose
MassiveGRID's Nextcloud Hub replaces Gmail, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Meet, Chat, Calendar and Contacts with one managed workspace on Nextcloud Enterprise, priced per user from $5.90 a month, with the data in the region you choose and no advertising business behind it. Order 1 to 50 users online; dedicated instances for larger organisations.
Why teams look for an alternative
Companies rarely leave Google Workspace because it stopped working. They leave because of three things that have nothing to do with the product's quality. Data location: a client, a regulator or a security questionnaire asks where the files and mail are stored, and "in Google's regions" is not an answer that satisfies a European works council, a UK solicitor's regulator or a US healthcare contract. The business model: a growing number of boards are uncomfortable running the company's documents inside an advertising company, whatever the contractual assurances. Price creep: the entry plan's 30 GB per user runs out, the jump to Business Standard doubles the bill, and the add-ons accumulate.
A fourth reason is quieter: lock-in. Google's formats are Google's, and a company that has lived in Docs for five years discovers at exit time how much work "export as DOCX" is. Nextcloud stores DOCX, XLSX and PPTX natively and speaks WebDAV, CalDAV, CardDAV and IMAP, so the exit is the same sync client you use every day. Our security comparison and plan-by-plan comparison go into each of these.
What you get instead
| You use today | On Nextcloud Hub | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Gmail | Nextcloud Mail with a mailbox per user | Standard Email on Starter and Business; Enterprise Email with delegation on Enterprise. External IMAP accounts can be added. |
| Google Drive and shared drives | Nextcloud Files | 100 GB per user on Starter, 1 TB on Business and Enterprise; versioning, trash, share links with passwords and expiry, desktop and mobile sync. |
| Docs, Sheets, Slides | Nextcloud Office | Collaborative editing in the browser with DOCX, XLSX, PPTX and ODF; desktop editors since Hub 26 Summer. Test complex spreadsheets first. |
| Google Meet and Chat | Nextcloud Talk | Chat, audio and video, screen sharing, guests from a browser; channels and announcements since Hub 26 Summer. |
| Google Calendar and Contacts | Nextcloud Calendar and Contacts | CalDAV and CardDAV, so every phone and mail client syncs; room and resource booking. |
| Google Keep, Tasks | Nextcloud Notes and Tasks | Notes, Tables, Deck and Tasks on Business and Enterprise. |
| Google Forms | Nextcloud Forms | Available on the platform; see the Forms comparison on the blog for the differences. |
| Google Photos | Nextcloud Photos | Redesigned in Hub 26 Summer with albums, map view and mobile upload. |
| Google Sites, AppSheet, Vault | No direct equivalent | Be honest about these in your inventory; Collectives covers simple internal wikis, retention policies cover part of Vault's job. |
The plan mapping is Starter to Business Starter, Business to Business Standard and Enterprise to Business Plus. Google list prices at the time of writing are about $7, $14 and $22 per user per month; Nextcloud Hub is $5.90, $12.90 and $19.90. The complete replacement guide covers each app in depth.
How the switch works
Order and set up
Order a Hub plan for the pilot users, pick the region, use the $1 first month. Create the folder structure you want, add users, install the desktop client.
Move one project
Run one live project entirely on Nextcloud: files, the weekly call in Talk, the agenda in Nextcloud Office. Note what anyone misses.
Migrate the data
Export from the old suite and import files, calendars and contacts, or hand it to the migration service. Replace the shared links that will break.
Mail, phones, switch-off
Point MX records at the new mailboxes, connect calendars and contacts on every phone, train the team, put the old suite into read-only for a month.
Nextcloud Hub Pricing
Per-user plans on MassiveGRID's Nextcloud Enterprise platform: files, office, email, chat and video calls, calendar and contacts, in the U.S., E.U., U.K. or Asia. Pick the region and team size to see what your team would pay.
First month for $1 on monthly billing with coupon code NEXTCLOUD, applied by the Order buttons.
- Files, Photos, Calendar and Contacts
- Nextcloud Office: documents, spreadsheets and presentations
- Talk: chat, audio and video calls, screen sharing
- Standard Email
- 100 GB storage per user
- Desktop and mobile sync clients, public share links
- Nextcloud Enterprise platform with managed updates and daily backups
- Ticket support
- Files, Photos, Calendar and Contacts
- Nextcloud Office and Talk: documents, chat, audio and video calls
- Notes, Tables, Deck and Tasks
- Standard Email
- 1 TB storage per user, ten times Starter
- Desktop and mobile sync clients, public share links
- Nextcloud Enterprise platform with managed updates and daily backups
- Priority support: faster response and escalation
- Files, Photos, Office, Talk, Calendar and Contacts
- Notes, Tables, Deck and Tasks
- Enterprise Email with delegation and other enterprise mail features
- 1 TB storage per user
- Desktop and mobile sync clients, public share links
- Nextcloud Enterprise platform with managed updates and daily backups
- 24x7 support
- Upgrade path to a dedicated instance with your own domain and branding
USD per user per month before taxes; the billing-cycle discount applies to every plan. Order 1 to 50 users online. Need your own domain, a compliance boundary of your own or more than 50 users? See the dedicated instances below or contact us.
Other alternatives, honestly
Microsoft 365 is the obvious alternative and the one most companies consider first. It solves the advertising-company objection but not the data-location one, since Microsoft also chooses the regions, and it brings its own licence complexity. Zoho Workplace is cheaper than Google and complete, with the same provider-chosen locations. Proton for Business is strong on encrypted mail and weaker on collaborative documents. Self-hosted Nextcloud gives total control at the cost of running a server, which our cost comparison prices honestly. Our Zoho and Proton comparison and startup guide weigh them up. Nextcloud Hub is the only one of these where you pick the country at checkout.
Frequently Asked Questions
Leave Google on your terms
Order a Nextcloud Hub plan, export one project from Google, and spend the $1 first month working on it. If it does not fit, you have lost a dollar and learned something.