As enterprise teams grow more global, collaborative, and security-conscious, traditional cloud storage platforms—Dropbox, Box, OneDrive—are beginning to show their limits.
Yes, they’re convenient. But they’re also closed. Controlled. And, increasingly, at odds with what modern enterprises need: data sovereignty, infrastructure flexibility, and verifiable security.
That’s why more IT leaders are looking for a free, open source cloud storage alternative—one that delivers the ease of Dropbox, the scale of Box, and the enterprise integration of OneDrive, without the trade-offs. Enter: Pydio Cells, the self-hosted, open source platform built for modern enterprise file collaboration.
Dropbox, Box, and OneDrive are household names for a reason. They’ve pioneered the consumer-to-enterprise evolution of file sharing. But their core design constraints remain:
As regulatory scrutiny tightens and organizations prioritize digital sovereignty, these platforms are no longer a fit for many enterprises. Particularly in the EU and other regulated markets, IT leaders want more than convenience—they want control.
Open source is no longer a fringe choice. In fact, it’s becoming the strategic default for organizations that prioritize transparency, independence, and adaptability.
When it comes to cloud storage and document collaboration, open source platforms offer significant advantages over proprietary SaaS tools—particularly for IT leaders who want full control over data, deployment, and destiny.
Here’s why enterprises are increasingly betting on open source:
Closed SaaS platforms are black boxes. You can’t see how your data is stored, processed, or encrypted. You’re expected to trust third-party vendors with your most sensitive files, while having little or no insight into their infrastructure or compliance posture.
With open source, you can inspect the code. You can validate the encryption model. You can see what’s running on your servers, and verify there are no backdoors, telemetry, or hidden data flows.
For security-first industries—government, healthcare, finance—transparency isn’t optional, it’s a requirement.
With Dropbox or OneDrive, your data lives in their cloud, governed by their SLAs, their APIs, their business model. If pricing changes, features are deprecated, or access is throttled, you have little recourse.
Open source platforms like Pydio Cells are designed to liberate your infrastructure:
You own the stack, not just a license to access it.
Out-of-the-box SaaS tools are designed for the masses. They rarely accommodate the unique workflows, regulatory requirements, or identity architectures of enterprise environments.
Pydio Cells, in contrast, is built with enterprise integration in mind:
You’re not locked into a rigid UX or compliance model—you can shape the platform around your operations.
Across Europe and beyond, governments and public institutions are advancing digital sovereignty policies that encourage the use of open technologies to reduce dependency on foreign cloud providers.
By choosing open source:
Pydio’s open source foundation and flexible deployment model make it an ideal fit for institutions navigating these mandates.
Critics of open source often cite lack of support or immature tooling. But Pydio combines the best of both worlds: a thriving community and a stable, enterprise-backed product line.
In short, you get freedom—without sacrificing reliability.
Pydio Cells is a powerful, self-hosted open source cloud server designed for enterprise-scale document collaboration. It delivers the simplicity of Dropbox with the control of a private cloud—and it's backed by a decade of product maturity and thousands of deployments.
Whether you’re looking to replace Box in a financial services firm, OneDrive in a research university, or Dropbox in a creative agency, Pydio offers a compelling alternative.
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Open source architecture | Auditable, transparent, licensed under AGPLv3 (with enterprise support available) |
| Self-hosted or hybrid | Deploy on-premise, in private cloud, or with a trusted host—your infrastructure, your rules |
| Scalable file storage | Support for 5TB+ file sizes, distributed storage, and smart sync options |
| Secure collaboration | End-to-end encryption, password-protected links, watermarking, audit trails |
| Enterprise integration | SSO (SAML2, LDAP, OAuth2), AD/LDAP sync, RESTful API, webhook automation |
| Automation engine | No-code workflow builder (Cells Flows) for document lifecycles, approval chains, retention rules |
| User-centric UI | Responsive, intuitive interface for non-technical users—mobile-ready and modern |
| Rich preview & editing | Real-time document editing via OnlyOffice or Collabora Online, media previews, annotations |
Pydio is trusted by:
It’s used by more than 1,800 organizations globally—including names like Greenpeace, EY, and BMW.
| Feature / Platform | Pydio Cells (Self-Hosted) | Dropbox Business | Box Enterprise | Microsoft OneDrive |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Open source | ✅ Yes | ❌ No | ❌ No | ❌ No |
| Self-hosting possible | ✅ Yes | ❌ No | ❌ No | ❌ No |
| Data sovereignty | ✅ Full control | ❌ U.S. servers | ❌ U.S. servers | ❌ U.S. servers |
| File size support | ✅ Up to 5TB+ | ⚠️ 2GB+ limits | ⚠️ Moderate | ⚠️ 250GB cap |
| Encryption | ✅ End-to-end optional | ⚠️ At rest only | ⚠️ At rest only | ⚠️ In transit + rest |
| SSO & IAM integrations | ✅ SAML, LDAP, OIDC | ✅ SSO options | ✅ SSO options | ✅ Azure AD only |
| Workflow automation | ✅ Built-in Flows | ❌ No | ⚠️ Basic | ⚠️ Microsoft Power Automate |
| Enterprise support | ✅ Yes (paid tier) | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
A Berlin-based creative agency was paying thousands per year for Dropbox Business to store and collaborate on media assets. But concerns over cost, control, and lack of workflow automation led them to explore alternatives.
They deployed Pydio Cells on a Hetzner server, integrated SSO via Azure AD, and set up workflows to automatically tag and archive completed projects. Result:
A research group at a European university had struggled with OneDrive limits on file size and storage quotas. They needed a self-hosted cloud drive that could support 3TB genomic datasets and enable external researcher collaboration.
With Pydio, they:
The shift improved performance, privacy, and user satisfaction across the board.
If your team is looking for a free, open source cloud storage server that balances usability with sovereignty, extensibility, and enterprise-class security, Pydio Cells is the clear alternative.
Unlike community-only tools like Nextcloud (which lack true enterprise depth), or expensive closed SaaS like Box, Pydio hits the sweet spot:
With Pydio, you don’t rent collaboration—you own it.
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