Over the last few weeks I’ve been running Cloudreve, and I’m genuinely surprised it isn’t talked about more in the self-hosted storage space. The project has a polished UI, supports multiple backends (including S3), and the GitHub repo has ~25K stars. Based on my experience so far, it feels like a promising middle ground between something lightweight like Filebrowser and full-featured platforms like Nextcloud.

My Setup

Host: Oracle Cloud VPS

Deployment method: Docker

Storage backend: An S3-compatible bucket as primary storage( iDriveE2)

Reverse proxy: Caddy with automatic HTTPS

I created an rclone mount and a systemd unit to automount the the local directory, pointed the cloudreve volume to that directory and deployed without any issues, and I’ve been able to serve files publicly with share links. The upload and download performance has actually been much better than what I experienced on my Nextcloud server.

What I Like

Modern, fast, and clean interface

Easy user + quota management

Built-in file sharing with password protection and expiration

Previewing images/videos from S3 works surprisingly smoothly

Admin panel is simple but functional

Has multiple backend support (local, S3, etc.)

I previously ran Nextcloud, but shut it down due to maintenance overhead and inconsistent performance. I was considering paying for a FileRun license, but Cloudreve ended up covering everything I actually need (simple storage, public/private sharing, multiple users).

Limitations / Questions

The main thing missing is a desktop sync client. As far as I can tell:

There’s no official Windows/macOS/Linux sync app

No built-in way to mount it as a local drive

There is WebDAV support in newer builds, but I’m not sure how stable or production-ready it is

I’d love to know if anyone has reliable workflows for mounting Cloudreve storage or syncing files automatically.

Questions for others using it

Is anyone here using Cloudreve for personal or business use long-term? 1.

How has it compared to Seafile, FileRun, Nextcloud, etc.? 1.

Any desktop sync or WebDAV solutions you’ve found reliable? 1.

Are there downsides I should be aware of (security, slow development, etc.)?

Cloudreve has been surprisingly solid for me so far, but I’m trying to understand why it doesn’t get discussed much. Curious to hear other people’s experiences or warnings. I know some are concerned about pricing structure which is fair, but so far I have not purchased any licensing and everything works as needed. I would consider purchasing a license to support the devs. Also, I have tried posting this before, I AM NOT in any way associated or affiliated with cloudreve, the reason I am posting this is because I know very little about it.