7 apps that helped me escape the cloud – and protect my data privacy

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about pulling away from the cloud. The idea of a third party having all my information, data, content, images, and just about anything digital makes my spine shrink. There’s no way of knowing if or when one of those third parties might share my information with the wrong person or have it stolen from under their eyes.

Something has to give.

Also: The best cloud storage services

That something is migrating away from the cloud in favor of locally installed and run services. By doing this, I can be certain my data doesn’t fall into the wrong hands at the right time.

You might be thinking, “That sounds too hard!” Sure, some of the apps I’m going to mention might not be as easy to get up and running as simply installing an app on your phone and connecting it to a service, but they aren’t impossible. In the end, the benefits you receive from these apps and services far outweigh the complexity of getting them up and running.

With that said, let’s get to the apps.

1. Nextcloud

If you’re tired of worrying about what Google is going to do with your data, it’s time to opt for an in-house cloud solution, and there’s no better option than Nextcloud. Nextcloud offers everything you need — documents, contacts, calendars, chat, whiteboard, AI assistant, collaboration, and so much more. The Nextcloud team is also dedicated to your data’s privacy and security. This is, by far, one of the best tools I’ve experienced in a very long time.

Anyone looking to have their own in-house equivalent to Google Workspaces — this is it. You have to deploy Nextcloud on a Linux server, but it can be done in minutes using Snap. Nextcloud is free, open-source, and highly reliable.

2. LibreOffice

If Google Docs or Microsoft 365 have become no-gos for you, but you still need an office suite, LibreOffice is an outstanding choice. This open-source, free office suite features everything you need, including MS Office compatibility, export filters, support for many document formats, a customizable UI, and so much more. LibreOffice includes tools for documents, spreadsheets, presentations, databases, drawings, and formulas. 

Also: 5 stand-out LibreOffice features that make it my go-to office suite

The only downside of using LibreOffice is that the built-in remote share feature has been broken for a very long time. I get around that by saving to a Samba share on my network so I can open the files from any machine connected to my LAN. LibreOffice can be installed on Linux, MacOS, and Windows.

3. LibrePhotos

Do you need an app that not only stores your photos locally but also includes face recognition and multi-user support? If so, LibrePhotos is what you’re looking for. Essentially, this is a self-hosted take on Google Photos, and it’s just as easy to use. With LibrePhotos, your data will never find its way to a third-party server, so you and your photos will enjoy a higher level of privacy than cloud-hosted apps of the same nature. 

The only caveat to LibrePhotos is that it’s deployed as a containerized service, so you’ll need to have a Linux machine with Docker installed. The good news is that once you get Docker installed, you can download all the files necessary and then simply run “docker-compose up” from within the LibrePhotos directory.

4. Owncast

Do you do live streaming and want to migrate away from third-party cloud services that could very well be using your streams to train LLMs or even create a profile of you? 

If so, Owncast is an outstanding alternative to services like Twitch and YouTube. Owncast is free, works with your current live streaming devices, and can be self-hosted. Owncast features chat, support for the Fediverse, and even has a quick installer that can help you get the service up and running in less than a minute. 

Owncast is free to use and supports both Linux and MacOS.

5. Bitwarden

By now, you understand the importance of using a password manager. If not, you can learn about it here. 

If you need a password manager and you’re looking to escape from the cloud, Bitwarden offers a self-hosted version that doesn’t save or serve your data from a third-party cloud. The Bitwarden self-hosted option is a great way to ensure your protected vaults do not fall into the hands of bad actors. That doesn’t mean you can’t trust Bitwarden — you can. But if you have passwords and other information that are especially important, saving them on a self-hosted password manager server is a great option. 

Also: 7 ways to get more out of your Bitwarden password manager

Bitwarden’s self-hosted app is free to use and works with both free and paid accounts.

6. Monica

Monica is a free, open-source personal CRM tool that can be deployed as a self-hosted server. 

Monica features contacts, relationships, reminders, automatic birthday reminders, debt management, notes, activity management, tasks, gift management, address management, contact field types, pet information, a basic journal, a daily journal, and much more. Like Bitwarden and LibrePhotos, Monica can be deployed as a Docker container, so you will have to get up to speed with Docker before you think about using this tool. 

You can also install Monica manually, but the process isn’t very well-documented, so installing it can be a bit tricky.

7. Ollama/Msty

Finally, there’s the locally installed Ollama AI. Artificial intelligence has reached a point where it’s almost impossible to avoid. The problem with AI is that you never know if a third party is using your queries to either create a profile of you or train their own LLMs with your data. You don’t want that, I don’t want that — no one should want that. 

Also: How to install an LLM on MacOS (and why you should)

To that end, there’s Ollama, which can be installed and used locally on Linux, MacOS, and Windows. And then there’s also the Msty GUI, which makes interacting with Ollama incredibly easy. Ollama is open-source and free to use.