Will Nextcloud be an alternative to Microsoft365 in Europe?

ComputerWorld.com reported that “Digital sovereignty has been an ongoing concern for European organizations that use cloud computing services but want to retain control over their data and infrastructure. Recent geopolitical and trade tensions have only intensified those concerns, prompting European cloud customers to reassess their investments in US-owned cloud providers.” The September 30, 2025 article entitled " A European alternative to M365? Nextcloud looks to capitalize on digital sovereignty interest” (https://www.computerworld.com/article/4064116/a-european-alternative-to-m365-nextcloud-looks-to-capitalize-on-digital-sovereignty-interest.html) included these comments:

Nextcloud, a German productivity and collaboration software vendor, hopes to capitalize on the shift in mood. Working with Ionos, a German data center hosting company, Nextcloud plans to launch an open-source service that it bills as a digitally sovereign competitor to better-known US software-as-a-service (SaaS) products like Microsoft 365 (M365).

Nextcloud, which launched in 2016, already develops and sells a suite of collaboration and productivity tools called Nextcloud Hub, which includes apps for document editing, email, and video meetings. It also has an AI assistant that’s accessible in various apps. 

Nextcloud Hub can be downloaded and accessed for free by individuals under an open-source license, though the company offers a paid service for larger organizations. Nextcloud said it has around 1,500 customers for the latter, which includes enterprise support and additional features. Typically, enterprise customers install Nextcloud Hub on their own infrastructure or pay a third-party data center provider to host the application suite. (Nextcloud doesn’t provide hosting services itself.)

What do you think?