Self-Hosted Cloud Storage in 2026: Why I Stopped Paying for Dropbox

In 2023, I paid $120/year for Dropbox Plus (2 TB). In 2024, I paid the same. In 2025, I finally got fed up and switched to self-hosted Nextcloud on a used Dell OptiPlex + two 8 TB HDDs. Two years later, here is what I learned, and why I will never go back to Dropbox or Google One.

The math

Service	Cost / year	Storage	Cost / TB / year	Lock-in
Dropbox Plus	$120	2 TB	$60	High
Google One 2 TB	$100	2 TB	$50	High
iCloud+ 2 TB	$100	2 TB	$50	High (Apple)
Self-hosted Nextcloud (16 TB)	$0 (after setup)	16 TB	$0	None

Setup cost: $180 for the OptiPlex + 2x 8 TB HDD. Break-even vs Dropbox Plus: 1.5 years. After that, it's pure savings.

The setup that actually works

I tried a few approaches. The one that stuck:

1. Hardware: Dell OptiPlex 7060 (used, $90 on eBay) + 2x 8 TB Seagate Ironwolf ($45 each)
2. OS: Ubuntu Server 24.04 LTS (free, headless)
3. Cloud: Nextcloud Hub 9 (free, self-hosted) — runs in Docker
4. Domain: $10/year for a .com from Cloudflare Registrar
5. Remote access: Cloudflare Tunnel (free) — no port forwarding, no static IP needed
6. Mounting on my Windows desktop: ScsDriver, $5.5 lifetime

Total: ~$200 upfront, $10/year.

What "good" looks like in 2026

The setup I describe above gives you:

• 16 TB of usable storage (RAID 1 mirror means 8 TB usable from 16 TB raw, but I use mergerfs + SnapRAID for 12 TB usable with one-disk fault tolerance)
• Web access from any browser (Nextcloud web UI)
• Mobile apps for iOS/Android (Nextcloud apps)
• Real Windows drive via ScsDriver WebDAV mount
• End-to-end encryption optional (Nextcloud E2EE)
• Calendar, contacts, notes (Nextcloud bundled)
• No monthly fees (only domain renewal)

How I actually use it

• Movies/TV: stored on the Nextcloud, streamed to my Nvidia Shield via Plex running on the same OptiPlex
• Photos: phone auto-uploads to Nextcloud via the mobile app
• Documents: edited directly via WebDAV mount (ScsDriver), so I get real local file behavior in Windows Explorer
• Backups: nightly rsync to a friend's house (offsite)
• Sharing: Nextcloud share links with expiry dates

What could go wrong (and how I mitigated it)

1. Power outage — UPS ($60) handles 30 min of outage, enough for most grid blips
2. Disk failure — RAID 1 means I can lose one disk and keep going
3. Ransomware — Nextcloud has built-in file versioning (keep 30 days of versions)
4. House fire — offsite rsync to friend's house (above)
5. ISP blocks port 80/443 — Cloudflare Tunnel sidesteps this
6. OS upgrade breaks Nextcloud — Docker means the OS can be reinstalled without touching the data

What I miss about Dropbox

Honestly? Almost nothing. The two things I miss:

1. Dropbox's selective sync UI — it was cleaner than Nextcloud's. (ScsDriver mount mostly compensates, since I don't need selective sync at all.)
2. Dropbox's "camera uploads" speed — slower on Nextcloud mobile, but not painfully so.

That's it.

What I do not miss

• The $120/year
• The 2 TB cap
• The "your account has been suspended for suspicious activity" emails
• The fact that my files were on a server I had no visibility into
• The 5-device sync limit on the basic plan

Is self-hosting for you?

Self-hosting is for you if:

• You have at least 2 TB of data to store (otherwise Dropbox is fine)
• You don't mind spending a weekend on setup
• You have a place to put a small server (closet, basement, under the desk)
• Your internet upload speed is at least 10 Mbps (Nextcloud is much better with fast upload)

If you are a 1-device, 50 GB user, just keep using iCloud. Don't self-host for the sake of it.

The ScsDriver piece (why I mention it)

I keep mentioning ScsDriver because it is the missing piece that makes self-hosted cloud actually usable on Windows. Without a proper mount, you either:

• Sync everything locally (defeats the purpose of "cloud")
• Use the web UI (terrible for daily work)
• Use the desktop client (Nextcloud's is slow, especially on Windows)

ScsDriver mounts the WebDAV endpoint of Nextcloud as a real Z: drive. Files appear on demand, in Windows Explorer, with all the usual OS integration (Spotlight/Quick Look on macOS, Search indexer on Windows).

Pricing (overseas)

• $1.5 / month
• $5.5 / year
• $5.5 lifetime (limited-time, was $9.99)

CN users: the lifetime price in China is ¥20, separately listed on the official site.

FAQ

Q: Can I do this on a Raspberry Pi?
A: Yes, but with caveats. A Pi 4 can serve 1-2 users comfortably. For 5+ users, use an x86 box.

Q: What about power consumption?
A: The OptiPlex idles at ~25 W, so ~$25/year in electricity.

Q: Is it actually cheaper after 5 years?
A: Yes — break-even at 1.5 years, then $120/year saved × 3.5 = $420 saved.

Q: What if my house burns down?
A: That's why I do offsite rsync. Cloud is not backup, and self-hosted is no exception.

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Disclaimer: I run all this on my own hardware. The ScsDriver link above is the public pricing page.