Should I run Nextcloud or Seafile on a small storage VPS?

How much RAM do Nextcloud and Seafile need on a small VPS?

Seafile states a floor of 2 GB for its Community Edition; Nextcloud states no total and sizes memory per PHP process. Nextcloud's server tuning chapter says a typical PHP worker uses 50 to 100 MB and that the default pool runs at most five at once, so five workers at 100 MB take about 500 MB, and a household-sized Nextcloud fits in 2 GB beside its database. Seafile's manual gives 2 GB and 2 cores for the Community Edition without splitting that figure by component.

According to Coffervale's survey of 2 November 2026, 9 of the 14 storage VPS plans of about 1 TB listed by hosts that take crypto without an ID document came with 2 GB of RAM or less, and 4 of those with just 1 GB, half of what Seafile asks for. On a storage VPS, memory runs out long before the disk does. At Coffervale, Silt has 2 GB RAM, Clay 3 GB RAM and Shale 4 GB RAM; the worker arithmetic for each plan is in What is the best VPS for Nextcloud with 1 TB or more of storage?.

Which one runs better on hard disks?

Both run well on hard disks once the database and caches stay small and hot; neither turns an HDD into an SSD. Every plan stores your data on hard disks (HDD) chosen for capacity, not speed: they suit backups, archives and file sync, not databases or heavy random reads and writes. We publish no speed or IOPS figure we cannot back; Is an HDD storage VPS fast enough for backups and Nextcloud? goes through the details. Nextcloud needs APCu and Redis configured by hand, as its manual describes; Seafile's Docker setup ships Redis as its cache. The structural difference is how files are stored. Seafile cuts each file into variable-length blocks with content-defined chunking, which its manual says lets it deduplicate data between versions of a file. Nextcloud keeps each file whole on disk, so other tools on the VPS, such as rsync or a backup client, can read the data directory directly.

Which one keeps my files private from the server?

Seafile's encrypted libraries, used through the desktop client, keep file contents unreadable to the server; Nextcloud needs its end-to-end encryption app for the same. Seafile's manual spells out the limits. Encryption happens on the client only when you sync with the desktop app. Opening an encrypted library in the browser sends the password to the server, which then decrypts the file key, and file metadata such as the full list of file and folder names is not encrypted. The manual also states that an encrypted library does not ensure file integrity.

Nextcloud's server-side encryption module is a different thing: its keys live on the server, and its documentation says it does not protect against a compromised server or a malicious administrator. For data the VPS must never read at all, client-side tools beat both, as in How do I run Syncthing on a VPS as an always-on node?. Whoever runs a hypervisor can technically read an unencrypted virtual disk, at any VPS host. We do not open your files, and data you encrypt before it leaves your machine takes the question off the table.

Which should I choose?

Choose by what you need besides files: nothing, then Seafile; calendars, contacts and shared documents, then Nextcloud. The rest follows from memory and from how you want to reach the data.

Does Nextcloud or Seafile replace a backup?

No: both sync deletions and both keep their only copy on the VPS unless you add another. We take no backup of your server and keep no copy of your data anywhere else, so what sits on a Coffervale storage VPS should be one of your copies, never the only one. Back up the database and the data folder together, because Nextcloud's file list and Seafile's library metadata live in the database, and Seafile's blocks are useless without it. The setup is in How do I use a VPS for off-site backups?, and plan sizes are on How much does a storage VPS cost per month?.