Evaluation in progress
We are testing three replacements for Google Drive. Nothing has been chosen yet.
Three self hosted platforms are running side by side on one throwaway server, so chapter members can compare them by using them rather than by reading a feature list. When testing closes, the Tech Committee writes up what was found and brings it to the chapter.
Pilot record
- Status
- Open for testing
- Platforms under test
- Three
- Feedback closes
- September 13, 2026
- Decision
- Not yet made
Under test
The three platforms
Each one is a working install with test accounts and the same set of invented documents in it. They are listed alphabetically. The order means nothing, and neither does the fact that two of them do similar jobs.
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Under test
CryptPad
Encrypts documents in your browser before they reach the server, so whoever runs the server cannot read them. In exchange there is no password reset and no way to recover lost work.
cryptpad.odsapilot.com
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Under test
Nextcloud
The most established of the three. Files, folders, sharing, and a full office suite for editing documents together in the browser.
nextcloud.odsapilot.com
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Under test
OpenCloud
Newer and deliberately simpler. Files live in Spaces rather than in one large folder tree, and it shares the same office suite as Nextcloud.
opencloud.odsapilot.com
Testers wanted
Want to help test?
Message the Tech Committee Co-Chairs, currently Esteban and Sebastian, on Discord or Slack. You will get an account on two of the three platforms and a one page guide with six short tasks, about twenty minutes each.
Being comfortable with computers is not a requirement. If you are not, you are the person whose feedback matters most here.
There is nothing to fill in on this page, and no form anywhere in the pilot itself. Accounts are handed out one at a time by a person, over Signal, because some of them are links that work as passwords.
Known problem
If CryptPad shows you a blank page
CryptPad loads its editor from a second address, cryptpad-sandbox.odsapilot.com,
as a deliberate security boundary. You never open that address yourself, but your
browser does, and privacy tools often read it as tracking and block it. What you see
is a blank pane, or a sign up that hangs on "Hashing password" forever, with no error
message anywhere. The fix is one toggle: open cryptpad.odsapilot.com,
click the shield icon in the address bar, and turn Enhanced Tracking Protection off
for that site. If you use a content blocker such as uBlock Origin, Privacy Badger or
Brave Shields, allow both hostnames in the blocker's own settings. Tell us if you hit
this, because how often it happens is one of the things we are measuring.