Nextcloud Forms: a private alternative to Google Forms, and how to switch it on

Nextcloud's blog published a guide to Nextcloud Forms on 3 November, pitching it as an alternative to Google Forms and Microsoft Forms. If you already run Nextcloud for your family, club or small business, it is worth five minutes.

What it can do

• Question types: checkboxes, multiple choice, dropdowns, short and long text, dates and times, file uploads, linear and Likert scales, ranking and grids. Short answers can be validated as an email address, phone number or custom pattern.
• Sharing: with chosen users, groups or teams (only account holders can reply), or by public link with an optional expiry date, custom token and QR code for printed posters.
• Limits: set a maximum number of responses and the form closes by itself.
• Permissions: give collaborators edit rights, give results access only to people who need it, and notify owners of new submissions.
• Results: summary charts, individual responses you can search, and CSV export in the Google Forms format. A results file in Nextcloud Files can update automatically.

Anonymous or linked to an account

You choose whether responses are anonymous or tied to the respondent's account, and the form tells people which applies. Write a short privacy notice in the form description; it accepts Markdown.

Switching it on

1. As an administrator, open Apps, find Nextcloud Forms and click Enable (or run occ app:enable forms).
2. In admin settings, consider restricting who can create forms, and whether public links or sharing with all logged-in accounts are allowed.
3. Decide whether to enable the optional extras: custom share links, confirmation emails to respondents and comments. These are off by default.

The post does not state a minimum Nextcloud version, so check the app page in your own instance.

Privacy and compliance: read this part

Nextcloud says responses stay on your own server and that it has no access to them. That is a real advantage over a hosted form service, but compliance is not automatic. The vendor itself states that its GDPR and HIPAA documentation covers Nextcloud Enterprise only, that it strongly advises against the community edition in compliance-critical settings, and that compliance depends on hosting, configuration, agreements and internal processes. These are Nextcloud's claims, repeated here as such.

Practical habits that follow from the post: ask only what you need, prefer structured questions over free text, decide a retention period before launch and state it, and remember that every CSV export is a new copy of personal data, so restrict who can open it and delete it with the rest.

If you have not updated your server recently, do that first: see our October update guide.