Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive and Box rent the byte and the share link. Nextcloud is AGPL-3.0 and stores the byte on a disk the client controls. That is the whole category. It is also the category people underestimate, because the file is never just a file.
What breaks in practice?
Desktop sync clients, shared-link habits, and the folder that was also a permissions model. Nextcloud has clients. They are not Dropbox's clients. Pilot with the team that shares outside the company before you move the archive.
How does this relate to documents?
The file store and the editor are separable. The editor side is in documents you rent versus documents you keep, which covers OnlyOffice and BookStack. A client can own the disk and still edit in a tool they rent, if that is the cheaper split.
When should storage stay rented?
When the company is already paying for Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace and Drive is not the bill they feel. Own storage when the archive is large, sensitive, or leaving the vendor would mean leaving the only copy.
What do we hand over?
We select the system, deploy it on infrastructure you control, connect it to the tools you keep, and write the runbook so your own team can operate it. Support after handover is optional. The rest of the map is in software you can stop renting; the engagement behind it is open-source business systems.
Name one process that still needs a person. We will tell you what a one-time build takes.
Contact us today