I want to use a Raspberry Pi 5 as a home server for web and graphic design projects. My current iCloud Drive workflow is unreliable when my colleague uploads large files: downloads sometimes fail, and I cannot start another upload until the first one finishes.
I already have a Raspberry Pi 5 with 16GB RAM and a Samsung T7 2TB external SSD. I am considering using Tailscale with Nextcloud, or a similar file-sync platform, so the server appears like a normal folder on our computers and my colleague and I can access shared files from different locations.
Has anyone used a setup like this? Is it practical for remote collaboration with files up to around 1GB, and is Nextcloud with Tailscale a sensible approach?
4 Answers
For services that need to be reachable publicly, a reverse proxy such as Caddy or Traefik, or a tunnel service, can provide HTTPS without opening router ports. Whichever approach you choose, test simultaneous uploads and downloads, monitor disk space, and keep an independent backup of the project files.
Yes, this hardware should handle it well, especially with the SSD rather than a microSD card. Nextcloud is probably the closest match to the shared-folder experience you want, and it can manage user accounts, shared folders, desktop clients, and file versioning. A Pi 5 with 16GB of RAM should have plenty of headroom for a modest two-person installation, although you should still configure regular backups because the SSD itself is not a backup.
Tailscale makes sense if you want private access between machines in different locations without exposing the server directly to the internet. It is not inherently limited to tiny files, so transfers around 1GB are possible. Your real-world speed will depend on both internet connections, upload bandwidth at the house, latency, and whether the connection can establish a direct peer-to-peer route. If Tailscale has to use a relay, transfers may be noticeably slower.
That was my concern with remote access. We work from different places and often travel, so a private connection like Tailscale seems useful. I will check whether our connections support direct paths and test large files before committing to the setup.
Another option is a straightforward SFTP server over Tailscale if you only need secure file access and do not need Nextcloud's web interface, syncing, sharing controls, or version history. For a more normal file-browser experience across multiple computers, Nextcloud is likely the better fit. Docker Compose can make it easier to deploy and update Nextcloud along with its database and reverse proxy.
I run a larger Nextcloud setup with collaboration features and it uses only a few gigabytes of memory, so 16GB should be more than enough for this use case.