I’ve been on a mission to try and wean myself from Google Workspace. Because of that, I’ve tested several options and have found some are worthwhile, while others … not so much. I’ve also found that a combination of different tools can make for a viable alternative.One such tool is Sync-in, which is an open source platform you can deploy to your local LAN for file storage, sharing, collaboration and syncing. Sync-in is designed to give you full control over your data and workflows, and can also adapt to individual use cases.Before I continue, I have found that, although Sync-in is a great platform, it is not a 1:1 alternative for Google Workspace. For instance, although Sync-in does have a file create/edit option, I’ve yet to get that feature to work.After uploading a .docx or .odt file, if I click on it, Sync-in only offers to download the file. If you create a basic .txt file, you should be able to edit it, but for some reason, everything opens in read-only mode.Unfortunately, the documentation is not much help. To get collaborative editing to work, you have to connect Sync-in with an ONLYOFFICE instance. I’ve deployed ONLYOFFICE before (via Docker) and found the Sync-in ONLYOFFICE connectivity to be fairly straightforward. Instead of configuring the Sync-in/ONLYOFFICE connection from within the Sync-in app, you connect them during installation (more on that in a bit).Even with that caveat, Sync-in is a great option for those who are looking to deploy a file-sharing system on their local LAN.What Features Does Sync-in Have?The Sync-in feature set includes the following:Collaborative spaces where you can give different teams access to different data.Sync between applications (there are desktop apps for Linux, macOS and Windows that can be installed directly from your Sync-in deployment).Files and folders can be securely shared within your LAN or to the external internet.Guests and personal groups.Activity tracking.An advanced file manager.Smart search.Real-time collaborative editing (when integrated with ONLYOFFICE).WebDAV integration.With that said, let’s deploy Sync-in.What You’ll NeedThe only things you’ll need for this are an OS that supports Docker, a user with sudo permission (if installing on Linux) and a network connection. I’ll walk through the process on Ubuntu Server 24.04, so if you use a different operating system (or distribution), make sure to alter the installation steps as needed.Installing DockerOn the off chance you don’t already have Docker installed, here’s how you do it on a Ubuntu-based distribution.First, add Docker’s official GPG key with the commands:Next, add the Docker repository to the Apt sources with the following two commands:Install the latest version of Docker with:Add your user to the necessary group with:Log out and log back in so the changes take effect.You should now have access to Docker. To verify the installation, issue the command:You should see an empty listing of images; if so, you’re ready to move on.Installing Sync-inNow it’s time to install Sync-in with Docker. To do this, first make sure you have zip installed with:Next, download the necessary files with:Change into the newly created directory with the command:Next, you need to edit the Environment file with the command:In that file, you’ll find the following lines:Make sure to change everything within double quotes to reflect a strong/unique password and change MySQLRootPassword to another secure/unique password. Save and close the file.Next, open the docker-compose.yaml file and look for the line:Make sure to change what’s between the quotes with the same MySQL password you set in the environments.yaml file.Save and close the file.You can now launch Sync-in with the following command:Make sure to change the user and password to a username and password you’ll want to use to log in as the admin user.Give the installation some time to successfully deploy.Accessing Sync-inTo access your Sync-in deployment, point a web browser to http://SERVER:8080 (where SERVER is the IP address of the hosting server). You should be greeted by the Sync-in login page, where you’ll use the admin credentials you created in the launch command.You should now find yourself on the main Sync-in page (Figure 1).Figure 1. Sync-in is deployed and ready to be used.ONLYOFFICE IntegrationYou have to configure ONLYOFFICE before you deploy Sync-in. To do this, open the docker-compose.yaml file and look for the following lines near the top:Make sure to remove those lines that are commented out (remove the leading # characters).Open the environment.yaml file, and change the lines:To:Make sure to change onlyOfficeSecret to a strong/unique password.Save the file.Next, you must edit the included nginx.conf file with the command:In that file, locate and uncomment the line (at the bottom of the file):Finally, open the onlyoffice config file with the command:Change - JWT_SECRET=onlyOfficeSecret to reflect the password you changed in the onlyoffice.yaml file.Save and close the file.Run the following to deploy:And that’s all there is to deploying your own in-house sync server with the help of Docker.The post Need a Google Workspace Alternative? Try Sync-in appeared first on The New Stack.