Same destination, two very different maintenance lives. Choose the route you will still be happy with at the third year, not the third hour.
Almost every guide quietly assumes one install route. In reality you have a real choice: Docker containers or a classic bare metal install - and for OnlyOffice especially, the vendor's own packaging pushes one way. This page compares the two honestly so you pick the maintenance life you actually want.
OnlyOffice publishes its Docs server primarily as a Docker image, and Nextcloud offers an official All-in-One Docker setup that bundles the web server, database, and extras into managed containers. You describe the system once (a compose file or the AIO master container), start it, and updates become pulling new images.
The honest strengths: fastest path to a working system, the environment matches the vendor's test environment (so guides and error messages line up), and rebuilding a broken Docs server is a ten-minute job instead of an archaeology project.
Installing Nextcloud directly with Apache or Nginx, PHP and MariaDB, and OnlyOffice from its Linux packages, gives full control: you see every config file, tune PHP exactly, and avoid a container layer entirely. Experienced Linux admins run this happily for years.
The honest costs: every part is your maintenance job - PHP version upgrades, package conflicts, service files - and OnlyOffice package installs have more moving parts (its internal database, message queue and cache services) than the single container suggests. When something breaks, you debug your unique snowflake, not the vendor's standard box.
Whichever route you pick, write down how your install works - where the data lives, what the JWT secret is, which ports and proxy rules exist. Six months later, the person debugging at midnight (usually you) will not remember. Containers do not remove the need for documentation; they just change what the documentation says.
The video builds the working system end to end - use it to see how little ceremony the container route needs.
Watch Full VideoFor this workload, no meaningful difference on normal hardware. Document editing is not held back by the container layer; RAM, disk speed and network decide the experience. Choose on maintenance style, not on feared performance loss.
Yes, and it is a common sensible pattern. Nextcloud installed with packages, OnlyOffice as its official container behind the same reverse proxy. The integration does not care how each side is packaged - it cares about addresses, HTTPS and the shared secret.
Docker, slightly - the services are reproducible from a compose file or AIO config, so a restore focuses on data, database and secrets. Bare metal restores need the package and config state too. Either way, test the restore before you need it.