Branding and theming — Nextcloud in your own look · Knowledge

basic · Last updated 16 July 2026

Out of the box, Nextcloud comes in classic Nextcloud blue. For company, club, or simply tasteful private setups, theming is worth it — your own logo, your own colors, your own slogans. Here’s what you can do as Nextcloud admin and where the limits are.

Where to configure theming

In Administration settings → Theming (standard app, always active).

Required permission: admin account.

What options exist

Name

Default: “Nextcloud”. Changeable to “Club Cloud”, “Müller GmbH”, “Schmidt Family Cloud” — whatever.

Appears in the browser tab title, in mail notifications, on the login screen.

Web address

The URL of your website — shown as the footer link.

Slogan

Subtitle on the login page. Default: “a safe home for all your data”.

Handy for clubs: “The cloud of the Pegasus club”. Or companies: “Data home of Müller GmbH”.

Color

Hex code of your main color. Used for:

Header bar
Login screen accents
Buttons (primary)
Various UI elements

Tip: for company setups, use your brand’s main color. Watch the contrast — very dark colors can make white text unreadable, very light colors give too little contrast.

Recommended tones: a hex code with 25–60% lightness usually works well.

Background logo

Logo file for the login page. PNG with a transparent background. Sensible size: 256×256 px or larger.

We recommend a square logo, because the layout is designed for that.

Background image

Photo on the login page behind the login form. JPEG or PNG. Recommended resolution: 1920×1080 or higher.

Subtle images work best — overloaded images distract from the login form.

Favicon

Icon in the browser tab. PNG, at least 32×32 px (or a multi-resolution ICO).

App icon (for mobile apps and desktop client)

Partially shown in the apps, when the apps support it.

Custom links in the footer of the login page and in the status bar. Good for legal notice, privacy policy, terms.

Legal notice and privacy URL

Important for GDPR and TMG compliance: theming has dedicated fields for these.

Legal notice URL: shows a legal-notice link
Privacy URL: shows a privacy-policy link

For companies / clubs: mandatory for employee logins. Privately, irrelevant.

Preview and saving

While editing on the theming page you don’t get a live preview — you have to save the change and then open the login page, e.g. in an incognito window.

A setting stays until you overwrite it. The reset button (X next to each field) takes you back to the default.

What theming does not change

App icons inside the cloud (Files icon, Talk icon, etc.): stay standard Nextcloud
Detail UI like buttons, fonts: accents only, no full redesign
Mobile apps: use standard Nextcloud branding (unless you have the enterprise edition with white-label apps)
Mail body of system mails (e.g. sharing notifications): partially customizable, but only in limited form

For deeper branding (a completely custom UI) you’d need your own theme apps or custom CSS injection — at xaweho we do that on request as a custom job.

Example configuration

A typical club setup:

Field	Value
Name	”Sports Club Cloud”
Web address	`https://sportverein-musterstadt.de`
Slogan	”Data and dates for our club”
Color	`#0E5C3F` (club color green)
Logo	club logo, square PNG
Background image	photo of the sports ground
Favicon	club icon
Legal notice URL	`https://sportverein-musterstadt.de/impressum`
Privacy URL	`https://sportverein-musterstadt.de/datenschutz`

Result: users see clearly at login that they’re on the club’s cloud. Looks credible, builds trust.

Custom CSS for deeper changes

The theming app has an Advanced field for custom CSS. With it you can tweak specific UI elements, e.g.:

#header {
  border-bottom: 3px solid #ffd700;
}
.app-navigation {
  font-family: "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif;
}

Careful: bad CSS can break the UI. Only use it if you understand CSS and have tried it in a test cloud first.

At xaweho: open a ticket if you want more complex CSS changes — we can do that with a test setup and a review.

White-label mobile apps

Standard: users see “Nextcloud” as the app name in the Apple App Store / Google Play.

With an enterprise license and a white-label setup: your own app in the app store with your own name, logo, colors. Classic use case for companies that want to give their employees a “company app”.

White-label apps are an individual job: one-time setup costs plus yearly app store fees at Apple and Google. Open a ticket, we’ll put together a concrete offer.

Frequently asked questions

Do regular users see the theming settings? No, admins only. Users get the rendered theme, but can’t change anything.

Can I have different themes per user? In standard Nextcloud, no — theming is global. Special apps (e.g. Multi-Theme) would make it possible, but that’s rarely used.

My logo shows up distorted — what now? Check the logo file: square is optimal, transparent background. For very narrow logos, enlarging with padding helps.

Background image too blurry / too high-contrast? Edit the image: reduce brightness, apply a slight blur, not too much contrast — the login form has to stay readable.

Are theming settings included in your backup? Yes. At xaweho a server backup runs daily; the theming config files are in there.

Theming breaks something — how do I go back? Use the X button per field (“reset to default”). Or the global “reset all settings” in the theming app.

Can I have the login page without any logo / background at all? Yes, just leave the defaults — standard Nextcloud look.

Do theming changes take effect immediately? Yes, in the browser after an F5 reload. With aggressive browser caching: hard reload (Cmd+Shift+R / Ctrl+Shift+R).

Branding and theming — Nextcloud in your own look