The only sync option? My Pictures go to NextCloud, my contacts and calendar are on NextCloud, and in contrast to Android (I recently switched) I don't even need an app (like davx5, great app though, as said here) to sync them, it all just works from the standard contacts and calendar app. Oh and the mail app doens't push me anywhere, it just works with my local provider via IMAP.
My vpn is a Wireguard server (and some Tailscale, recently tested mullvad, works great as well), my position is updated to my family via Home Assistant, Bitwarden pops up automatically anywhere I need to enter a password. Podverse is great for podcasts.
Sure, it's a walled garden and I have my annoyances but much less so than I was led to believe before I got my first iPhone last year. I find it easy to swap out default components where I don't like them (like iCloud and Apple podcasts) and use them when they are superior (like the calendar and mail app, I was always trying 3rd party apps on Android).
Does your NextCloud sync in the background like iCloud does? I don't believe third-party apps have access to background usage, unless something has changed since I last used iOS.
Photos are synced in the background via location change events (and thus requiring Location permission). It can be a bit unreliable from time to time, but generally works. Contacts and calendars are synced in the background via iOS' CalDav/CardDav integration.
Nextcloud app also exposed itself as file provider in Files.app, so it's possible to use it in place of iCloud Drive for apps that use the appropriate API. (Unfortunately most apps use CloudKit, which sync over iCloud.)
Ah, I see this now. Me and my boyfriend tried switching to Nextcloud a few years ago, but this wasn't implemented on iOS yet so we had to look elsewhere. Nice to see this opened up, it's about time. Hopefully they'll reverse their sideloading opinions as well.
It really got a lot better over the past years indeed. I do miss support for Heic, recently NC just decided to upload Jpeg instead of Heic, and I have mixed feeling about that (Jpeg just works, the new pictures app is great because of it... But I would prefer to have heic and live images everywhere...).
My vpn is a Wireguard server (and some Tailscale, recently tested mullvad, works great as well), my position is updated to my family via Home Assistant, Bitwarden pops up automatically anywhere I need to enter a password. Podverse is great for podcasts.
Sure, it's a walled garden and I have my annoyances but much less so than I was led to believe before I got my first iPhone last year. I find it easy to swap out default components where I don't like them (like iCloud and Apple podcasts) and use them when they are superior (like the calendar and mail app, I was always trying 3rd party apps on Android).