“Privacy-invasive cloud services,” “isolated users” and “small, disconnected instances” are what comes to mind when we think of self-hosting. It gives users control, but it also isolates them, with each server becoming a separate island.

Cloudillo changes this. It is a self-hosted application platform that makes collaboration extensible, privacy-preserving, and organic — letting groups and organizations collaborate freely across different installations without relying on any centralizing infrastructure, while keeping their data private and under their control.

At its core, Cloudillo provides all the building blocks of a modern collaboration suite: file storage, real-time database, live editing, social interactions, and user identity.

But what’s the kicker with Cloudillo? It is that these are not closed features, but open APIs developers can use to build new applications that integrate seamlessly into the platform. A built-in DNS + PKI-based identity layer enables people and organizations to connect securely, exchange data, and seamlessly share both content and applications across independently hosted Cloudillo instances — without any third-party coordination service.

Cloudillo’s entire backend is delivered as a single 30MB Rust binary, with no external dependencies. It emphasizes simplicity, performance, and security. Developers can deploy it in minutes, extend it in Rust, or build applications in TypeScript, then immediately gain access to a global framework for distributed collaboration.

This short talk introduces the concept behind Cloudillo, explains its technical foundations, and demonstrates how developers can create their own apps — apps that reach beyond a single server, thanks to Cloudillo — the platform that aims to make privacy-first collaboration not just possible, but convenient and open for innovation.