Alfresco Community Edition vs Filestash
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted document management options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Filestash
Web-based file manager and document gateway
| Feature | Alfresco Community Edition | Filestash |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 70 · Good | 93 · Excellent |
| Category | Document Management | Document Management |
| License | LGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | Java | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 4,096 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, binary, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 230 | ★ 14,711 |
| First released | 2005 | 2017 |
| Replaces | SharePoint, Documentum | Dropbox, SharePoint |
What are Alfresco Community Edition and Filestash?
Alfresco Community Edition
Alfresco Community Edition is an open-source enterprise content management platform handling documents, records, and business processes. It supports versioning, metadata, full-text search, and BPM-driven workflows.
- Full-text search
- Records management
- BPM workflows
- Rich metadata
Filestash
Filestash is an open-source web file manager that connects to many storage backends such as S3, SFTP, FTP, and WebDAV. It provides document viewing, organization, and editing through a single interface.
- Connects to many storage backends
- Document and media viewers
- Office document editing
- Lightweight single binary
Alfresco Community Edition vs Filestash: key differences
Alfresco Community Edition is written in Java, while Filestash is built with Go. Licensing differs — LGPL-3.0 for Alfresco Community Edition versus AGPL-3.0 for Filestash. Filestash is the lighter option, starting around 256 MB of RAM against 4,096 MB for Alfresco Community Edition. Alfresco Community Edition is the more established project (first released 2005), while Filestash arrived in 2017. Filestash has the considerably larger community, at 14,711 GitHub stars versus 230.
Why pick each one
Choose Alfresco Community Edition if…
- Enterprise grade features
- Strong API
Watch out for
- Resource hungry
- Complex to operate
Choose Filestash if…
- Unifies access to many backends
- Easy deployment
Watch out for
- Not a full archival DMS
- Some features require a license key
Frequently asked questions
Is Alfresco Community Edition or Filestash better?
Filestash is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Alfresco Community Edition if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Alfresco Community Edition and Filestash free and open-source?
Yes. Alfresco Community Edition is licensed under LGPL-3.0 and Filestash under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Alfresco Community Edition and Filestash with Docker?
Alfresco Community Edition: yes. Filestash: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Alfresco Community Edition or Filestash?
Filestash has the smaller minimum footprint at 256 MB of RAM, compared to about 4,096 MB for Alfresco Community Edition. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.