CKAN vs SeaweedFS

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted apps from related categories — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

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FeatureCKANSeaweedFS
CategoryBackup & RecoveryFile Sync & Storage
LicenseAGPL-3.0Apache-2.0
LanguagePythonGo
Setup difficultyMediumHard
Min. RAM512 MB512 MB
Deploymentbare-metaldocker, kubernetes, binary
GitHub stars★ 5,088★ 33,952
First released20262015
ReplacesAmazon S3

Why pick each one

Choose CKAN if…

  • Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
  • Mature project with 5.1k GitHub stars
  • Written in Python
  • Lightweight — runs in 512 MB RAM
CKAN details

Choose SeaweedFS if…

  • Released under the Apache-2.0 license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Kubernetes-ready with Helm charts available
  • Mature project with 34k GitHub stars
SeaweedFS details

Frequently asked questions

Is CKAN or SeaweedFS better?

Neither is universally better. SeaweedFS has the larger community, while CKAN is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.

Are CKAN and SeaweedFS free and open-source?

Yes. CKAN is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and SeaweedFS under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run CKAN and SeaweedFS with Docker?

CKAN: check the project docs for container support. SeaweedFS: yes.

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