copyparty vs DumbDrop

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted file sync & storage options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
FeaturecopypartyDumbDrop
CategoryFile Sync & StorageFile Sync & Storage
LicenseMITGPL-3.0
LanguagePythonJavaScript
Setup difficultyEasyEasy
Min. RAM64 MB70 MB
Deploymentdocker, binarybare-metal
GitHub stars★ 46,121★ 561
First released20192025
ReplacesDropbox, Google Drive

Why pick each one

Choose copyparty if…

  • Released under the MIT license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Mature project with 46.1k GitHub stars
copyparty details

Choose DumbDrop if…

  • Released under the GPL-3.0 license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • Written in JavaScript
  • Tiny footprint — runs in 70 MB RAM
DumbDrop details

Frequently asked questions

Is copyparty or DumbDrop better?

Neither is universally better. copyparty has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are copyparty and DumbDrop free and open-source?

Yes. copyparty is licensed under MIT and DumbDrop under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run copyparty and DumbDrop with Docker?

copyparty: yes. DumbDrop: check the project docs for container support.

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