croc vs h5ai

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?
Featurecroch5ai
CategoryFile Sync & StorageFile Sync & Storage
LicenseMITMIT
LanguageGoJavaScript
Setup difficultyEasyEasy
Min. RAM32 MB64 MB
Deploymentbinarybare-metal
GitHub stars★ 39,485★ 6,052
First released20182012
ReplacesWeTransfer, AirDropGoogle Drive

Why pick each one

Choose croc if…

  • Released under the MIT license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • Mature project with 39.5k GitHub stars
  • Written in Go
croc details

Choose h5ai if…

  • Released under the MIT license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • Mature project with 6.1k GitHub stars
  • Written in JavaScript
h5ai details

Frequently asked questions

Is croc or h5ai better?

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

Are croc and h5ai free and open-source?

Yes. croc is licensed under MIT and h5ai under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run croc and h5ai with Docker?

croc: check the project docs for container support. h5ai: check the project docs for container support.

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