Dufs vs Magic Wormhole

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?
FeatureDufsMagic Wormhole
CategoryFile Sync & StorageFile Sync & Storage
LicenseApache-2.0MIT
LanguageRustPython
Setup difficultyEasyEasy
Min. RAM32 MB32 MB
Deploymentdocker, binarybinary
GitHub stars★ 10,562★ 22,792
First released20222016
ReplacesDropbox, Google DriveWeTransfer, AirDrop

Why pick each one

Choose Dufs if…

  • Released under the Apache-2.0 license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Mature project with 10.6k GitHub stars
Dufs details

Choose Magic Wormhole if…

  • Released under the MIT license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • Mature project with 22.8k GitHub stars
  • Written in Python
Magic Wormhole details

Frequently asked questions

Is Dufs or Magic Wormhole better?

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

Are Dufs and Magic Wormhole free and open-source?

Yes. Dufs is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Magic Wormhole under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Dufs and Magic Wormhole with Docker?

Dufs: yes. Magic Wormhole: check the project docs for container support.

Related comparisons