DumbDrop vs Spacedrive

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

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FeatureDumbDropSpacedrive
CategoryFile Sync & StorageFile Sync & Storage
LicenseGPL-3.0AGPL-3.0
LanguageJavaScriptRust
Setup difficultyEasyMedium
Min. RAM70 MB512 MB
Deploymentbare-metalbinary
GitHub stars★ 561★ 38,732
First released20252022
ReplacesGoogle Drive, Dropbox

Why pick each one

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

Choose Spacedrive if…

  • Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
  • Mature project with 38.7k GitHub stars
  • Written in Rust
  • Lightweight — runs in 512 MB RAM
Spacedrive details

Frequently asked questions

Is DumbDrop or Spacedrive better?

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

Are DumbDrop and Spacedrive free and open-source?

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

Can I run DumbDrop and Spacedrive with Docker?

DumbDrop: check the project docs for container support. Spacedrive: check the project docs for container support.

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