Duplicati vs Syncthing

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

Not the right match-up?
FeatureDuplicatiSyncthing
CategoryBackup & RecoveryFile Sync & Storage
LicenseMITMPL-2.0
LanguageC#Go
Setup difficultyEasyEasy
Min. RAM256 MB128 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metaldocker, binary, bare-metal
GitHub stars★ 14,864★ 87,439
First released20082014
ReplacesBackblaze, CarboniteDropbox, Resilio Sync

Why pick each one

Choose Duplicati if…

  • Friendly GUI
  • Broad storage support
  • Free
Duplicati details

Choose Syncthing if…

  • No central server needed
  • Very private by design
  • Lightweight and reliable
Syncthing details

Frequently asked questions

Is Duplicati or Syncthing better?

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

Are Duplicati and Syncthing free and open-source?

Yes. Duplicati is licensed under MIT and Syncthing under MPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Duplicati and Syncthing with Docker?

Duplicati: yes. Syncthing: yes.

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