File Browser vs gallery-dl
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?
Compare File Browser with
choose an app… Immich Syncthing LocalSend MinIO Rclone copyparty Puter PhotoPrism croc Spacedrive Nextcloud Restic SeaweedFS Cloudreve Ente Photos DeepFace Magic Wormhole Snapdrop Kubo (IPFS) Ceph transfer.sh ProjectSend alt: Vert.sh File converter Seafile Duplicati Filestash Stalwart Kopia Color Thief BorgBackup darktable SFTPGo PairDrop ShareDrop Dufs Thumbor qrcp Nextcloud All-in-One Velero FilePizza OctoPrint ownCloud LibrePhotos CryptPad miniserve FileBrowser Quantum bup Conduit File Sync Backrest Resilio Sync alternative Onionshare wger Photoview closet GoToSocial NoNo upspin imaginary h5ai Tiny File Manager Send Google Photos Takeout Helper OpenCloud WebDAV Server Go Duplicacy Unison Flying Carpet Papra CKAN SparkleShare elFinder Pingvin Share gocryptfs Kinto pgBackRest Syncthing Android Wrapper bitmagnet Nextcloud Desktop Sync slskd Updog Zipline FileGator PicoShare RcloneView gohttpserver Gokapi LubeLogger Chibisafe Mazanoke Syncthing-Fork Directory Lister Peergos Palmr Reitti CryFS Pydio Cells Mainsail OpenCloud Files Enclosed git-annex ProjectSend Zenko CloudServer bittorrent-tracker Apaxy PsiTransfer Plik Firefox SyncStorage Nextcloud companion go-filecoin none WebDAV-Aria Syncany Sync-in HortusFox FreeFileSync Garage Linx Slink Sharry rmfakecloud Morphos server Picsur rsync.net alternative Stash NoDuplicate HomeHub Uguu rustypaste XBackBone Zen scanservjs Gossa Threema Web FileRise Pomf Readur Poznote Webtor QuickShare ownCloud Web DumbDrop Wingfit Local Content Share Cryptomator CLI 015 IFM mikochi Open Web Calendar ThinkDashboard Davros goploader Lufi Files Sharing Filebin Kleeja Z-Push PrivyDrop Flare Nephele File Drop Cryptomator Hub hash-calendar ZeroNote Pydio Cells Sync Shifter Passky Client Pydio Cells Client elixire Dropgate Server IPFS Podcasting Digirecord Feber FileRun GoSƐ Jirafeau LibreOffice pacebin Resilio Sync ResourceSpace Samba slcl Surfer Yetishare
Compare gallery-dl with
choose an app… Immich Syncthing LocalSend MinIO Jellyfin copyparty Puter PhotoPrism croc qBittorrent Spacedrive Nextcloud SeaweedFS SRS Cloudreve Ente Photos DeepFace Magic Wormhole Navidrome Kodi Koel Jackett Beets PeerTube Transmission Sonarr MeTube Color Thief darktable Thumbor LibrePhotos Photoview imaginary Google Photos Takeout Helper Lychee Piwigo Memories Hydrus Network Danbooru OwnPhotos Images.weserv.nl ExifCleaner PiGallery2 Photonix ChronoFrame Damselfly Immich Kiosk exifr digiKam HomeGallery Chevereto PictShare Sigal mangadex-downloader thumbsup nanogallery2 Nextcloud Photos Damselfly Web Photofield manga-py Shotwell Server Zenphoto Lutim fgallery SPIS Memtly Mejiro This week in past Coppermine Tonido Photos MyPhotoShare Mediagoblin PhotoStructure Reservo Single File PHP Gallery
Feature File Browser gallery-dl Category File Sync & Storage Photo Management License Apache-2.0 GPL-2.0 Language Go Python Setup difficulty Easy Easy Min. RAM 64 MB 128 MB Deployment docker, binary bare-metal, binary, source GitHub stars ★ 35,800 ★ 19,143 First released 2017 2015 Replaces Dropbox Manual downloads
Why pick each one
Choose File Browser if… Extremely lightweight Trivial to deploy Good for quick file access File Browser details Choose gallery-dl if… Supports hundreds of sites Very actively maintained gallery-dl details
Frequently asked questions Is File Browser or gallery-dl better? Neither is universally better. File Browser has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are File Browser and gallery-dl free and open-source? Yes. File Browser is licensed under Apache-2.0 and gallery-dl under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run File Browser and gallery-dl with Docker? File Browser: yes. gallery-dl: check the project docs for container support.