Garage vs SeaweedFS

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?
FeatureGarageSeaweedFS
CategoryFile Sync & StorageFile Sync & Storage
LicenseAGPL-3.0Apache-2.0
LanguageRustGo
Setup difficultyHardHard
Min. RAM512 MB512 MB
Deploymentdocker, binarydocker, kubernetes, binary
GitHub stars★ 1,600★ 33,952
First released20212015
ReplacesAmazon S3, DropboxAmazon S3

Why pick each one

Choose Garage if…

  • Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Active community (1.6k GitHub stars)
  • Written in Rust
Garage details

Choose SeaweedFS if…

  • Released under the Apache-2.0 license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Kubernetes-ready with Helm charts available
  • Mature project with 34k GitHub stars
SeaweedFS details

Frequently asked questions

Is Garage or SeaweedFS better?

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

Are Garage and SeaweedFS free and open-source?

Yes. Garage is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and SeaweedFS under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Garage and SeaweedFS with Docker?

Garage: yes. SeaweedFS: yes.

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