SHSelfHostIndex

Magic Wormhole vs PairDrop

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?
MA Magic Wormhole Get things from one computer to another, safely VS PA PairDrop Local and internet file sharing inspired by Snapdrop
FeatureMagic WormholePairDrop
CategoryFile Sync & StorageFile Sync & Storage
LicenseMITGPL-3.0
LanguagePythonJavaScript
Setup difficultyEasyEasy
Min. RAM32 MB64 MB
Deploymentbinarydocker, bare-metal
GitHub stars★ 22,792★ 11,133
First released20162022
ReplacesWeTransfer, AirDropAirDrop, WeTransfer

Why pick each one

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

Choose PairDrop if…

  • Released under the GPL-3.0 license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Mature project with 11.1k GitHub stars
PairDrop details

Frequently asked questions

Is Magic Wormhole or PairDrop 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 Magic Wormhole and PairDrop free and open-source?

Yes. Magic Wormhole is licensed under MIT and PairDrop under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Magic Wormhole and PairDrop with Docker?

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

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