ownCloud 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?
FeatureownCloudSeaweedFS
CategoryFile Sync & StorageFile Sync & Storage
LicenseAGPL-3.0Apache-2.0
LanguagePHPGo
Setup difficultyMediumHard
Min. RAM512 MB512 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metaldocker, kubernetes, binary
GitHub stars★ 8,831★ 33,952
First released20102015
ReplacesDropbox, Google DriveAmazon S3

Why pick each one

Choose ownCloud if…

  • Mature and stable
  • Enterprise features available
  • Good admin controls
ownCloud 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 ownCloud or SeaweedFS better?

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

Are ownCloud and SeaweedFS free and open-source?

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

Can I run ownCloud and SeaweedFS with Docker?

ownCloud: yes. SeaweedFS: yes.

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