PicoShare vs Spacedrive

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?
FeaturePicoShareSpacedrive
CategoryFile Sync & StorageFile Sync & Storage
LicenseAGPL-3.0AGPL-3.0
LanguageGoRust
Setup difficultyEasyMedium
Min. RAM64 MB512 MB
Deploymentdocker, binarybinary
GitHub stars★ 2,971★ 38,732
First released20212022
ReplacesDropbox, WeTransferGoogle Drive, Dropbox

Why pick each one

Choose PicoShare if…

  • Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Active community (3k GitHub stars)
PicoShare details

Choose Spacedrive if…

  • Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
  • Mature project with 38.7k GitHub stars
  • Written in Rust
  • Lightweight — runs in 512 MB RAM
Spacedrive details

Frequently asked questions

Is PicoShare or Spacedrive better?

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

Are PicoShare and Spacedrive free and open-source?

Yes. PicoShare is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Spacedrive under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run PicoShare and Spacedrive with Docker?

PicoShare: yes. Spacedrive: check the project docs for container support.

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