Pingvin Share 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?
FeaturePingvin ShareSpacedrive
CategoryFile Sync & StorageFile Sync & Storage
LicenseBSD-2-ClauseAGPL-3.0
LanguageTypeScriptRust
Setup difficultyEasyMedium
Min. RAM256 MB512 MB
Deploymentdockerbinary
GitHub stars★ 4,684★ 38,732
First released20222022
ReplacesWeTransfer, Firefox SendGoogle Drive, Dropbox

Why pick each one

Choose Pingvin Share if…

  • Released under the BSD-2-Clause license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Active community (4.7k GitHub stars)
Pingvin Share 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 Pingvin Share or Spacedrive better?

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

Are Pingvin Share and Spacedrive free and open-source?

Yes. Pingvin Share is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and Spacedrive under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Pingvin Share and Spacedrive with Docker?

Pingvin Share: yes. Spacedrive: check the project docs for container support.

Related comparisons