Spacedrive vs slskd

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted file sync & storage options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

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FeatureSpacedriveslskd
CategoryFile Sync & StorageFile Sync & Storage
LicenseAGPL-3.0AGPL-3.0
LanguageRustC#
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM512 MB512 MB
Deploymentbinarydocker
GitHub stars★ 38,732★ 3,698
First released20222026
ReplacesGoogle Drive, Dropbox

Why pick each one

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

Choose slskd if…

  • Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Active community (3.7k GitHub stars)
  • Written in C#
slskd details

Frequently asked questions

Is Spacedrive or slskd better?

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

Are Spacedrive and slskd free and open-source?

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

Can I run Spacedrive and slskd with Docker?

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

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