Spacedrive vs SparkleShare

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?
FeatureSpacedriveSparkleShare
CategoryFile Sync & StorageFile Sync & Storage
LicenseAGPL-3.0GPL-3.0
LanguageRustC#
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM512 MB128 MB
Deploymentbinarybare-metal, binary
GitHub stars★ 38,732★ 4,971
First released20222010
ReplacesGoogle Drive, DropboxDropbox

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 SparkleShare if…

  • Full history of every change
  • Works over plain SSH
SparkleShare details

Frequently asked questions

Is Spacedrive or SparkleShare 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 SparkleShare free and open-source?

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

Can I run Spacedrive and SparkleShare with Docker?

Spacedrive: check the project docs for container support. SparkleShare: check the project docs for container support.

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