Puter vs Rclone

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted apps from related categories — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
FeaturePuterRclone
CategoryFile Sync & StorageBackup & Recovery
LicenseAGPL-3.0MIT
LanguageTypeScriptGo
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM512 MB128 MB
Deploymentdockerbinary, docker
GitHub stars★ 43,003★ 58,995
First released20262014
ReplacesBackblaze

Why pick each one

Choose Puter if…

  • Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Mature project with 43k GitHub stars
  • Written in TypeScript
Puter details

Choose Rclone if…

  • Works with almost any cloud
  • Extremely versatile
  • Reliable
Rclone details

Frequently asked questions

Is Puter or Rclone better?

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

Are Puter and Rclone free and open-source?

Yes. Puter is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Rclone under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Puter and Rclone with Docker?

Puter: yes. Rclone: yes.

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