Puter vs Seafile
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?
Compare Puter with
choose an app… Immich Syncthing LocalSend MinIO Rclone copyparty PhotoPrism croc Spacedrive Nextcloud File Browser Restic SeaweedFS Cloudreve Ente Photos DeepFace Magic Wormhole Snapdrop gallery-dl Kubo (IPFS) Ceph transfer.sh ProjectSend alt: Vert.sh File converter Duplicati Stalwart Kopia Color Thief BorgBackup darktable SFTPGo PairDrop ShareDrop Dufs Thumbor qrcp Nextcloud All-in-One Velero FilePizza OctoPrint ownCloud LibrePhotos CryptPad miniserve FileBrowser Quantum bup Conduit File Sync Backrest Resilio Sync alternative Onionshare wger Photoview closet GoToSocial NoNo upspin imaginary h5ai Tiny File Manager Send Google Photos Takeout Helper OpenCloud WebDAV Server Go Duplicacy Unison Flying Carpet CKAN SparkleShare elFinder Pingvin Share gocryptfs Kinto pgBackRest Syncthing Android Wrapper bitmagnet Nextcloud Desktop Sync slskd Updog Zipline FileGator PicoShare RcloneView gohttpserver Gokapi LubeLogger Chibisafe Mazanoke Syncthing-Fork Directory Lister Peergos Palmr Reitti CryFS Pydio Cells Mainsail OpenCloud Files Enclosed git-annex ProjectSend Zenko CloudServer bittorrent-tracker Apaxy PsiTransfer Plik Firefox SyncStorage Nextcloud companion go-filecoin none WebDAV-Aria Syncany Sync-in HortusFox FreeFileSync Garage Linx Slink Sharry rmfakecloud Morphos server Picsur rsync.net alternative Stash NoDuplicate HomeHub Uguu rustypaste XBackBone Zen scanservjs Gossa Threema Web FileRise Pomf Readur Poznote Webtor QuickShare ownCloud Web DumbDrop Wingfit Local Content Share Cryptomator CLI 015 IFM mikochi Open Web Calendar ThinkDashboard Davros goploader Lufi Files Sharing Filebin Kleeja Z-Push PrivyDrop Flare Nephele File Drop Cryptomator Hub hash-calendar ZeroNote Pydio Cells Sync Shifter Passky Client Pydio Cells Client elixire Dropgate Server IPFS Podcasting Digirecord Feber FileRun GoSƐ Jirafeau LibreOffice pacebin Resilio Sync ResourceSpace Samba slcl Surfer Yetishare
Compare Seafile with
choose an app… Syncthing LocalSend MinIO copyparty croc Spacedrive Nextcloud File Browser SeaweedFS Cloudreve Magic Wormhole Snapdrop Kubo (IPFS) Ceph transfer.sh ProjectSend alt: Vert.sh File converter Filestash Stalwart SFTPGo PairDrop ShareDrop Dufs qrcp Nextcloud All-in-One FilePizza ownCloud CryptPad FileBrowser Quantum Conduit File Sync Resilio Sync alternative Onionshare closet GoToSocial NoNo upspin h5ai Tiny File Manager OpenCloud WebDAV Server Go Unison Papra SparkleShare elFinder FileGator Syncthing-Fork Pydio Cells OpenCloud Files Twake Drive ownCloud Web Tracim
Feature Puter Seafile Category File Sync & Storage File Sync & Storage License AGPL-3.0 AGPL-3.0 Language TypeScript C Setup difficulty Medium Medium Min. RAM 512 MB 512 MB Deployment docker docker, bare-metal GitHub stars ★ 43,003 ★ 15,077 First released 2026 2012 Replaces — Dropbox, Google Drive
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 Seafile if… Excellent sync performance Stable and battle-tested Good for large libraries Seafile details
Frequently asked questions Is Puter or Seafile better? Neither is universally better. Puter has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Puter and Seafile free and open-source? Yes. Puter is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Seafile under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Puter and Seafile with Docker? Puter: yes. Seafile: yes.