Puter vs elFinder
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 Seafile 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 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 elFinder with
choose an app… Syncthing LocalSend MinIO copyparty croc Spacedrive Nextcloud File Browser SeaweedFS Kubo (IPFS) Ceph Seafile Filestash SFTPGo Dufs Nextcloud All-in-One 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 FileGator Syncthing-Fork Pydio Cells OpenCloud Files Twake Drive ownCloud Web Tracim
Feature Puter elFinder Category File Sync & Storage File Sync & Storage License AGPL-3.0 BSD-3-Clause Language TypeScript JavaScript Setup difficulty Medium Medium Min. RAM 512 MB 128 MB Deployment docker bare-metal GitHub stars ★ 43,003 ★ 4,800 First released 2026 2010 Replaces — Google Drive, Dropbox
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 elFinder if… Released under the BSD-3-Clause license Active community (4.8k GitHub stars) Written in JavaScript Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM elFinder details
Frequently asked questions Is Puter or elFinder 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 elFinder free and open-source? Yes. Puter is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and elFinder under BSD-3-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Puter and elFinder with Docker? Puter: yes. elFinder: check the project docs for container support.