Puter vs Zen
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 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 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 Zen with
choose an app… Syncthing LocalSend MinIO copyparty croc Spacedrive Nextcloud File Browser SeaweedFS
Feature Puter Zen Category File Sync & Storage File Sync & Storage License AGPL-3.0 free Language TypeScript JavaScript Setup difficulty Medium Easy Min. RAM 512 MB 512 MB Deployment docker docker, one-click GitHub stars ★ 43,003 ★ 1,152 First released 2026 2022 Replaces — —
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 Zen if… Easy to set up — beginner-friendly First-class Docker support for quick deployment One-click install on common self-host platforms Active community (1.2k GitHub stars) Zen details
Frequently asked questions Is Puter or Zen better? Neither is universally better. Puter has the larger community, while Zen is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Puter and Zen free and open-source? Yes. Puter is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Zen under free. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Puter and Zen with Docker? Puter: yes. Zen: yes.