SeaweedFS vs Shifter
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 SeaweedFS with
choose an app… Immich Syncthing LocalSend MinIO Rclone copyparty Puter PhotoPrism croc Spacedrive Nextcloud File Browser Restic 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 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 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 Shifter with
choose an app… Syncthing LocalSend MinIO copyparty Puter croc Spacedrive Nextcloud File Browser
Feature SeaweedFS Shifter Category File Sync & Storage File Sync & Storage License Apache-2.0 MIT Language Go Python Setup difficulty Hard Medium Min. RAM 512 MB 512 MB Deployment docker, kubernetes, binary docker GitHub stars ★ 33,952 ★ 42 First released 2015 2026 Replaces Amazon S3 —
Why pick each one
Choose SeaweedFS if… Released under the Apache-2.0 license First-class Docker support for quick deployment Kubernetes-ready with Helm charts available Mature project with 34k GitHub stars SeaweedFS details Choose Shifter if… Released under the MIT license First-class Docker support for quick deployment Written in Python Lightweight — runs in 512 MB RAM Shifter details
Frequently asked questions Is SeaweedFS or Shifter better? Neither is universally better. SeaweedFS has the larger community, while Shifter is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are SeaweedFS and Shifter free and open-source? Yes. SeaweedFS is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Shifter under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run SeaweedFS and Shifter with Docker? SeaweedFS: yes. Shifter: yes.