Best open-source alternatives to Dropbox

Immich is a self-hosted photo and video management platform designed for people who want control over their media library. It provides a mobile and web experience for uploading, browsing, organizing, and searching photos and videos, while also supporting backup workflows from mobile devices. The project is aimed at users and families or small groups who need features such as multi-user access, shared albums, public sharing, face recognition, map-based metadata browsing, and OAuth login. It includes administrative user management on the web side and offers a demo instance for trying the product before deployment. The README emphasizes the main documentation and installation guides on the project website, and notes offline support in the feature matrix.

Syncthing is a peer-to-peer file synchronization tool designed to keep files consistent across multiple computers without relying on a central cloud service. The README emphasizes safety, security, ease of use, and automatic operation, positioning the project for individual users who want reliable syncing with minimal manual intervention. The project provides guidance for getting started, building from source, and running in Docker, and it references GUI wrappers for Windows, macOS, and Linux. It also points users to a dedicated documentation site, a forum, and a GitHub issue tracker for support and bug reports. The software is released under the MPLv2 license and includes signed release binaries, with an automatic upgrade mechanism mentioned in the README.

copyparty is a self-hosted file server aimed at turning nearly any device into a shareable storage endpoint. It is designed for people who want simple uploads and downloads from a browser, but it also exposes traditional transfer protocols such as WebDAV, SFTP, FTP, TFTP, and SMB/CIFS for clients that prefer them. The project appears geared toward personal servers, small deployments, and power users who want flexible access methods and fine-grained control over folders, permissions, and sharing. Its README highlights browser-based file management, temporary share links, thumbnails, search, media playback, and other convenience features, while emphasizing that the server itself only requires Python and that most dependencies are optional.

Puter is an open-source internet operating system designed as a personal cloud and application platform. It is aimed at people who want a self-hostable, privacy-oriented place to store files, apps, and games, as well as teams or developers building and publishing web applications and games. The project presents itself as an alternative to mainstream cloud storage services while also offering a remote desktop-style environment for servers and workstations. The README highlights a hosted version at Puter.com, but it also provides local development and self-hosting instructions using either a direct Docker run or Docker Compose setup. The software requires Node.js and npm for local execution, and the repository is licensed under AGPL-3.0.

CasaOS is an open-source personal cloud platform aimed at home users, creators, and small organizations that want a low-cost, self-hosted data center. It focuses on giving people a simple way to manage data, apps, and connected devices without needing technical expertise. The project presents itself as a friendly home server system with an intuitive UI, one-click installation for popular apps, and broad support for Docker-based software. It is designed to run on a range of hardware, including ZimaBoard, Intel NUC, Raspberry Pi, and older computers, and it can be installed on common Linux distributions through a one-line setup script. The README also emphasizes file management, widgets for system and app status, and community-driven development.

File Browser is a self-hosted web application for managing files inside a chosen directory. It is intended for people who want a lightweight, browser-based way to access files on their own server rather than using a full cloud storage platform. The project positions itself as a single-binary tool that can be installed anywhere and pointed at a local path. Through its web interface, users can browse, upload, delete, preview, and edit files. The README also notes that the project is in maintenance-only mode, with no new features planned, and directs readers to hosted documentation for setup and configuration.

restic is a command-line backup program designed for users who need reliable, secure, and efficient backups across Linux, macOS, Windows, and several BSD variants. It emphasizes ease of use, speed, verifiability, security, and storage efficiency, making it suitable for both individual users and administrators who want a straightforward backup tool that can be restored when needed. The project works by creating a repository, then storing backups as snapshots that can later be restored or mounted for browsing. It supports a variety of native backends, including local directories, SFTP over SSH, an HTTP REST server, Amazon S3, OpenStack Swift, Backblaze B2, Azure Blob Storage, Google Cloud Storage, and additional services via rclone. The README also points users to online documentation and a forum for support.

SeaweedFS is an Apache-licensed distributed file system and object store designed to store billions of files and serve them with low latency. It uses a simple architecture in which the master manages volumes while volume servers hold file data and much of the metadata, reducing central coordination overhead and improving access speed. The project is aimed at teams that need scalable storage for files, blobs, and S3-compatible object access. The project includes a Filer component that adds directory semantics and POSIX-like attributes, plus integrations for WebDAV, Hadoop-compatible access, FUSE mounting, and asynchronous replication. It also supports tiered storage, cloud integration, encrypted storage, and a built-in Iceberg REST Catalog for lakehouse-style analytics without an external metastore.

Cloudreve is a self-hosted file management system designed for people or organizations that want to run their own cloud-style file platform. It focuses on managing files across multiple storage backends, including local storage, remote nodes, and several third-party object storage providers. The project provides a web-based interface with features for uploading, downloading, previewing, sharing, and organizing files. It also supports multi-user operation, WebDAV access, background downloads through Aria2/qBittorrent, and rich online preview/editing for common file types. The README positions it as an all-in-one package for both quick local testing and production deployment.

Ente is a privacy-focused, fully open source platform built around end-to-end encrypted storage and authentication. The README presents it as a cloud-based service that lets users keep their data without trusting the provider, while also allowing self-hosting for those who want to run it themselves. The project bundles several client applications and a server in one monorepo, spanning mobile, desktop, web, and Linux platforms. It targets users who want encrypted photo management, secure document storage, and a TOTP authenticator alternative, with features such as private sharing, collaborative albums, family plans, semantic search, and background uploads.