Best open-source alternatives to Dropbox

Immich is a self-hosted platform for managing personal photo and video libraries. It is aimed at people who want a private alternative to cloud photo services, with a strong focus on high-performance browsing, mobile backup, and web-based administration. The project supports both mobile and web clients, letting users upload media, automatically back up photos from a phone, and organize content with albums, shared albums, favorites, tags, folders, and partner sharing. It also includes search across metadata, objects, faces, and CLIP-based recognition, plus map and EXIF views, public sharing, read-only gallery access, and administrative user management. The README highlights offline support on mobile and presents the project as a fully self-hosted solution.

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 aimed at storing massive numbers of files while keeping access fast. It is designed for users who need scalable storage infrastructure, including development environments, single-node deployments, and large clusters that can grow by adding volume servers. The project combines a lightweight master/volume architecture with optional filer services for directory semantics and POSIX-like attributes. It also provides an S3-compatible API, WebDAV access, FUSE mounting, replication, erasure coding, tiered storage, and cloud integration. In addition, it ships a built-in Iceberg REST Catalog so analytics engines can query tables directly 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.