Files & storage · Updated October 2026
Dropbox is a cloud storage service for syncing and sharing files. If you would rather own your tools, here are 5 open source alternatives to Dropbox, ranked by GitHub stars. Each one is free to use under its license, and you can read, change, and often self-host the code.
The most popular is Syncthing with 89.6k stars, and the most recently updated is Nextcloud, with a commit on Oct 21, 2026.
| Project | Stars | License | Language | Last commit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Syncthing | 89.6k | MPL-2.0 | Go | Oct 21, 2026 |
 Spacedrive | 39.3k | Apache-2.0 | Rust | Oct 13, 2026 |
 Nextcloud | 37.2k | AGPL-3.0 | PHP | Oct 21, 2026 |
 Seafile | 15.4k | Other | C | Oct 16, 2026 |
 OpenCloud | 6.2k | Apache-2.0 | Go | Oct 21, 2026 |
by syncthing
Open Source Continuous File Synchronization
by spacedriveapp
Spacedrive is an open source cross-platform file explorer, powered by a virtual distributed filesystem written in Rust.
by nextcloud
☁️ Nextcloud server, a safe home for all your data
by haiwen
Beyond file syncing and sharing, a new way to organize your files with extensible file properties and flexible views
by opencloud-eu
🌤️ OpenCloud is the open source platform for file management, sharing and collaboration. Simple and sovereign.
By GitHub stars, Syncthing is the most popular open source alternative to Dropbox right now, with 89.6k stars, followed by Spacedrive and Nextcloud. The best fit depends on your setup, so compare their licenses, languages, and recent activity in the table above.
Yes. All 5 projects on this page are open source, so the software itself is free to use, study, and change. Some of them also sell a hosted version or paid support.
Nextcloud (last commit Oct 21, 2026), OpenCloud (last commit Oct 21, 2026), and Syncthing (last commit Oct 21, 2026) have the most recent commits. Licenses on this list include MPL-2.0, Apache-2.0, and AGPL-3.0.
