replacing Google Drive

Open Source Google Drive Alternatives

Cloud storage and file sync — Google Drive pricing: Free 15GB / $1.99-$18/month. Below: 3 free, self-hostable open source projects that cover the same ground, ranked by real GitHub adoption.

There are 3 open source Google Drive alternatives tracked on this registry, against Google Drive pricing of Free 15GB / $1.99-$18/month. The most-adopted is Nextcloud with 37,396 GitHub stars under AGPL-3.0, written in PHP. Together the set has 54,985 stars across 3 languages and 2 licences. All 3 are free to self-host with no licence fee, and 3 of 3 received a commit in the last 90 days. 3 head-to-head Google Drive comparisons are available.

Google One pricing scales with storage. Files are scanned and indexed by Google. No client-side encryption option.

Other hosted options

The open source projects below are free to self-host. If you would rather pay for a managed service, these are the hosted products in the same space — listed with the vendor's own pricing.

Dropbox hosted File hosting and sync $9.99-$24/user/month Google Workspace hosted Email, docs, and collaboration suite $6-$18/user/month Microsoft 365 hosted Office suite and cloud services $6-$22/user/month

Our top 3 Google Drive alternatives

Nextcloud ★ 37K

Nextcloud is a self-hosted cloud collaboration platform built in PHP, licensed under AGPL-3.0. It enables organizations and individuals to store, synchronize, and share files, contacts, calendars, and other data on infrastructure they control, replacing reliance on third-party cloud services. The project lives in the open-source cloud software ecosystem and serves as a decentralized alternative to proprietary suites like Dropbox, Google Workspace, and Microsoft 365.

AGPL-3.0 · PHP · Google Drive vs Nextcloud →

Seafile ★ 15K

Seafile is an open source cloud storage system written in C and positioned as a self-hosted alternative to Dropbox and Google Drive. It organizes files into libraries, each of which can be synced separately, encrypted with a user chosen password, and shared between users or groups. The project lives in the self-hosted file sync and document management ecosystem, where it combines storage, collaboration, knowledge management, and metadata features.

NOASSERTION · C · Google Drive vs Seafile →

ownCloud ★ 2.2K

ownCloud Infinite Scale (oCIS) is a self-hosted file sync and share server written in Go under the Apache-2.0 license. It lives in the ownCloud ecosystem and uses reva as a scalable backend with open APIs such as WebDAV and CS3. It presents itself as the foundation for a data management platform and as an open alternative to Google Workspace and Google Drive.

Apache-2.0 · Go · Google Drive vs ownCloud →

Nextcloud ★ 37K

Secure cloud collaboration platform for organizations

rank001 licenseAGPL-3.0 written inPHP

Seafile ★ 15K

Self-hosted file sync with AI-powered organization

rank002 licenseNOASSERTION written inC

ownCloud ★ 2.2K

Enterprise file sync, share, and collaboration platform

rank003 licenseApache-2.0 written inGo

last updated nightly · ranking method: github stars, live-tracked

Frequently asked questions

What is the best open source alternative to Google Drive?

Nextcloud is the most-starred open source alternative to Google Drive in this registry, with 37,396 GitHub stars. 3 alternatives are compared here in total.

Are there free alternatives to Google Drive?

Yes. Every project listed on this page is open source and free to self-host — there is no licence fee. Some projects also sell a managed hosted version, but the self-hosted path costs nothing.

What should I look at when replacing Google Drive?

Compare licence terms, community size (stars), primary language and release activity. A fast-moving project with a compatible licence and an active maintainer base matters more than raw star count when you are committing to a migration.