head to head · open source
Nextcloud vs cryfs
Nextcloud has 36,863 GitHub stars, 5,232 forks, 3,657 open issues and last shipped today. cryfs has 2,304 stars, 170 forks, 154 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Nextcloud leads on adoption by 1,500% (36,863 vs 2,304 stars). Nextcloud is written in PHP under AGPL-3.0; cryfs is written in Rust under LGPL-3.0. Nextcloud has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, cryfs 7%. Nextcloud was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (cloud), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Nextcloud | cryfs | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 37K | ★ 2.3K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | LGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | PHP | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.2K | ⑂ 170 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Nextcloud if
- You weight community size — 37K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick cryfs if
- You want the cryfs feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the LGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and cryfs fits your workflow better
About Nextcloud
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.
read the full Nextcloud overview →
About cryfs
CryFS is a FUSE based cryptographic filesystem written in Rust that encrypts a vault directory so it can be stored safely in cloud services such as Dropbox, iCloud, or OneDrive, and it is intended for Linux users who want their file contents, file sizes, directory structure, and metadata hidden from the storage provider rather than encrypted one file at a time.
read the full cryfs overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Nextcloud or cryfs more popular?
Nextcloud has 36,863 GitHub stars and cryfs has 2,304. Nextcloud has the larger community by that measure.
Are Nextcloud and cryfs free?
Both are open source. Nextcloud is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and cryfs under LGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Nextcloud and cryfs?
Nextcloud is written in PHP and cryfs in Rust. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Nextcloud or cryfs?
Choose Nextcloud if you want the larger community (36,863 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose cryfs if its feature set, stack or LGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.