head to head · open source
cyberduck vs alto
cyberduck has 4,892 GitHub stars, 385 forks, 506 open issues and last shipped yesterday. alto has 1,616 stars, 60 forks, 3 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. cyberduck leads on adoption by 203% (4,892 vs 1,616 stars). cyberduck is written in Java under GPL-3.0; alto is written in TypeScript under GPL-3.0. cyberduck has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, alto 4%. cyberduck was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (dropbox, google-drive), 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
| cyberduck | alto | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 4.9K | ★ 1.6K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Java | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-28 |
| Forks | ⑂ 385 | ⑂ 60 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick cyberduck if
- You weight community size — 4.9K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick alto if
- You want the alto feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and alto fits your workflow better
About cyberduck
Cyberduck This is the development home for Cyberduck, a libre file transfer client for macOS and Windows. Command line interface (CLI) for Linux, macOS and Windows. The core libraries are used in Mountain Duck. Mailing Lists There is a Google Groups Cyberduck discussion mailing list. The following additional mailing lists are hosted: News Announcements of new releases Localization Notifications about changes to the translations needed Source Source code is available licensed under the GNU General Public License Version 3. Pull requests welcome! Localizations Translations to new languages are welcome. We use…
read the full cyberduck overview →
About alto
Alto Alto keeps folders on your computer in sync with your cloud storage, such as Google Drive, Dropbox, Proton Drive and more. It's built to look and feel native on your desktop, with current support for Linux (GNOME specifically, with apps for macOS, Windows, and Android in the works). [!NOTE] Looking for the old Celeste code? It's on the celeste rs branch. Features True two way sync. New files, edits and deletions go both ways. All your clouds in one place. Connect as many accounts as you like, across different providers, and sync folders from all of them at once. Safe across several computers. Before…
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Frequently asked questions
Is cyberduck or alto more popular?
cyberduck has 4,892 GitHub stars and alto has 1,616. cyberduck has the larger community by that measure.
Are cyberduck and alto free?
Both are open source. cyberduck is licensed under GPL-3.0 and alto under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between cyberduck and alto?
cyberduck is written in Java and alto in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, cyberduck or alto?
Choose cyberduck if you want the larger community (4,892 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose alto if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.