head to head · open source
Seafile vs cyberduck
Seafile has 15,257 GitHub stars, 1,677 forks, 94 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. cyberduck has 4,788 stars, 369 forks, 506 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Seafile leads on adoption by 219% (15,257 vs 4,788 stars). Seafile is written in C under a custom or non-standard licence; cyberduck is written in Java under GPL-3.0. Seafile has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, cyberduck 8%. cyberduck was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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
| Seafile | cyberduck | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 15K | ★ 4.8K |
| License | Custom / other | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | C | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.7K | ⑂ 369 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Seafile if
- You weight community size — 15K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick cyberduck if
- You want the cyberduck feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and cyberduck fits your workflow better
About Seafile
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.
read the full Seafile overview →
About cyberduck
Cyberduck is a libre FTP, SFTP, WebDAV, Amazon S3, Backblaze B2, Microsoft Azure & OneDrive and OpenStack Swift file transfer client for macOS and Windows, released under the GNU General Public License version 3 and developed at the iterate ch/cyberduck repository.
read the full cyberduck overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Seafile or cyberduck more popular?
Seafile has 15,257 GitHub stars and cyberduck has 4,788. Seafile has the larger community by that measure.
Are Seafile and cyberduck free?
Both are open source. Seafile has no licence declared in this registry, and cyberduck is licensed under GPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Seafile and cyberduck?
Seafile is written in C and cyberduck in Java. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Seafile or cyberduck?
Choose Seafile if you want the larger community (15,257 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose cyberduck if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.