head to head · open source
dlt vs ZeroFS
dlt has 6,051 GitHub stars, 649 forks, 434 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. ZeroFS has 3,164 stars, 128 forks, 10 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. dlt leads on adoption by 91% (6,051 vs 3,164 stars). dlt is written in Python under Apache-2.0; ZeroFS is written in Rust under AGPL-3.0. dlt has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, ZeroFS 4%. dlt 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
| dlt | ZeroFS | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 6.1K | ★ 3.2K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-10-31 | 2026-10-28 |
| Forks | ⑂ 649 | ⑂ 128 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick dlt if
- You weight community size — 6.1K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick ZeroFS if
- You want the ZeroFS feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and ZeroFS fits your workflow better
About dlt
data load tool (dlt) — the open source Python library that automates all your tedious data loading tasks Be it a Google Colab notebook, AWS Lambda function, an Airflow DAG, your local laptop, or an AI coding agent— dlt can be dropped in anywhere. 🚀 Join our thriving community of likeminded developers and build the future together! Installation dlt supports Python 3.10 through Python 3.14. Note that some optional extras are not yet available for Python 3.14, so support for this version is considered experimental. Add the extras you need for your sources and destinations, for example: Prefer uv? uv add…
About ZeroFS
Documentation Quickstart ZeroFS is a log structured filesystem for S3 ZeroFS serves S3 compatible buckets as POSIX filesystems over NFS and 9P, and as raw block devices over NBD. All three servers run in a single userspace process. Data is compressed and encrypted before upload. ZeroFS differentiates itself from other "filesystem on S3" projects by: Being POSIX conformant Reaching near raw S3 throughput on large files, and scaling to workloads of hundreds of millions of small files Handling tens of thousands of requests per second Requiring no external database service (everything is stored on S3) Being well…
read the full ZeroFS overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is dlt or ZeroFS more popular?
dlt has 6,051 GitHub stars and ZeroFS has 3,164. dlt has the larger community by that measure.
Are dlt and ZeroFS free?
Both are open source. dlt is licensed under Apache-2.0 and ZeroFS under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between dlt and ZeroFS?
dlt is written in Python and ZeroFS 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, dlt or ZeroFS?
Choose dlt if you want the larger community (6,051 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose ZeroFS if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.