head to head · open source
ffsend vs cryfs
ffsend has 7,414 GitHub stars, 205 forks, 33 open issues and last shipped 10 months ago. cryfs has 2,304 stars, 170 forks, 154 open issues and last shipped yesterday. ffsend leads on adoption by 222% (7,414 vs 2,304 stars). ffsend is written in Rust under GPL-3.0; cryfs is written in Rust under LGPL-3.0. ffsend has attracted 3% as many forks as stars, cryfs 7%. cryfs was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (encryption), 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
| ffsend | cryfs | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 7.4K | ★ 2.3K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | LGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Rust | Rust |
| Last push | 2025-11-20 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 205 | ⑂ 170 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick ffsend if
- You weight community size — 7.4K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- 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 ffsend
ffsend is a command line client for the Send file sharing service that uploads and downloads encrypted files and directories through a single terminal command, built for developers, system administrators and anyone who prefers a scriptable, privacy respecting alternative to a web upload form.
read the full ffsend 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 ffsend or cryfs more popular?
ffsend has 7,414 GitHub stars and cryfs has 2,304. ffsend has the larger community by that measure.
Are ffsend and cryfs free?
Both are open source. ffsend is licensed under GPL-3.0 and cryfs under LGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between ffsend and cryfs?
ffsend is written in Rust 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, ffsend or cryfs?
Choose ffsend if you want the larger community (7,414 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose cryfs if its feature set, stack or LGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.