head to head · open source
Spacedrive vs ffsend
Spacedrive has 39,008 GitHub stars, 1,351 forks, 57 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. ffsend has 7,414 stars, 205 forks, 33 open issues and last shipped 10 months ago. Spacedrive leads on adoption by 426% (39,008 vs 7,414 stars). Spacedrive is written in Rust under a custom or non-standard licence; ffsend is written in Rust under GPL-3.0. Spacedrive has attracted 3% as many forks as stars, ffsend 3%. Spacedrive was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (encryption, rust), 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
| Spacedrive | ffsend | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 39K | ★ 7.4K |
| License | Custom / other | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Rust | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-07-29 | 2025-11-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.4K | ⑂ 205 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Spacedrive if
- You weight community size — 39K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick ffsend if
- You want the ffsend feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and ffsend fits your workflow better
About Spacedrive
Spacedrive is an open source, cross platform file explorer built on a virtual distributed filesystem written in Rust. It unifies local and remote storage—including cloud services like Dropbox, Google Drive, and S3—into a single interface, enabling unified search, browsing, and syncing across devices without centralized servers.
read the full Spacedrive overview →
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 →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Spacedrive or ffsend more popular?
Spacedrive has 39,008 GitHub stars and ffsend has 7,414. Spacedrive has the larger community by that measure.
Are Spacedrive and ffsend free?
Both are open source. Spacedrive has no licence declared in this registry, and ffsend is licensed under GPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Spacedrive and ffsend?
Spacedrive is written in Rust and ffsend 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, Spacedrive or ffsend?
Choose Spacedrive if you want the larger community (39,008 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose ffsend if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.