head to head · open source
Nextcloud vs dufs
Nextcloud has 36,863 GitHub stars, 5,232 forks, 3,657 open issues and last shipped today. dufs has 10,759 stars, 589 forks, 18 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. Nextcloud leads on adoption by 243% (36,863 vs 10,759 stars). Nextcloud is written in PHP under AGPL-3.0; dufs is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. Nextcloud has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, dufs 5%. Nextcloud was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (file-sharing), 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
| Nextcloud | dufs | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 37K | ★ 11K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | PHP | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-06-29 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.2K | ⑂ 589 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Nextcloud if
- You weight community size — 37K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick dufs if
- You want the dufs feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and dufs fits your workflow better
About Nextcloud
Nextcloud is a self hosted cloud collaboration platform built in PHP, licensed under AGPL 3.0. It enables organizations and individuals to store, synchronize, and share files, contacts, calendars, and other data on infrastructure they control, replacing reliance on third party cloud services. The project lives in the open source cloud software ecosystem and serves as a decentralized alternative to proprietary suites like Dropbox, Google Workspace, and Microsoft 365.
read the full Nextcloud overview →
About dufs
Dufs is a Rust command line file server, released under the Apache 2.0 licence and distributed as dufs , that serves static files, accepts uploads, supports search and access control, and speaks WebDAV from a single binary.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Nextcloud or dufs more popular?
Nextcloud has 36,863 GitHub stars and dufs has 10,759. Nextcloud has the larger community by that measure.
Are Nextcloud and dufs free?
Both are open source. Nextcloud is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and dufs under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Nextcloud and dufs?
Nextcloud is written in PHP and dufs 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, Nextcloud or dufs?
Choose Nextcloud if you want the larger community (36,863 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose dufs if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.