head to head · open source
rclone vs copyparty
rclone has 59,830 GitHub stars, 5,407 forks, 1,273 open issues and last shipped yesterday. copyparty has 46,729 stars, 1,905 forks, 252 open issues and last shipped yesterday. rclone leads on adoption by 28% (59,830 vs 46,729 stars). rclone is written in Go under MIT; copyparty is written in Python under MIT. rclone has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, copyparty 4%. copyparty 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
| rclone | copyparty | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 60K | ★ 47K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.4K | ⑂ 1.9K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick rclone if
- You weight community size — 60K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick copyparty if
- You want the copyparty feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and copyparty fits your workflow better
About rclone
Rclone is an MIT licensed, Go based command line program that syncs files and directories to and from cloud storage providers, built for anyone who needs one tool for many backends instead of a separate client for every service.
read the full rclone overview →
About copyparty
copyparty is a portable file server that turns almost any device into a file server with resumable uploads and downloads through any web browser, built for self hosters, homelab operators, NAS owners and anyone who wants to share files directly from their own hardware.
read the full copyparty overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is rclone or copyparty more popular?
rclone has 59,830 GitHub stars and copyparty has 46,729. rclone has the larger community by that measure.
Are rclone and copyparty free?
Both are open source. rclone is licensed under MIT and copyparty under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between rclone and copyparty?
rclone is written in Go and copyparty in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, rclone or copyparty?
Choose rclone if you want the larger community (59,830 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose copyparty if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.