head to head · open source
rclone vs doublecmd
rclone has 59,942 GitHub stars, 5,430 forks, 1,273 open issues and last shipped yesterday. doublecmd has 4,564 stars, 356 forks, 634 open issues and last shipped yesterday. rclone leads on adoption by 1,213% (59,942 vs 4,564 stars). rclone is written in Go under MIT; doublecmd is written in Pascal under GPL-2.0. rclone has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, doublecmd 8%. doublecmd 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 | doublecmd | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 60K | ★ 4.6K |
| License | MIT | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Pascal |
| Last push | 2026-09-24 | 2026-09-24 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.4K | ⑂ 356 |
| 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 doublecmd if
- You want the doublecmd feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Pascal
- You evaluated both and doublecmd 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 doublecmd
Double Commander is a free, cross platform, open source file manager that shows two panels side by side (or one above the other), and it is aimed at desktop users who want a twin pane file manager they can inspect and run without paying for a licence.
read the full doublecmd overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is rclone or doublecmd more popular?
rclone has 59,942 GitHub stars and doublecmd has 4,564. rclone has the larger community by that measure.
Are rclone and doublecmd free?
Both are open source. rclone is licensed under MIT and doublecmd under GPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between rclone and doublecmd?
rclone is written in Go and doublecmd in Pascal. 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 doublecmd?
Choose rclone if you want the larger community (59,942 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose doublecmd if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.