head to head · open source
rclone vs dropbox-sdk-js
rclone has 59,978 GitHub stars, 5,447 forks, 1,273 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. dropbox-sdk-js has 970 stars, 352 forks, 43 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. rclone leads on adoption by 6,083% (59,978 vs 970 stars). rclone is written in Go under MIT; dropbox-sdk-js is written in JavaScript under MIT. rclone has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, dropbox-sdk-js 36%. rclone was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (dropbox), 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
| rclone | dropbox-sdk-js | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 60K | ★ 970 |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Go | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-26 | 2026-09-23 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.4K | ⑂ 352 |
| 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 dropbox-sdk-js if
- You want the dropbox-sdk-js feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and dropbox-sdk-js 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 dropbox-sdk-js
The Dropbox JavaScript SDK is the official MIT licensed client library for Dropbox API v2, built for developers writing Node.js services, browser applications, and Web Workers that read from or write to Dropbox accounts.
read the full dropbox-sdk-js overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is rclone or dropbox-sdk-js more popular?
rclone has 59,978 GitHub stars and dropbox-sdk-js has 970. rclone has the larger community by that measure.
Are rclone and dropbox-sdk-js free?
Both are open source. rclone is licensed under MIT and dropbox-sdk-js under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between rclone and dropbox-sdk-js?
rclone is written in Go and dropbox-sdk-js in JavaScript. 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 dropbox-sdk-js?
Choose rclone if you want the larger community (59,978 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose dropbox-sdk-js if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.