head to head · open source
rclone vs dropbox-sdk-python
rclone has 59,961 GitHub stars, 5,440 forks, 1,273 open issues and last shipped yesterday. dropbox-sdk-python has 985 stars, 331 forks, 21 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. rclone leads on adoption by 5,987% (59,961 vs 985 stars). rclone is written in Go under MIT; dropbox-sdk-python is written in Python under MIT. rclone has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, dropbox-sdk-python 34%. 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-python | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 60K | ★ 985 |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-26 | 2026-09-23 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.4K | ⑂ 331 |
| 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-python if
- You want the dropbox-sdk-python feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and dropbox-sdk-python 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-python
dropbox sdk python is the official Dropbox SDK for Python, a client library that lets Python developers call Dropbox API v2 from applications, scripts, and services.
read the full dropbox-sdk-python overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is rclone or dropbox-sdk-python more popular?
rclone has 59,961 GitHub stars and dropbox-sdk-python has 985. rclone has the larger community by that measure.
Are rclone and dropbox-sdk-python free?
Both are open source. rclone is licensed under MIT and dropbox-sdk-python under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between rclone and dropbox-sdk-python?
rclone is written in Go and dropbox-sdk-python 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 dropbox-sdk-python?
Choose rclone if you want the larger community (59,961 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose dropbox-sdk-python if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.