head to head · open source
rclone vs elio
rclone has 60,205 GitHub stars, 5,493 forks, 1,273 open issues and last shipped yesterday. elio has 891 stars, 27 forks, 6 open issues and last shipped yesterday. rclone leads on adoption by 6,657% (60,205 vs 891 stars). rclone is written in Go under MIT; elio is written in Rust under MIT. rclone has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, elio 3%. elio 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 | elio | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 60K | ★ 891 |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-10-09 | 2026-10-09 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.5K | ⑂ 27 |
| 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 elio if
- You want the elio feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and elio 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 elio
elio is a snappy, batteries included terminal file manager written in Rust for Linux, macOS, and FreeBSD users who want rich previews, inline images, bulk actions, and trash support directly in their shell.
More in Productivity & Utilities
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Frequently asked questions
Is rclone or elio more popular?
rclone has 60,205 GitHub stars and elio has 891. rclone has the larger community by that measure.
Are rclone and elio free?
Both are open source. rclone is licensed under MIT and elio under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between rclone and elio?
rclone is written in Go and elio 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, rclone or elio?
Choose rclone if you want the larger community (60,205 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose elio if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.