head to head · open source
rclone vs elodie
rclone has 59,899 GitHub stars, 5,420 forks, 1,273 open issues and last shipped yesterday. elodie has 1,504 stars, 160 forks, 122 open issues and last shipped 7 months ago. rclone leads on adoption by 3,883% (59,899 vs 1,504 stars). rclone is written in Go under MIT; elodie is written in Python under Apache-2.0. rclone has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, elodie 11%. 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 | elodie | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 60K | ★ 1.5K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-22 | 2026-02-15 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.4K | ⑂ 160 |
| 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 elodie if
- You want the elodie feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and elodie 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 elodie
Elodie is an open source, EXIF based photo, video and audio assistant and workflow automation tool, run from the command line in Python under the Apache 2.0 licence, for people who want a large personal media collection organized into a consistent folder structure without surrendering it to a proprietary photo database.
read the full elodie overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is rclone or elodie more popular?
rclone has 59,899 GitHub stars and elodie has 1,504. rclone has the larger community by that measure.
Are rclone and elodie free?
Both are open source. rclone is licensed under MIT and elodie under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between rclone and elodie?
rclone is written in Go and elodie 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 elodie?
Choose rclone if you want the larger community (59,899 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose elodie if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.