head to head · open source
rclone vs explorerplusplus
rclone has 60,002 GitHub stars, 5,454 forks, 1,273 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. explorerplusplus has 3,301 stars, 426 forks, 253 open issues and last shipped yesterday. rclone leads on adoption by 1,718% (60,002 vs 3,301 stars). rclone is written in Go under MIT; explorerplusplus is written in C++ under GPL-3.0. rclone has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, explorerplusplus 13%. explorerplusplus 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 | explorerplusplus | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 60K | ★ 3.3K |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-09-26 | 2026-09-28 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.5K | ⑂ 426 |
| 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 explorerplusplus if
- You want the explorerplusplus feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and explorerplusplus 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 explorerplusplus
Explorer++ is a lightweight, fast and completely portable open source file manager for Windows, written in C++ and licensed under GPL 3.0, aimed at Windows users who want tabbed browsing and more advanced file operations than the built in File Explorer provides.
read the full explorerplusplus overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is rclone or explorerplusplus more popular?
rclone has 60,002 GitHub stars and explorerplusplus has 3,301. rclone has the larger community by that measure.
Are rclone and explorerplusplus free?
Both are open source. rclone is licensed under MIT and explorerplusplus under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between rclone and explorerplusplus?
rclone is written in Go and explorerplusplus in C++. 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 explorerplusplus?
Choose rclone if you want the larger community (60,002 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose explorerplusplus if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.