head to head · open source
rclone vs hfs
rclone has 60,839 GitHub stars, 5,657 forks, 1,273 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. hfs has 3,984 stars, 376 forks, 17 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. rclone leads on adoption by 1,427% (60,839 vs 3,984 stars). rclone is written in Go under MIT; hfs is written in TypeScript under GPL-3.0. rclone has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, hfs 9%. hfs 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| rclone | hfs | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 61K | ★ 4.0K |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-06 | 2026-11-06 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.7K | ⑂ 376 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick rclone if
- You weight community size — 61K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick hfs if
- You want the hfs feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and hfs fits your workflow better
About rclone
Website Documentation Download Contributing Changelog Installation Forum Rclone Rclone ("rsync for cloud storage") is a command line program to sync files and directories to and from different cloud storage providers. Storage providers 1Fichier :page facing up: Akamai Netstorage :page facing up: Alibaba Cloud (Aliyun) Object Storage System (OSS) :page facing up: Amazon S3 :page facing up: ArvanCloud Object Storage (AOS) :page facing up: Bizfly Cloud Simple Storage :page facing up: Backblaze B2 :page facing up: Box :page facing up: Ceph :page facing up: China Mobile Ecloud Elastic Object Storage (EOS) :page…
read the full rclone overview →
About hfs
HFS: HTTP File Server Index Introduction How does it work Features Installation Configuration Internationalization Hidden features Contribute More Introduction Turn your computer into a file sharing server in seconds. Unlimited space and bandwidth — no cloud upload, files come directly from your disk Instant ZIP downloads , even for huge folders Virtual file system to organize what you share Real time activity monitoring Bandwidth throttling to control transfer speed Plugin system to extend functionality Runs on: Windows, Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, Android How does it work run HFS on your computer; an administration…
More in Productivity & Utilities
Related comparisons
More File Management & Sync projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the File Management & Sync field.
Frequently asked questions
Is rclone or hfs more popular?
rclone has 60,839 GitHub stars and hfs has 3,984. rclone has the larger community by that measure.
Are rclone and hfs free?
Both are open source. rclone is licensed under MIT and hfs under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between rclone and hfs?
rclone is written in Go and hfs in TypeScript. 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 hfs?
Choose rclone if you want the larger community (60,839 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose hfs if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.