head to head · open source
rclone vs pairdrop-android
rclone has 60,108 GitHub stars, 5,475 forks, 1,273 open issues and last shipped yesterday. pairdrop-android has 1,076 stars, 81 forks, 29 open issues and last shipped today. rclone leads on adoption by 5,486% (60,108 vs 1,076 stars). rclone is written in Go under MIT; pairdrop-android is written in Java under GPL-3.0. rclone has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, pairdrop-android 8%. pairdrop-android 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 | pairdrop-android | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 60K | ★ 1.1K |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | Java |
| Last push | 2026-10-04 | 2026-10-05 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.5K | ⑂ 81 |
| 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 pairdrop-android if
- You want the pairdrop-android feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and pairdrop-android 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 pairdrop-android
PairDrop for Android is an open source Android client that lets you quickly send files from your phone to a PC or other devices over a local network using the PairDrop and self hosted Snapdrop services.
read the full pairdrop-android overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is rclone or pairdrop-android more popular?
rclone has 60,108 GitHub stars and pairdrop-android has 1,076. rclone has the larger community by that measure.
Are rclone and pairdrop-android free?
Both are open source. rclone is licensed under MIT and pairdrop-android under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between rclone and pairdrop-android?
rclone is written in Go and pairdrop-android in Java. 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 pairdrop-android?
Choose rclone if you want the larger community (60,108 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose pairdrop-android if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.