head to head · open source
rclone vs projectsend
rclone has 60,002 GitHub stars, 5,454 forks, 1,273 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. projectsend has 2,024 stars, 359 forks, 9 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. rclone leads on adoption by 2,865% (60,002 vs 2,024 stars). rclone is written in Go under MIT; projectsend is written in PHP under GPL-2.0. rclone has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, projectsend 18%. rclone 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 | projectsend | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 60K | ★ 2.0K |
| License | MIT | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-09-26 | 2026-09-25 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.5K | ⑂ 359 |
| 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 projectsend if
- You want the projectsend feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and projectsend 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 projectsend
ProjectSend is a self hosted, GPLv2 licensed PHP and MySQL application that lets you share files with clients from your own server, with each client signing in to a private page, and it is aimed at freelancers, agencies and teams who would rather not hand client documents to a third party service.
read the full projectsend overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is rclone or projectsend more popular?
rclone has 60,002 GitHub stars and projectsend has 2,024. rclone has the larger community by that measure.
Are rclone and projectsend free?
Both are open source. rclone is licensed under MIT and projectsend under GPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between rclone and projectsend?
rclone is written in Go and projectsend in PHP. 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 projectsend?
Choose rclone if you want the larger community (60,002 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose projectsend if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.