head to head · open source
rclone vs Sync-in
rclone has 59,844 GitHub stars, 5,413 forks, 1,273 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Sync-in has 1,773 stars, 137 forks, 13 open issues and last shipped yesterday. rclone leads on adoption by 3,275% (59,844 vs 1,773 stars). rclone is written in Go under MIT; Sync-in is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. rclone has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, Sync-in 8%. Sync-in 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 | Sync-in | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 60K | ★ 1.8K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.4K | ⑂ 137 |
| 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 Sync-in if
- You want the Sync-in feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Sync-in 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 Sync-in
Sync in is a self hosted platform for file storage, synchronization, and team collaboration. It lives in the self hosted file management ecosystem, alongside homelab, on premise, and cloud alternative use cases. The project is written in TypeScript and licensed under AGPL 3.0.
read the full Sync-in overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is rclone or Sync-in more popular?
rclone has 59,844 GitHub stars and Sync-in has 1,773. rclone has the larger community by that measure.
Are rclone and Sync-in free?
Both are open source. rclone is licensed under MIT and Sync-in under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between rclone and Sync-in?
rclone is written in Go and Sync-in 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 Sync-in?
Choose rclone if you want the larger community (59,844 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Sync-in if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.