head to head · open source
rclone vs zipline
rclone has 59,926 GitHub stars, 5,424 forks, 1,273 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. zipline has 3,430 stars, 256 forks, 6 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. rclone leads on adoption by 1,647% (59,926 vs 3,430 stars). rclone is written in Go under MIT; zipline is written in TypeScript under MIT. rclone has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, zipline 7%. 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 | zipline | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 60K | ★ 3.4K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-23 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.4K | ⑂ 256 |
| 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 zipline if
- You want the zipline feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and zipline 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 zipline
Zipline is a self hosted ShareX and general file upload server, written in TypeScript and released under the MIT licence, for individuals and teams who want their own destination for screenshots, files and shortened links instead of uploading to somebody else's service.
read the full zipline overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is rclone or zipline more popular?
rclone has 59,926 GitHub stars and zipline has 3,430. rclone has the larger community by that measure.
Are rclone and zipline free?
Both are open source. rclone is licensed under MIT and zipline under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between rclone and zipline?
rclone is written in Go and zipline 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 zipline?
Choose rclone if you want the larger community (59,926 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose zipline if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.