head to head · open source
Seafile vs Cozy
Seafile has 15,254 GitHub stars, 1,677 forks, 94 open issues and last shipped 21 days ago. Cozy has 1,269 stars, 141 forks, 56 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Seafile leads on adoption by 1,102% (15,254 vs 1,269 stars). Seafile is written in C under a custom or non-standard licence; Cozy is written in Go under AGPL-3.0. Seafile has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, Cozy 11%. Cozy 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
| Seafile | Cozy | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 15K | ★ 1.3K |
| License | Custom / other | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | C | Go |
| Last push | 2026-08-28 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.7K | ⑂ 141 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Seafile if
- You weight community size — 15K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Cozy if
- You want the Cozy feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and Cozy fits your workflow better
About Seafile
Seafile is an open source cloud storage system written in C and positioned as a self hosted alternative to Dropbox and Google Drive. It organizes files into libraries, each of which can be synced separately, encrypted with a user chosen password, and shared between users or groups. The project lives in the self hosted file sync and document management ecosystem, where it combines storage, collaboration, knowledge management, and metadata features.
read the full Seafile overview →
About Cozy
Cozy is a platform that brings web services into one private space. Cozy Stack is the core server of the Cozy platform, and it runs as a single process. The project is written in Go, is developed by Twake Workplace, and is distributed under the AGPL v3 license. It lives in the self hosted personal cloud ecosystem, and it targets users who want to install software on their own hardware instead of relying on a third party profile.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Seafile or Cozy more popular?
Seafile has 15,254 GitHub stars and Cozy has 1,269. Seafile has the larger community by that measure.
Are Seafile and Cozy free?
Both are open source. Seafile has no licence declared in this registry, and Cozy is licensed under AGPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Seafile and Cozy?
Seafile is written in C and Cozy in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Seafile or Cozy?
Choose Seafile if you want the larger community (15,254 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Cozy if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.