head to head · open source
Seafile vs filegator
Seafile has 15,292 GitHub stars, 1,677 forks, 94 open issues and last shipped 13 days ago. filegator has 3,079 stars, 452 forks, 222 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. Seafile leads on adoption by 397% (15,292 vs 3,079 stars). Seafile is written in C under a custom or non-standard licence; filegator is written in PHP under MIT. Seafile has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, filegator 15%. filegator 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 | filegator | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 15K | ★ 3.1K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | C | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-27 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.7K | ⑂ 452 |
| 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 filegator if
- You want the filegator feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and filegator 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 filegator
FileGator is a free, open source, self hosted PHP web application that gives teams, schools, and administrators a browser based multi user file manager with fine grained permissions and pluggable storage backends.
read the full filegator overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Seafile or filegator more popular?
Seafile has 15,292 GitHub stars and filegator has 3,079. Seafile has the larger community by that measure.
Are Seafile and filegator free?
Both are open source. Seafile has no licence declared in this registry, and filegator is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Seafile and filegator?
Seafile is written in C and filegator 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, Seafile or filegator?
Choose Seafile if you want the larger community (15,292 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose filegator if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.