head to head · open source
Seafile vs nging
Seafile has 15,313 GitHub stars, 1,674 forks, 94 open issues and last shipped 20 days ago. nging has 1,594 stars, 223 forks, 13 open issues and last shipped 16 days ago. Seafile leads on adoption by 861% (15,313 vs 1,594 stars). Seafile is written in C under a custom or non-standard licence; nging is written in Go under AGPL-3.0. Seafile has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, nging 14%. nging 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 | nging | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 15K | ★ 1.6K |
| License | Custom / other | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | C | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-22 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.7K | ⑂ 223 |
| 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 nging if
- You want the nging 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 nging 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 nging
Nging is a self hosted website server administration panel written in Go for sysadmins and self hosters who need to manage Caddy and Nginx sites, databases, scheduled tasks, and network tooling from one web interface across Windows, Linux, macOS, and ARM devices.
read the full nging overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Seafile or nging more popular?
Seafile has 15,313 GitHub stars and nging has 1,594. Seafile has the larger community by that measure.
Are Seafile and nging free?
Both are open source. Seafile has no licence declared in this registry, and nging is licensed under AGPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Seafile and nging?
Seafile is written in C and nging 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 nging?
Choose Seafile if you want the larger community (15,313 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose nging if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.