head to head · open source
Spacedrive vs Firefiles
Spacedrive has 39,003 GitHub stars, 1,350 forks, 57 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. Firefiles has 371 stars, 57 forks, 14 open issues and last shipped 11 months ago. Spacedrive leads on adoption by 10,413% (39,003 vs 371 stars). Spacedrive is written in Rust under a custom or non-standard licence; Firefiles is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. Spacedrive has attracted 3% as many forks as stars, Firefiles 15%. Spacedrive was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (typescript), 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
| Spacedrive | Firefiles | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 39K | ★ 371 |
| License | Custom / other | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Rust | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-07-29 | 2025-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.4K | ⑂ 57 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Spacedrive if
- You weight community size — 39K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Firefiles if
- You want the Firefiles 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 Firefiles fits your workflow better
About Spacedrive
Spacedrive is an open source, cross platform file explorer built on a virtual distributed filesystem written in Rust. It unifies local and remote storage—including cloud services like Dropbox, Google Drive, and S3—into a single interface, enabling unified search, browsing, and syncing across devices without centralized servers.
read the full Spacedrive overview →
About Firefiles
Firefiles is an open source, self hosted alternative to Dropbox: a TypeScript and Next.js web application that turns your own cloud storage buckets — such as AWS S3, Backblaze, or Firebase Cloud Storage — into a single browser based drive with a familiar file system interface, built for people who want Dropbox style file management while keeping their files in storage they already own.
read the full Firefiles overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Spacedrive or Firefiles more popular?
Spacedrive has 39,003 GitHub stars and Firefiles has 371. Spacedrive has the larger community by that measure.
Are Spacedrive and Firefiles free?
Both are open source. Spacedrive has no licence declared in this registry, and Firefiles is licensed under AGPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Spacedrive and Firefiles?
Spacedrive is written in Rust and Firefiles 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, Spacedrive or Firefiles?
Choose Spacedrive if you want the larger community (39,003 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Firefiles if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.