head to head · open source
Spacedrive vs projectsend
Spacedrive has 39,079 GitHub stars, 1,352 forks, 57 open issues and last shipped today. projectsend has 2,027 stars, 360 forks, 9 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Spacedrive leads on adoption by 1,828% (39,079 vs 2,027 stars). Spacedrive is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; projectsend is written in PHP under GPL-2.0. Spacedrive has attracted 3% as many forks as stars, projectsend 18%. Spacedrive was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (open-source), 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 | projectsend | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 39K | ★ 2.0K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | Rust | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-10-08 | 2026-10-07 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.4K | ⑂ 360 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Spacedrive if
- You weight community size — 39K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick projectsend if
- You want the projectsend feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and projectsend 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 projectsend
ProjectSend is a self hosted, GPLv2 licensed PHP and MySQL application that lets you share files with clients from your own server, with each client signing in to a private page, and it is aimed at freelancers, agencies and teams who would rather not hand client documents to a third party service.
read the full projectsend overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Spacedrive or projectsend more popular?
Spacedrive has 39,079 GitHub stars and projectsend has 2,027. Spacedrive has the larger community by that measure.
Are Spacedrive and projectsend free?
Both are open source. Spacedrive is licensed under Apache-2.0 and projectsend under GPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Spacedrive and projectsend?
Spacedrive is written in Rust and projectsend 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, Spacedrive or projectsend?
Choose Spacedrive if you want the larger community (39,079 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose projectsend if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.