head to head · open source
Ceph vs Storj
Ceph has 17,057 GitHub stars, 6,504 forks, 1,353 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Storj has 3,281 stars, 429 forks, 361 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. Ceph leads on adoption by 420% (17,057 vs 3,281 stars). Ceph is written in C++ under a custom or non-standard licence; Storj is written in Go under AGPL-3.0. Ceph has attracted 38% as many forks as stars, Storj 13%. Ceph was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (distributed-storage), 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
| Ceph | Storj | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 17K | ★ 3.3K |
| License | Custom / other | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | C++ | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.5K | ⑂ 429 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Ceph if
- You weight community size — 17K 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 Storj if
- You want the Storj 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 Storj fits your workflow better
About Ceph
Ceph is a scalable open source distributed storage system written in C++ and described as a platform for object, block, and file storage. It lives in infrastructure and operations storage solutions, where it provides a shared storage layer across distributed nodes rather than a single local disk.
About Storj
Storj V3 Network is an open source, Go based distributed cloud object storage project. It lives in the S3 compatible storage ecosystem and provides a platform and suite of distributed applications for storing files across a global network of computers. The project addresses the problem of keeping data available without depending on a single centralized storage provider. It encrypts files, breaks them into pieces, and stores those pieces across the network, while owner controlled retrieval is included.
read the full Storj overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Ceph or Storj more popular?
Ceph has 17,057 GitHub stars and Storj has 3,281. Ceph has the larger community by that measure.
Are Ceph and Storj free?
Both are open source. Ceph has no licence declared in this registry, and Storj is licensed under AGPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Ceph and Storj?
Ceph is written in C++ and Storj 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, Ceph or Storj?
Choose Ceph if you want the larger community (17,057 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Storj if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.