head to head · open source
superfile vs cryfs
superfile has 23,303 GitHub stars, 856 forks, 269 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. cryfs has 2,304 stars, 170 forks, 154 open issues and last shipped yesterday. superfile leads on adoption by 911% (23,303 vs 2,304 stars). superfile is written in Go under MIT; cryfs is written in Rust under LGPL-3.0. superfile has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, cryfs 7%. cryfs was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (filesystem), 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
| superfile | cryfs | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 23K | ★ 2.3K |
| License | MIT | LGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 856 | ⑂ 170 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick superfile if
- You weight community size — 23K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick cryfs if
- You want the cryfs feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the LGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and cryfs fits your workflow better
About superfile
superfile is a modern terminal file manager, written in Go, that gives Linux, macOS and Windows users a full screen text user interface for browsing and managing files, aimed at developers and command line users who want more than typed shell commands.
read the full superfile overview →
About cryfs
CryFS is a FUSE based cryptographic filesystem written in Rust that encrypts a vault directory so it can be stored safely in cloud services such as Dropbox, iCloud, or OneDrive, and it is intended for Linux users who want their file contents, file sizes, directory structure, and metadata hidden from the storage provider rather than encrypted one file at a time.
read the full cryfs overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is superfile or cryfs more popular?
superfile has 23,303 GitHub stars and cryfs has 2,304. superfile has the larger community by that measure.
Are superfile and cryfs free?
Both are open source. superfile is licensed under MIT and cryfs under LGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between superfile and cryfs?
superfile is written in Go and cryfs in Rust. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, superfile or cryfs?
Choose superfile if you want the larger community (23,303 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose cryfs if its feature set, stack or LGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.