head to head · open source
rclone vs superfile
rclone has 59,844 GitHub stars, 5,413 forks, 1,273 open issues and last shipped yesterday. superfile has 23,303 stars, 856 forks, 269 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. rclone leads on adoption by 157% (59,844 vs 23,303 stars). rclone is written in Go under MIT; superfile is written in Go under MIT. rclone has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, superfile 4%. rclone was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (golang), 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
| rclone | superfile | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 60K | ★ 23K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.4K | ⑂ 856 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick rclone if
- You weight community size — 60K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick superfile if
- You want the superfile feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and superfile fits your workflow better
About rclone
Rclone is an MIT licensed, Go based command line program that syncs files and directories to and from cloud storage providers, built for anyone who needs one tool for many backends instead of a separate client for every service.
read the full rclone overview →
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 →
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Frequently asked questions
Is rclone or superfile more popular?
rclone has 59,844 GitHub stars and superfile has 23,303. rclone has the larger community by that measure.
Are rclone and superfile free?
Both are open source. rclone is licensed under MIT and superfile under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between rclone and superfile?
rclone is written in Go and superfile 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, rclone or superfile?
Choose rclone if you want the larger community (59,844 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose superfile if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.