head to head · open source
syncthing vs flea
syncthing has 89,315 GitHub stars, 5,519 forks, 388 open issues and last shipped today. flea has 767 stars, 87 forks, 85 open issues and last shipped yesterday. syncthing leads on adoption by 11,545% (89,315 vs 767 stars). syncthing is written in Go under MPL-2.0; flea is written in Shell under MIT. syncthing has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, flea 11%. syncthing was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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
| syncthing | flea | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 89K | ★ 767 |
| License | MPL-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Shell |
| Last push | 2026-10-12 | 2026-10-11 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.5K | ⑂ 87 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick syncthing if
- You weight community size — 89K stars and counting
- You want the MPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick flea if
- You want the flea feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Shell
- You evaluated both and flea fits your workflow better
About syncthing
Syncthing is an open source continuous file synchronization program written in Go that keeps files identical across two or more computers, aimed at individual users who want to sync their own data without a third party service.
read the full syncthing overview →
About flea
Flea is a fast, keyboard first GUI file manager for the Omarchy desktop on Linux, built with a Quickshell front end and a Rust backend for people who navigate and manage files from the keyboard.
More in Productivity & Utilities
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Frequently asked questions
Is syncthing or flea more popular?
syncthing has 89,315 GitHub stars and flea has 767. syncthing has the larger community by that measure.
Are syncthing and flea free?
Both are open source. syncthing is licensed under MPL-2.0 and flea under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between syncthing and flea?
syncthing is written in Go and flea in Shell. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, syncthing or flea?
Choose syncthing if you want the larger community (89,315 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose flea if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.