head to head · open source
syncthing vs syncthing-macos
syncthing has 90,142 GitHub stars, 5,580 forks, 388 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. syncthing-macos has 4,005 stars, 206 forks, 45 open issues and last shipped 16 days ago. syncthing leads on adoption by 2,151% (90,142 vs 4,005 stars). syncthing is written in Go under MPL-2.0; syncthing-macos is written in Objective-C under MIT. syncthing has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, syncthing-macos 5%. syncthing was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (p2p), 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
| syncthing | syncthing-macos | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 90K | ★ 4.0K |
| License | MPL-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Objective-C |
| Last push | 2026-11-05 | 2026-10-22 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.6K | ⑂ 206 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick syncthing if
- You weight community size — 90K 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 syncthing-macos if
- You want the syncthing-macos feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Objective-C
- You evaluated both and syncthing-macos fits your workflow better
About syncthing
[![Syncthing][14]][15] Goals Syncthing is a continuous file synchronization program . It synchronizes files between two or more computers. We strive to fulfill the goals below. The goals are listed in order of importance, the most important ones first. This is the summary version of the goal list for more commentary, see the full [Goals document][13]. Syncthing should be: 1. Safe From Data Loss Protecting the user's data is paramount. We take every reasonable precaution to avoid corrupting the user's files. 2. Secure Against Attackers Again, protecting the user's data is paramount. Regardless of our other goals…
read the full syncthing overview →
About syncthing-macos
Syncthing for macOS [!NOTE] Syncthing v2 is the supported version since 23 february 2026. It needs at least macOS 12. Syncthing v1 is deprecated and will not get any updates or bugfixes. For version compatibility see README.md macos version support. Introduction syncthing macos project is a frugal native) macOS Syncthing tray application bundle. It bundles its own Syncthing instance and wraps Syncthing background process, making it behave more like a native macOS application and less like a command line utility with a web browser interface. Features include: Open the Syncthing WebGUI from the tray in your system…
read the full syncthing-macos overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is syncthing or syncthing-macos more popular?
syncthing has 90,142 GitHub stars and syncthing-macos has 4,005. syncthing has the larger community by that measure.
Are syncthing and syncthing-macos free?
Both are open source. syncthing is licensed under MPL-2.0 and syncthing-macos under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between syncthing and syncthing-macos?
syncthing is written in Go and syncthing-macos in Objective-C. 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 syncthing-macos?
Choose syncthing if you want the larger community (90,142 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose syncthing-macos if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.