SparkleShare: Open Source Project & Work Management

What is SparkleShare?

What it is

SparkleShare is a free and open source file sharing and collaboration application written in C# and released under the GNU GPLv3 or later, with its Sparkles library under the GNU LGPLv3 or later. It runs on Linux distributions, macOS, and Windows, and it lives in the desktop and self-hosted cloud storage ecosystem alongside the Git and Git LFS tooling it depends on. The project has been on GitHub for roughly sixteen years, carries about 4,979 stars and 569 forks, and had its most recent push in September 2026.

The concrete problem it solves is sync without handing files to a third-party service. SparkleShare creates a special folder on the computer, and remotely hosted folders, called projects, are added into that folder. Those projects are then kept in sync automatically with both the host and all peers whenever someone adds, removes, or edits a file. Because the underlying transport is Git with Git LFS for large files, a user can run the host on their own server and get privacy, control, cheap storage space, and higher transfer speeds instead of relying on a hosted provider.

Key capabilities

Syncs a local folder against one or more remote projects, propagating additions, removals, and edits to the host and to all peers.
Uses Git as the version control system underneath, so project history and revisions follow normal Git semantics.
Uses Git LFS to handle large files that would otherwise bloat a plain Git repository.
Supports self-hosted hosts, with a helper script, Dazzle, that automates the host setup work.
Scales to many projects and users when paired with a GitLab Community Edition instance.
Ships as a desktop client for Linux distributions, macOS, and Windows from a single C# codebase.
Offers a Flatpak build on Flathub, org.sparkleshare.SparkleShare, with automatic updates.

Who uses it and how

Individuals and small teams who want Dropbox-style folder sync but prefer to keep the storage on their own server.
Self-hosters running a Git plus Git LFS host, either set up manually or through the Dazzle script, and pointing multiple client machines at it.
Organizations managing many projects or many users, which the README suggests serving from a GitLab Community Edition instance.
Linux desktop users on GNOME, Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, or Arch who install the Flatpak and launch the app from the applications menu.
macOS users who download the application from the releases page and add remote projects to the local sync folder.

Getting started

On Ubuntu or Fedora, the distribution package can be installed, but the README recommends the Flatpak from Flathub for automatic updates; macOS builds come from the releases page. Hosts are set up with Git and Git LFS, optionally via the Dazzle script or a GitLab Community Edition instance,

project readme (upstream, from github) — read inline

SparkleShare

[!NOTE] Please read 🌱 issue #2006 for the future of this project.

[!IMPORTANT] Hello! Hylke here. I was recently laid off. I'd love to work full-time creating apps for Linux and contributing design for FOSS projects. I hope to gather enough monthly sponsors for a minimum wage. Every little helps. Thank you.

SparkleShare is a file sharing and collaboration app. It works just like Dropbox, and you can run it on your own server. It's available for Linux distributions, macOS, and Windows.

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You can support this project through 💕 GitHub Sponsors.

How does it work?

SparkleShare creates a special folder on your computer. You can add remotely hosted folders (or "projects") to this folder. These projects will be automatically kept in sync with both the host and all of your peers when someone adds, removes or edits a file.

Install on Ubuntu or Fedora

You can install the package from your distribution (likely old and not updated often), but we recommend to get our Flatpak with automatic updates to always enjoy the latest and greatest:

flatpak remote-add flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo
flatpak install flathub org.sparkleshare.SparkleShare

Now you can run SparkleShare from the apps menu.

Note: by default SparkleShare uses an AppIndicator status icon on Linux. If you use GNOME on a distribution other than Ubuntu, please install the AppIndicator extension. If you don't use GNOME, you can start SparkleShare with --status-icon=gtk.

Install on macOS

Download the app from the releases page.

Set up a host

Under the hood SparkleShare uses the version control system Git and the large files extension Git LFS, so setting up a host yourself is relatively easy. Using your own host gives you more privacy and control, as well as lots of cheap storage space and higher transfer speeds. We've made a simple script that does the hard work for you. If you need to manage a lot of projects and/or users we recommend hosting a GitLab Community Edition instance.

Build from source

SparkleShare is Free and Open Source software and licensed under the GNU GPLv3 or later. You are welcome to change and redistribute it under certain conditions. Its library Sparkles is licensed under the GNU LGPLv3 or later.

Here are instructions to build SparkleShare on Linux distributions, macOS, and Windows.

Useful links

Have fun, make awesome. :)

Frequently asked questions

Is SparkleShare free to use?

SparkleShare is open source under the GPL-3.0 licence. There is no licence fee and no seat count — you can self-host it or, where the project offers one, pay a vendor for a managed version instead.

What does SparkleShare do?

Share and collaborate by syncing with any Git repository instantly. Linux, macOS, and Windows

What is SparkleShare written in?

SparkleShare is primarily written in C#. Its source is publicly available at https://github.com/hbons/SparkleShare, and it has 4,980 GitHub stars.