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Seafile: the best Open Source alternative to Dropbox in 2026

Seafile syncs and shares files with optional end-to-end encryption and efficient version control, offering very solid performance as an alternative to Dropbox.

License AGPL-3.0 ~12k stars (estimated)Website GitHub Repository

Technical profile

License
AGPL-3.0
Category
Storage
Replaces
Dropbox
Tech stack
CPythonMySQL

Key features

  • Optional end-to-end encryption per library
  • Space-efficient version control
  • Sync clients for every OS

Seafile vs. Dropbox

Pros

  • Noticeably better sync performance with lots of files

Things to consider

  • Less modern interface than Nextcloud

Quick Docker installation guide

Copy this docker-compose.yml, adjust the example passwords and run docker compose up -d on your server. See the full step-by-step guide →

docker-compose.yml
version: "3.9"
services:
  seafile:
    image: seafileltd/seafile-mc:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "80:80"
    environment:
      - DB_HOST=seafile-db
      - DB_ROOT_PASSWD=root
    depends_on:
      - seafile-db
  seafile-db:
    image: mariadb:11
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      - MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=root
    volumes:
      - seafile_db_data:/var/lib/mysql
volumes:
  seafile_db_data: