10 open-source alternatives · Updated daily
Dropbox charges $12–$24 per user per month.

Open-source alternatives to Dropbox

10 self-hostable open-source projects that replace Dropbox, ranked by computed health score with real self-hosting cost. Save up to $94/yr per seat by self-hosting on a $4.13/mo VPS.

Cheapest path: server on hetzner for $4.13/mo, that's about $94/year less than Dropbox.

10
OSS alternatives
$4.13
Cheapest /mo
$12+
Dropbox /mo
$94
Yearly savings

Why people leave Dropbox

  • Per-user pricing stacks for teams
  • Storage tiers force upgrades before compression/dedupe options
  • Closed-source sync engine, you cannot audit it
  • Smart Sync requires Pro+

Nextcloud and Seafile give Dropbox-equivalent sync + sharing + apps on a Hetzner storage box ($4/TB/mo).

The 10 alternatives, ranked by health

Health score is a 6-dimension composite. See methodology for formula and weights.

Cost comparison vs Dropbox

Self-hosting cost on cheapest plan meeting requirements vs Dropbox entry tier ($12/mo).

ProjectSelf-host /moDropbox /moSave /yr
server $4.13 $12+ $94 Deploy →
joplin $4.13 $12+ $94 Deploy →
syncthing $4.13 $12+ $94 Deploy →
puter $4.13 $12+ $94 Deploy →
seafile $4.13 $12+ $94 Deploy →
server $4.13 $12+ $94 Deploy →
gpslogger $4.13 $12+ $94 Deploy →
filestash $4.13 $12+ $94 Deploy →

Pick your alternative

Most operators land on server (top health score in this category; cheapest VPS path is server on hetzner for $4.13/mo).

Data refreshed daily. Pricing for Dropbox sourced from official site.

Last verified . Data refreshes every 30 minutes.