Alternatives to rclone
The Swiss-army CLI for syncing to any cloud
rclone ranks #7 of 11 in File sync, with an Alt Score of 74. It is licensed under MIT, free from Free and available on Windows, macOS, Linux and Android. 12 of 12 checklist rows are verified against a public source.
Developers, sysadmins, and power users who need to sync, back up, or migrate files across cloud storage providers or between cloud and local disks from the command line. Useful for anyone replacing manual web-console uploads with scriptable, automatable transfers.
A single Go binary that copies, syncs, moves, and checks files across 70+ cloud storage backends (S3, Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Azure, Backblaze, etc.) plus local disks, SFTP, FTP, and WebDAV. Supports one-way sync and bidirectional sync (bisync), mounting remote storage as a local filesystem, and serving files over HTTP/WebDAV/FTP/SFTP/DLNA. Includes client-side encryption and compression via an overlay backend, plus MD5/SHA1 checksum verification and timestamp preservation for data integrity.
Rclone talks directly to each provider's native API to list, transfer, and verify files, using server-side transfers between two cloud remotes where supported to avoid routing data through the local machine. It runs as a CLI tool (with optional GUI and mount support) configured via named remotes, each pointing at a specific storage backend and credentials.
Where rclone stands out
Verified capabilities most alternatives don't have.
Why people leave rclone
Dashed reasons are sourced facts; the rest are opinions. Vendors can dispute.
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Ranked alternatives
Ordered by Alt Score. Click any score to see the breakdown.
GoodSync is proprietary file synchronization and backup software from Siber Systems for Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android.
SyncBackPro, made by 2BrightSparks, is Windows backup/sync software used by individuals, small businesses and organizations including law enforcement and healthcare.
Syncovery, from Super Flexible Software, is a Windows/Mac/Linux sync and backup tool supporting two-way sync, versioning, encryption, and dozens of cloud/FTP/SFTP/WebDAV targets.
Unison is a free, open-source, cross-platform file synchronization tool that runs on Linux, macOS and Windows.
ChronoSync, by Econ Technologies, is a macOS application for incremental and bidirectional file/folder synchronization, bootable backups, and drive cloning, with support for SFTP, network shares and c.
FolderSync is a sync client (Android app plus Windows/Mac/Linux desktop companion) that keeps device folders synchronized with 20+ cloud providers and protocols including S3, WebDAV, FTP/SFTP, SMB and.
Feature comparison
Rows come from the File sync checklist (16 rows). Human-verified cells only. ? means the value has not been verified.
| File sync checklist | rclone | GoodSync | Seafile | SyncBackPro | Syncthing | Syncovery |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | ||||||
| Starts at | ||||||
| License | ||||||
| Platforms | ||||||
| Peer-to-peer (no server) | ||||||
| Self-hostable server | ||||||
| Selective sync | ||||||
| Delta sync | ||||||
| Conflict handling | ||||||
| Untrusted-device encryption | ||||||
| Bandwidth limits | ||||||
| LAN sync | ||||||
| File versioning | ||||||
| Ignore patterns | ||||||
| Mobile support | ||||||
| Open source |
Every fact and feature listed for rclone is verified against its own pages. Each alternative is sourced on its own page.
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License MIT verified 2026-07-08
This is free software under the terms of the MIT license (check the COPYING file included with the source code).
https://rclone.org/licence/ -
Pricing model Free verified 2026-07-08
This is free software under the terms of the MIT license
https://rclone.org/licence/ -
Starts at Free verified 2026-07-08
This is free software under the terms of the MIT license
https://rclone.org/licence/ -
Platforms Windows, macOS, Linux, Android verified 2026-07-08
Rclone is single executable (rclone, or rclone.exe on Windows) ... See also Android builds. These are built as part of the official release
https://rclone.org/downloads/ -
Status active verified 2026-07-08
v1.74.4 - 2026-07-08
https://rclone.org/changelog/ -
Peer-to-peer (no server) No verified 2026-07-08
Syncs local <-> cloud remotes; no P2P.
rclone - rsync for cloud storage
https://rclone.org/docs/ -
Self-hostable server Yes verified 2026-07-08
Serve the remote over HTTP ... Serve remote:path over FTP ... Serve the remote over SFTP ... Serve remote:path over WebDAV
https://rclone.org/commands/rclone_serve/ -
Selective sync Yes verified 2026-07-08
--exclude - Exclude files matching pattern ... --include - Include files matching pattern ... --files-from - Read list of source-file names
https://rclone.org/filtering/ -
Delta sync Partial verified 2026-07-08
Skips unchanged files; no block-level delta transfer.
Doesn't transfer files that are identical on source and destination, testing by size and modification time or MD5SUM.
https://rclone.org/commands/rclone_sync/ -
Conflict handling Yes verified 2026-07-08
--conflict-resolve string Automatically resolve conflicts by preferring the version that is: none, path1, path2, newer, older, larger, smaller (default: none)
https://rclone.org/commands/rclone_bisync/ -
Untrusted-device encryption Yes verified 2026-07-08
Accessing a storage system through a crypt remote realizes client-side encryption, which makes it safe to keep your data in a location you do not trust will not get compromised.
https://rclone.org/crypt/ -
Bandwidth limits Yes verified 2026-07-08
This option controls the bandwidth limit. For example --bwlimit 10M would mean limit the upload and download bandwidth to 10 MiB/s.
https://rclone.org/docs/ -
LAN sync No verified 2026-07-08
No LAN-specific sync feature.
rclone - rsync for cloud storage
https://rclone.org/docs/ -
File versioning Partial verified 2026-07-08
--backup-dir/--suffix enable manual versioned backups; no built-in version history.
any files which would have been overwritten or deleted are moved in their original hierarchy into this directory
https://rclone.org/docs/ -
Ignore patterns Yes verified 2026-07-08
--exclude - Excludes path/file names from an rclone command based on a single exclude rule.
https://rclone.org/filtering/ -
Mobile support Partial verified 2026-07-08
See also Android builds. These are built as part of the official release, but haven't been adopted as first class builds yet.
https://rclone.org/downloads/ -
Open source Yes verified 2026-07-08
This is free software under the terms of the MIT license (check the COPYING file included with the source code).
https://rclone.org/licence/
FAQ
Yes. GoodSync, Syncthing and Unison have a free tier or are fully free. Free-tier limits in the comparison table are verified and dated.
Seafile, Syncthing and Unison — every license claim links its source.