Google Drive vs Syncthing
Thinking of swapping Google Drive for the open-source Syncthing? Here’s the honest trade-off.
85k Go MPL-2.0 5 days ago
What you give up vs Google Drive
- Pure peer-to-peer sync: no cloud copy, so files only exist where a device is online (no always-available server unless you run one)
- No web file browser, sharing links, or per-file access control like Dropbox
- No built-in versioning UI beyond simple file versioning options
- Not designed for multi-user team sharing; it's device-to-device for one owner
What you gain
- • Full data ownership — self-host Syncthing on your own infrastructure.
- • No per-seat SaaS bill (Google Drive: data on Google and storage upsells).
- • Open-source code you can audit and extend (MPL-2.0).