Filestash, Pydio Cells, and Seafile are all genuine self-hosted, open-core alternatives to commercial cloud storage, but they solve slightly different…
Open Source core plus Freemium/Subscription (paid Standard and Enterprise tiers) · From Free (self-hosted Hobby/open-source tier) or $50/month (Self Served/Standard plan)
Best for: Teams that need one interface and access layer over storage they already run, such as S3 buckets, SFTP servers, and SMB shares, without migrating data into a new system.
Open-core: free self-hosted Cells Home edition (AGPLv3) plus paid Connect and Enterprise subscriptions licensed per user per year · From Free (Cells Home); paid Connect plans start around EUR 3,280/year for 50 users
Best for: Security- and compliance-conscious organizations that want a long-established, self-hosted file-sharing platform with granular access control, now backed by Wire's secure messaging expertise.
Freemium open source, with a paid per-user Professional Edition license · From Free (Community Edition); Professional Edition from 100 US dollars total for up to 9 users
Best for: Teams that want fast, efficient file sync with block-level deduplication and a clear, low-cost path from a free small-team tier to per-user enterprise pricing.
At a Glance
Filestash
Pydio Cells
Seafile
Primary category
Cloud Storage
Cloud Storage
Cloud Storage
Rating
Not documented
Not documented
Not documented
Pricing model
Open Source core plus Freemium/Subscription (paid Standard and Enterprise tiers)
Open-core: free self-hosted Cells Home edition (AGPLv3) plus paid Connect and Enterprise subscriptions licensed per user per year
Freemium open source, with a paid per-user Professional Edition license
Starting price
Free (self-hosted Hobby/open-source tier) or $50/month (Self Served/Standard plan)
Free (Cells Home); paid Connect plans start around EUR 3,280/year for 50 users
Free (Community Edition); Professional Edition from 100 US dollars total for up to 9 users
Free plan
Yes
Yes
Yes
Free trial
Yes
Not documented
Yes
Platforms
Web
Not documented
Not documented
Team collaboration
Not documented
Not documented
Not documented
AI features
Yes
Not documented
Yes
Public API
Yes
Yes
Yes
Standout Differences
Filestash is a protocol gateway, not just a sync tool
Filestash connects to roughly 25 storage backends including S3, SFTP, FTP, WebDAV, SMB, and NFS through one web interface, API, and set of protocol gateways, letting organizations unify access without moving data first.
Filestash
Pydio Cells has the longest history and new corporate backing
Pydio Cells traces back to 2007 and was acquired by secure-messaging company Wire in January 2025, which is folding its document-sharing technology into a broader encrypted workspace product.
Pydio Cells
Seafile emphasizes sync performance and predictable small-team pricing
Seafile's block-level deduplication improves sync efficiency, and its Professional Edition is free for up to 3 users and a flat 100 US dollars total for up to 9 users before per-user pricing kicks in.
Seafile
All three gate enterprise identity and audit features behind paid tiers
SSO (SAML, OIDC, or LDAP) and audit logging are available on all three platforms, but only from a paid Self Served/Standard tier and up, not on the free self-hosted editions.
Self-hosting requires in-house server management and technical expertise
Enterprise features like audit logs, SAML, and clustering are locked behind the paid Professional Edition
Company size and financials are not publicly disclosed, making vendor stability harder to assess
Total cost of ownership includes separate server and storage infrastructure not covered by the license fee
Smaller ecosystem and community compared to larger self-hosted alternatives like Nextcloud
Use Cases
Choose Filestash: Teams that need one interface and access layer over storage they already run, such as S3 buckets, SFTP servers, and SMB shares, without migrating data into a new system.
Choose Pydio Cells: Security- and compliance-conscious organizations that want a long-established, self-hosted file-sharing platform with granular access control, now backed by Wire's secure messaging expertise.
Choose Seafile: Teams that want fast, efficient file sync with block-level deduplication and a clear, low-cost path from a free small-team tier to per-user enterprise pricing.
Filestash
Unified access layer for mixed legacy storage — Gives IT teams a single web interface, access-control model, and audit trail across a mix of SMB shares, FTP servers, NFS mounts, and cloud object storage, without migrating any of it.
Managed file transfer and compliance-grade sharing — Provides SSO, RBAC, and immutable audit logging for regulated organizations that need to prove who accessed which files and when.
Self-hosted Dropbox alternative for developers — Runs the free, open-source Hobby tier to get a clean web UI over an S3 bucket, SFTP server, or homelab NAS without any licensing cost.
Pydio Cells
Regulated industry file sharing — Organizations in finance, healthcare, or government use self-hosted Cells deployments to keep sensitive documents fully within their own infrastructure for compliance reasons.
Enterprise document collaboration — Companies replace third-party cloud storage with an internally hosted Cells deployment for file sharing, versioning, and collaboration across teams.
Secure workspace integration with Wire — Organizations already using Wire's encrypted communications adopt integrated Cells document sharing for a unified secure collaboration workspace.
Seafile
Self-hosted enterprise file sharing — IT teams deploy Seafile Professional Edition on internal infrastructure to give employees sync-and-share functionality while keeping data on-premises.
Educational institution file sharing — Universities and schools use discounted Seafile Professional licenses to provide staff and students with secure file sync and share.
Small team collaboration on a budget — Small teams of up to 3 users run Seafile Professional Edition for free, or use the open-source Community Edition, to sync and share project files without subscription costs.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which of these three is easiest to plug into storage I already have, without migrating data?
Filestash is built specifically for this: its plugin-driven gateway connects to roughly 25 existing backends (S3, SFTP, FTP, WebDAV, SMB, NFS, and more) and unifies them behind one interface, API, and set of protocol gateways, rather than requiring files to be copied into a new storage system first.
Is Pydio Cells still being actively developed after the Wire acquisition?
Wire acquired Pydio in January 2025 to merge Cells' document-sharing technology into Wire's encrypted workspace platform. At the time of research the Pydio brand, website, and Cells product were still actively marketed and sold, though its long-term roadmap is now tied to Wire's broader platform plans rather than continuing as a fully independent product line.
How does Seafile's pricing compare for a small team of around 5 to 8 people?
Seafile's Professional Edition is free for up to 3 users and then a flat 100 US dollars total for up to 9 users, which is one of the more transparent small-team pricing structures among self-hosted file platforms. Filestash's Self Served tier is $50/month for 3 seats, and Pydio Cells Connect starts around EUR 3,280/year but is priced for 50 users, making it a comparatively poor fit for very small teams.
Do any of these offer a genuinely free tier for small teams?
Yes. Filestash's Hobby tier, Pydio Cells' Cells Home edition, and Seafile's Community Edition are all free and open source for self-hosting, though Filestash caps the Hobby tier at 3 users while Pydio Cells Home and Seafile Community do not carry that same explicit user cap in their published feature sets.
Which is best suited to a regulated or compliance-heavy organization?
All three offer SSO and audit logging once you move to a paid tier, but Pydio Cells has the longest enterprise track record (since 2007, with named customers and now Wire's security-focused backing) and Filestash publishes named enterprise and academic customers including MIT and JP Morgan alongside immutable, tamper-proof audit logging aimed at GDPR compliance.
Can these tools connect to existing S3 buckets or SFTP servers I already run?
Filestash is the strongest fit here, with native gateways for S3, SFTP, FTP, and WebDAV among its roughly 25 supported backends. Pydio Cells supports S3-compatible object storage alongside its own filesystem storage. Seafile is oriented around its own self-hosted sync storage rather than acting as a gateway to external S3 or SFTP endpoints.