FileGator review 2026: a free, open-source, self-hosted PHP file manager with multi-user roles and cloud storage adapters. Features, pricing, alternatives.
FileGator is a free, open-source, self-hosted web application for managing files and folders, built as a PHP backend paired with a Vue.js single-page frontend. It was created by developer Milos Stojanovic, with its GitHub repository dating back to June 2019, and has since grown into a multi-user, multi-backend file management platform rather than a simple upload script.
The defining architectural choice is its use of the Flysystem library on the backend, which lets FileGator serve files not just from local disk but from FTP, SFTP, Amazon S3, DigitalOcean Spaces, Azure Blob Storage, Dropbox, and other supported storage adapters, all behind a single web interface with role-based permissions.
FileGator supports the standard file operations: copy, move, rename, edit, create, delete, preview, zip, unzip, download, and upload. Uploads are handled with Resumable.js, giving drag-and-drop, chunked, pausable, and resumable transfers that help large files succeed over unreliable connections and work around restrictive PHP upload limits.
Multi-user support is built in from the start, with admin and regular user roles, per-user home folders, and a hierarchy in which a superuser can view and manage subfolders belonging to other users. Authentication can be backed by a simple JSON file, a database, or an existing WordPress user base, and the interface itself is styled with the Bulma CSS framework and Buefy component library.
FileGator requires no database server for its default JSON-file configuration, and can run on any standard PHP and Apache or Nginx stack, or via the official Docker image. Setup involves copying the application files to the server, granting the web process read-write access to the config and repository folders, logging in with the documented default administrator account, and immediately changing the default password.
Because the repository folder sits under the web root in a basic install, FileGator includes protections such as an .htaccess rule to block script execution inside uploaded content, and an optional URL-action encryption setting; administrators applying the same protections manually are recommended when deploying behind Nginx.
Yes. FileGator is free and open source under the MIT License, with no paid tiers or subscription fees. You self-host it on your own PHP-capable server at no licensing cost.
Through the Flysystem library, FileGator supports local disk storage by default, plus adapters for FTP, SFTP, Amazon S3, DigitalOcean Spaces, Microsoft Azure Blob Storage, Dropbox, and other Flysystem-compatible backends.
No. The default configuration stores users and settings in a JSON file, so FileGator can run on a minimal PHP and web-server stack. Database-backed and WordPress-integrated authentication are also supported for installations that need them.
Yes. FileGator ships with admin and regular user roles, per-user home folders, and a hierarchy where a superuser can view and manage subfolders belonging to other users, making it suitable for client portals or team environments.
Uploads use Resumable.js for drag-and-drop, chunked, pausable, and resumable transfers, which helps large files succeed on unreliable connections and can be used to work around restrictive PHP upload_max_filesize limits.
FileGator is a PHP application built around Flysystem, offering multiple storage backends (S3, FTP, Dropbox, and more) and hierarchical multi-user roles, while File Browser is a single Go binary scoped to one local directory. FileGator suits multi-backend, multi-user deployments; File Browser favors minimal-footprint simplicity.