Best self-hosted file transfer - object storage & file servers
[Object storage](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object_storage) is a computer data storage that manages data as objects, as opposed to other storage architectures like file systems which manages data as a file hierarchy, and block storage which manages data as blocks within sectors and tracks.
We track 7 self-hosted file transfer - object storage & file servers projects. The median health score in this category is 76, against 5 projects rated healthy or better and 1 showing little recent activity. The table below is ordered by health score, not popularity — the most starred project in a category is frequently not the best maintained one.
| # | Project | Health | Activity | Stars | Built with | Last release |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | SeaweedFS SeaweedFS is an open source distributed file system supporting WebDAV, S3 API, FUSE mount, HDFS, etc, optimized for lots | Thriving · 93 | 35k | Go | 14 Sept 2026 | |
| 2 | Harbor Cloud native image registry that stores, signs, and scans content. | Healthy · 80 | 29k | Docker, K8S | 24 Sept 2026 | |
| 3 | sftpgo Community Edition Flexible, fully featured and highly configurable SFTP server with optional FTP/S and WebDAV support. | Healthy · 76 | 13k | Go, deb | 19 Sept 2026 | |
| 4 | Zenko CloudServer Implementation of the Amazon S3 protocol on the front-end and backend storage capabilities to multiple clouds, including | Healthy · 76 | 2k | Docker, Nodejs | 25 Sept 2026 | |
| 5 | ZOT OCI Registry A production-ready vendor-neutral OCI-native container image registry. | Healthy · 74 | 2.8k | Go, Docker | 6 Sept 2026 | |
| 6 | Flare A nonbloated, modern, and highly configurable file/screenshot vault server with support for ShareX, Flameshot, and Spect | At risk · 24 | 137 | Docker, Nodejs | 6 Jul 2025 | |
| 7 | GarageHQ Geo-distributed, S3‑compatible storage service that can fulfill many needs. | Unrated | — | Docker, Rust | — |
Which one should you run?
If you want the safest bet on longevity, SeaweedFS is the best-maintained project in this category right now at 93/100. Harbor is the closest runner-up (80/100) — see the side-by-side comparison.
A health score measures whether a project is alive and shipping. It does not measure whether it has the feature you need. Use it to rule options out, then compare on features.