What is Seafile used for?

Seafile is a file sync and sharing platform with desktop and mobile clients that also lets teams organize files with extensible properties and flexible views. It is a good fit for private team file sharing, replacing Dropbox with self-hosted storage and document management for organizations.

Is Seafile open source?

Yes. Seafile is open source under a custom licence. Its source code is on GitHub at haiwen/seafile and is written mainly in C.

Yes. Seafile is open source, so the software itself is free to use under the terms of its own licence. A managed cloud version is also available, with paid plans from $8 per seat per month.

Can I self-host Seafile?

Yes. Seafile can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.

What is Seafile an alternative to?

Seafile is an open-source alternative to Dropbox, Box, Egnyte and Google Drive. Other open-source alternatives to Dropbox include Nextcloud, ownCloud and Nextcloud All-in-One.

Is Seafile actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to Seafile was on 18 September 2026, and the latest release is v9.0.5, published on 27 February 2024. The project has 15k stars on GitHub.

Seafile: open-source alternative to Dropbox, Box, Egnyte

About Seafile

Seafile is a file synchronization and sharing platform written mainly in C. Beyond keeping folders in sync across devices and sharing them with others, it describes a newer way of organizing files using extensible file properties and flexible views. Topics also tie it to wikis, Markdown, knowledge management and document management.

The project's homepage could not be fetched while preparing this entry, so the details here come from the repository description, its topics and general knowledge of the product. Seafile is known for client apps on desktop and mobile, libraries as the unit of syncing and sharing, and an emphasis on reliable syncing of large numbers of files.

The core server is open source, with its license listed as 'Other' on GitHub, and the vendor also sells a professional edition and offers hosted service. You can run it on your own servers, which suits teams and organizations that want private cloud storage under their control.

Key features

File synchronization across devices
File and folder sharing
Extensible file properties
Flexible views for organizing files
Wiki and Markdown document features

Good fit for

→Private team file sharing
→Replacing Dropbox with self-hosted storage
→Document management for organizations

Built with: C
Tags: file-sync; file-sharing; cloud-storage; self-hosted; document-management; wiki; knowledge-management; dropbox-alternative

Seafile: questions and answers

What is Seafile used for?: Seafile is a file sync and sharing platform with desktop and mobile clients that also lets teams organize files with extensible properties and flexible views. It is a good fit for private team file sharing, replacing Dropbox with self-hosted storage and document management for organizations.
Is Seafile open source?: Yes. Seafile is open source under a custom licence. Its source code is on GitHub at haiwen/seafile and is written mainly in C.
Is Seafile free?: Yes. Seafile is open source, so the software itself is free to use under the terms of its own licence. A managed cloud version is also available, with paid plans from $8 per seat per month.
Can I self-host Seafile?: Yes. Seafile can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.
What is Seafile an alternative to?: Seafile is an open-source alternative to Dropbox, Box, Egnyte and Google Drive. Other open-source alternatives to Dropbox include Nextcloud, ownCloud and Nextcloud All-in-One.
Is Seafile actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to Seafile was on 18 September 2026, and the latest release is v9.0.5, published on 27 February 2024. The project has 15k stars on GitHub.