What is Swift used for?

Swift is the OpenStack object storage component, providing distributed, scalable storage for unstructured data. It is a good fit for storing and retrieving large amounts of unstructured data, backup and archival storage, and cloud storage for applications.

Is Swift open source?

Yes. Swift is open source under the Apache-2.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at openstack/swift and is written mainly in Python.

Yes. Swift is open source, so the software itself is free to use.

Can I self-host Swift?

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

What is Swift an alternative to?

Swift is an open-source alternative to Wasabi, DigitalOcean Spaces, Google Cloud Storage and Azure Blob Storage. Other open-source alternatives to Wasabi include Ceph, SeaweedFS and RustFS.

Is Swift actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to Swift was on 9 October 2026. The project has 2.8k stars on GitHub.

Swift: open-source alternative to Wasabi

About Swift

Swift is the OpenStack Storage component, also known as OpenStack Object Storage. It is a distributed, eventually consistent object storage system designed for storing large amounts of unstructured data. The project is maintained by the OpenStack community and hosted on OpenDev.

Key features

Distributed object storage
Eventually consistent
Part of the OpenStack ecosystem
Supports replication and erasure coding

Good fit for

Storing and retrieving large amounts of unstructured data
Backup and archival storage
Cloud storage for applications

Built with: Python tools
Tags: openstack; object-storage; distributed-storage; cloud-storage; swift

Swift: questions and answers

What is Swift used for?: Swift is the OpenStack object storage component, providing distributed, scalable storage for unstructured data. It is a good fit for storing and retrieving large amounts of unstructured data, backup and archival storage, and cloud storage for applications.
Is Swift open source?: Yes. Swift is open source under the Apache-2.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at openstack/swift and is written mainly in Python.
Is Swift free?: Yes. Swift is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
Can I self-host Swift?: Yes. Swift can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.
What is Swift an alternative to?: Swift is an open-source alternative to Wasabi, DigitalOcean Spaces, Google Cloud Storage and Azure Blob Storage. Other open-source alternatives to Wasabi include Ceph, SeaweedFS and RustFS.
Is Swift actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to Swift was on 9 October 2026. The project has 2.8k stars on GitHub.