12 Open Source Cloud Storage Software to Store and Sync Your Data Quickly and Safely
Cloud by name indicates something which is very huge and present over a large area. Going by the name, in technical field, Cloud is something which is virtual and provides services to end users in form of storage, hosting of apps or virtualizing any physical space. Now a days, Cloud computing is used by small as well as large organizations for data storage or providing customers with its advantages which are listed above.
Mainly, three types of Services come associated with Cloud which are: SaaS (Software as a Service) for allowing users to access other publically available clouds of large organizations for storing their data like: gmail, PaaS (Platform as a Service) for hosting of apps or software on Others public cloud ex: Google App Engine which hosts apps of users, IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) for virtualizing any physical machine and availing it to customers to make them get feel of a real machine.
Cloud Storage
Cloud Storage means storage of data away from users local system and across the span of dedicated servers which are meant for this. At its earliest, CompuServe in 1983 offered its customers 128k of disk space which could be used to store files. Whereas this field is under active development and will be because of potential threats including: loss of data or information, data hacking or masquerading and other attacks, many organizations have come forward with their own solutions to Cloud Storage and Data Privacy which is strengthening and stabilizing its future.
In this article, we will present some of selected contributions for this concern which are open source and successfully being accepted by huge masses and big organizations.
1. OwnCloud
A Dropbox replacement for Linux users, giving many functionalities which are similar to that of DropBox, ownCloud is a self-hosted file sync and share server.
Its open source functionality provides users with access to unlimited amount of storage space. Project started in January 2010 with aim to provide open source replacement for proprietary cloud storage service providers. It is written in PHP, JavaScript and available for Windows, Linux, OS X desktops and even successfully provides mobile clients for Android and iOS.
OwnCloud employs WebDav server for remote access and can integrate with large number of Databases including: SQLite, MariaDB, MySQL, Oracle Database, PostgreSQL.
Provides large number of features countable of which include: File storage and encryption, Music Streaming, content sharing across URL’s, Mozilla sync hosting and RSS/Atom feed reader, one-click app installation, Video and PDF viewer and many more.
The latest version of ownCloud i.e. 8.2 adds on other new features including: improved design, allows admin to notify users and set retention limits on files in the trash.
Read More: Install OwnCloud 8 to Create Personal Cloud Storage in Linux
2. Seafile
Another file hosting software system which exploits open source property to avail its users with all advantages they expect from a good cloud storage software system. It is written in C, Python with latest stable release being 4.4.3 released on 15th October 2015.
Seafile provides desktop client for Windows, Linux, and OS X and mobile clients for Android, iOS and Windows Phone. Along with a community edition released under General Public License, it also has a professional edition released under commercial license which provides extra features not supported in community edition i.e. user logging and text search.
Since it got open sourced in July 2012, it started gaining international attention. Its main features are syncing and sharing with main focus on data safety. Other features of Seafile which have made it common in many universities like: University Mainz, University HU Berlin and University Strasbourg and also among other thousands of people worldwide are: online file editing, differential sync to minimize the bandwidth required, client-side encryption to secure client data.
Read More: Install Seafile Secure Cloud Storage in Linux
3. Pydio
Earlier known by the name AjaXplorer, Pydio is a freeware aiming to provide file hosting, sharing and syncing. As a project it was initiated in 2009 by Charles du jeu and since 2010, it is on all NAS equipment’s supplied by LaCie.
Pydio is written in PHP and JavaScript and available for Windows, Mac OS and Linux and additionally for iOS and Android also. With nearly 500,000 downloads on Sourceforge, and acceptance by companies like Red Hat and Oracle, Pydio is one of the very popular Cloud Storage Software in the market.
In itself, Pydio is just a core which runs on a web server and can be accessed through any browser. Its integrated WebDAV interface makes it ideal for online file management and SSL/TLS encryption makes transmission channels encrypted securing the data and ensuring its privacy. Other features which come with this software are: text editor with syntax highlighting, audio and video playback, integration of Amazon, S3, FTP or MySQL Databases, image editor, file or folder sharing even through public URL’s.
How come you are missing nextcloud in your list
One of the Best Open source Windows Software which I know are:
1. Mozilla Firefox
2. Google Chrome
3. Apache Open Office
4. LibreOffice
5. Thunderbird
why not trying Tonido at http://www.tonido.com/ ? I have used it for several years now and it is easy and free.
I am missing 2 very popular open source cloud storage solutions: yunohost.org and sandstorm.io. Also ArkOS.io is an slow growing but lightweight environment for home use.
Hello, good article, but if you mentioned for each cloud storage how many GB are per free account, that would be great.
@Gheorghe,
Thanks for finding this article useful, yes we do agree that we would’ve mentioned about storage per account, but their storage changes regularly, so its difficult for us to check every-time and update the article, you can get the details about storage on their official page..
your point is noted, but they keep change their storage very ofenly, so
This is a great compilation although I believe you missed out syncthing.net
@David,
Thanks for finding this article great, and also thanks for updating about syncthing app….
Numbers 10 (Yandex Disk) and 11 (Bitcasa) aren’t open source. It’s the same as saying Amazon S3 is free.
You missed one: http://barebonescms.com/documentation/cloud_storage_server/
Replace 10 or 11 with the above software?
Accept your point.
Thanks for updating about cloud storage server
Would try to replace above 10 and 11 with this
I don’t see how No.10 (Yandex.Disk), fits in this list. Am I missing something?
Thank You for the nice review.
Welcome.. :)
Thank You for being a reader of Tecmint. :)
Don’t forget SYNCTHING https://syncthing.net/
Thanks for your comment. We would try and include this in our list.. :)