Pydio Cells Alternatives for Self-Hosted File Sharing

Pydio Cells is alive. Its GitHub releases page marks v5.0.3, a stability and bug-fix release, as the latest, following the 5.0.0 major release and two point releases. The project ships in three editions: Cells Home, which is free, plus Cells Connect and Cells Enterprise, which are paid yearly.

Most people looking for a replacement hit the same wall. On the Pydio pricing page, Active Directory, LDAP, SAML and OpenID Connect sign-in, white-labelling and pre-built binaries all sit in Connect, which starts at 3,280 EUR a year for 50 users. Role-based access and multi-factor authentication need Enterprise. The tools below either include those features in a free edition or price them per user so a small team pays less.

Prices below are as of November 6, 2026. Our method is on How we review tools.

Quick comparison

Nextcloud

Nextcloud does far more than Pydio Cells. File sync and sharing come with Talk for chat and calls, Groupware for mail and calendar, and an office suite, all on one server you run. The current release is Nextcloud Hub 26 Summer. The server is fully open source under the AGPL, and the desktop and mobile clients are free.

LDAP and SSO apps are part of the free server, so a 20-person company gets sign-in features without paying what Pydio charges for Connect. Paid Enterprise support is priced per user per year on the Nextcloud pricing page: Standard from 71.29 EUR, Premium from 104.99 EUR and Ultimate from 204.75 EUR, each at 100 users.

Best for: Teams that want files plus chat, calendar and documents on their own server.

Pricing:

• Server: free, AGPL
• Enterprise Standard: 71.29 EUR per user per year from 100 users, 53.17 EUR from 200
• Enterprise Premium: 104.99 EUR per user per year from 100 users
• Enterprise Ultimate: 204.75 EUR per user per year from 100 users
• Under 100 users: Nextcloud One, a managed hosted service

Watch out for:

• Paid subscriptions start at 100 users. A small company that wants vendor support has to use the hosted Nextcloud One instead.
• The app-store model means many features depend on separate apps, and each app updates on its own schedule. Test the ones you need before you migrate.

Official site: Nextcloud.

Seafile

Seafile is built for file sync and little else. It splits each library into blocks in its own storage format and syncs only changed blocks, a design aimed at large folders and slow links. The Community Edition is free and open source.

The pricing is the opposite of Pydio's. The Seafile Professional page makes the Pro edition free for up to 3 users, charges $100 a year for 9 users, and then $48 per user per year from 10 to 249 users. LDAP and AD sign-in, ADFS and Shibboleth SSO, two-factor login, audit logs and S3 or Ceph storage are listed as Professional features.

Best for: Small offices that need LDAP or SSO without a 50-user minimum.

Pricing:

• Community Edition: free, open source
• Professional: free for up to 3 users
• Professional, 9 users: $100 a year
• Professional, 10 to 249 users: $48 per user per year
• Volume: $44 (250+), $40 (500+), $35 (750+) per user; contact sales from 1,000
• Education: from $24 per user per year

Watch out for:

• The Professional edition runs on Linux only, per the pricing page.
• Files sit on disk in Seafile's block format, not as plain folders, so you cannot browse the storage directly if the service is down.

Official site: Seafile.

ownCloud Infinite Scale

ownCloud now sells two lines. Infinite Scale, often called oCIS, is the newer server, and ownCloud 10 is the older one. The ownCloud site also offers ownCloud online, a hosted service in Germany, for teams that want the software without running it. A blog teaser on the same page says oCIS has no gated features.

The company itself has changed. The site describes the Kiteworks Open Source Program Office as operating under the ownCloud brand, and the company name is still ownCloud GmbH. For Pydio users, oCIS is the closest in design: a Go server, like Cells, built around spaces for team folders.

Best for: Organisations that want a supported Go-based server or a hosted option in Germany.

Pricing:

• Infinite Scale server: free download and source code
• ownCloud online (hosted): no public price
• Enterprise support: contact sales

Watch out for:

• ownCloud does not publish prices, so budgeting needs a sales call.
• Two product lines, ownCloud 10 and Infinite Scale, plus the OpenCloud fork, make it harder to tell where long-term development will go.

Official site: ownCloud Infinite Scale.

OpenCloud

OpenCloud is the file sharing platform from the Heinlein Group, a Berlin company that has worked in open source IT for 30 years. The server is written in Go and released under Apache 2.0, a more permissive licence than the AGPL that Nextcloud and Filestash use. The OpenCloud repository says the backend uses no database and stores all data in the filesystem.

That design makes backups simple: copy the storage directory and you have everything. It can run on your own hardware or as SaaS through Heinlein's partners.

Best for: Admins who want a permissive licence and filesystem-only storage they can back up with standard tools.

Pricing:

• Server: free, Apache 2.0
• Subscription support: priced by quote

Watch out for:

• It is a young project with a smaller app catalogue than Nextcloud. There is no built-in chat or groupware.
• Support is priced by quote, so budget for a sales call before you commit.

Official site: OpenCloud.

Filestash

Filestash does not store your files. It is a web file manager that sits in front of storage you already have, the way older Pydio versions did. The pricing page lists more than 25 backends, from S3, Backblaze B2 and Wasabi to SFTP, SMB, NFS, WebDAV and Google Drive.

The self-hosted Hobby version is AGPL v3 and covers up to 3 users. The Filestash pricing page starts the commercial licence at $50 a month for 3 seats with SAML, OIDC and LDAP sign-in plus role-based access. Enterprise, from $290 a month, adds unlimited users, audit logs, white-labelling and high availability.

Best for: Teams that keep data on S3, a NAS or an SFTP server and just need a browser front end.

Pricing:

• Hobby: free self-hosted, AGPL v3, up to 3 users
• Self Served (Pro): from $50 a month, 3 seats, SSO and RBAC
• Enterprise: from $290 a month, unlimited users

Watch out for:

• There is no desktop sync client. Filestash is a browser app, so offline folders on laptops need another tool.

Official site: Filestash.

Syncthing

Syncthing removes the server entirely. It syncs folders between your own machines in real time, and the Syncthing site stresses that there is no central server that could be compromised. It runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD and Solaris, and you manage it in a local web interface.

The project is very active. Version 2.1.7 was released on October 21, 2026, after a run of release candidates. It is free and open source.

Best for: People who used Pydio only to keep a few computers in sync and do not need sharing with outsiders.

Pricing:

• Free and open source

Watch out for:

• The official Android app was retired with the December 2024 release, per the maintainer's forum announcement. Android users now rely on community forks such as Syncthing Fork.
• There are no public share links or user accounts. You cannot send a file to a client the way Pydio Cells can.

Official site: Syncthing.

How to choose

When to stay with Pydio Cells

Stay with Pydio Cells if you already run it and need its Enterprise controls. Rule-based access policies, terms-of-service acceptance and real-time auditing of every share are built in, and few free tools match them without add-ons. Cells Home also remains fine for a home lab. If you would rather stop hosting altogether, our Sync.com alternatives compare encrypted hosted storage.

Frequently asked questions