Google Drive vs Syncthing
Google Drive and Syncthing are both file sync and storage software. Google Drive is a commercial product from Google. Syncthing is open source under MPL-2.0, with 90k GitHub stars.
Which to pick
- Pick Google Drive when
- You use Google accounts or Workspace and want storage that works with Google's editors and sharing.
- Pick Syncthing when
- You want folders kept in sync across your computers and servers without a cloud provider.
Side by side
Google's cloud file storage and sync, shared with Gmail and Photos storage, and the home for Docs, Sheets and Slides files.
Continuous peer-to-peer file synchronisation between your own devices, encrypted, with no central server.
Sharing permissions get tangled in organisations, and storage is shared with Gmail and Photos.
It is sync, not backup, so deletions and corruption propagate, and the official Android app has been discontinued in favour of community forks.
Production-ready (both)
Cloud service, desktop app and mobile app
Desktop app and self-hosted server
Not published
Go
Closed source, sold by Google
Open source, MPL-2.0 (weak copyleft)
Closed source: you use it under the maker's terms and cannot change or resell the code.
You can use it inside a product you sell; changes you make to its own files must be shared.
61k Wikipedia readers a month on phones
90k GitHub stars
Not known
Established: started 13 years ago, latest release v2.1.7.
Other comparisons
More file sync and cloud storage software
Both sides were judged on 2026-11-03 from makers' descriptions, Wikipedia, READMEs and GitHub data. License, age and popularity lines are worked out directly.