Rclone: Self-Hosted Cloud Storage Manager

Rclone is a command-line tool for managing and syncing files across 70+ cloud storage providers, often described as "rsync for cloud storage." With over 55,000 GitHub stars, it is the most widely used open-source tool for moving data between local storage and services like S3, Google Drive, Dropbox, Backblaze B2, and many more. Rclone supports sync, copy, mount, and serve operations with encryption and bandwidth control.

Running Rclone on a self-hosted VPS turns it into a persistent data management hub — scheduling automated backups, mirroring storage providers, and serving cloud files over HTTP/WebDAV without relying on desktop clients.

Key Features

• Support for 70+ cloud storage backends including S3, Google Drive, Azure, and SFTP
• Sync, copy, and move operations with configurable conflict resolution
• Client-side encryption for encrypting files before uploading to any provider
• Bandwidth throttling and transfer scheduling for controlled data movement
• Mount remote storage as a local filesystem using FUSE
• Serve remote files over HTTP, WebDAV, FTP, or SFTP protocols
• Deduplication and integrity checking across storage backends
• Parallel transfers with configurable concurrency for maximum throughput

Why Self-Host Rclone?

Automated cloud backup pipelines. Running Rclone on a VPS lets you schedule cron jobs that continuously sync your server data to offsite storage. Unlike desktop Rclone, a VPS instance runs 24/7 — your backups happen on schedule regardless of whether a laptop is open.

Bridge between storage providers. A self-hosted Rclone instance can mirror data between cloud providers directly server-to-server, avoiding the bandwidth and time cost of routing transfers through a local machine. Move terabytes between S3 and Backblaze B2 at datacenter speeds.

Encrypted storage gateway. Rclone's crypt remote encrypts files client-side before they reach any cloud provider. Self-hosting gives you a persistent encrypted gateway — files uploaded through your VPS are automatically encrypted, and only your server holds the decryption keys.

Unified data management. Instead of managing separate sync tools for each cloud provider, Rclone gives you one consistent interface. Self-hosting centralizes this management on a server you control, with full logging and monitoring of all transfer activity.

System Requirements

Resource	Minimum	Recommended
CPU	1 vCPU	2+ vCPUs
RAM	512 MB	2 GB
Storage	5 GB SSD	20 GB SSD
OS	Ubuntu 22.04+	Ubuntu 24.04

Rclone's resource usage depends on transfer volume and concurrency settings. Single-threaded transfers use minimal CPU and RAM. For high-concurrency operations or mounting large remote filesystems, additional RAM improves cache performance.

Getting Started

The fastest way to deploy Rclone on your VPS is with Docker Compose through Dokploy. Our step-by-step deployment guide walks you through the full setup, including persistent storage, environment configuration, and SSL.

Deploy Rclone with Dokploy →

Alternatives

• Restic — Fast and secure backup tool with deduplication and encryption built in
• Duplicati — Backup client with a web UI supporting encrypted backups to multiple cloud providers
• Syncthing — Peer-to-peer file synchronization without relying on cloud storage
• MinIO — S3-compatible object storage server for building your own cloud storage backend

FAQ

What cloud storage providers does Rclone support? Rclone supports over 70 backends including Amazon S3, Google Drive, Google Cloud Storage, Dropbox, OneDrive, Backblaze B2, Azure Blob Storage, SFTP, and many S3-compatible services. The full list covers nearly every major storage provider.

Can Rclone encrypt my cloud backups? Yes. Rclone's crypt remote wraps any storage backend with client-side encryption. Files are encrypted and their names obfuscated before upload. Only someone with your Rclone configuration and password can decrypt the data.

How does Rclone compare to rsync? rsync is designed for local and SSH-based file transfers. Rclone extends similar functionality to cloud storage APIs. If your target is a cloud provider, Rclone is the right tool. For server-to-server transfers over SSH, rsync may be simpler.

Can I mount cloud storage as a local drive with Rclone? Yes. Rclone's mount command uses FUSE to present remote storage as a local directory. This lets applications read and write to cloud storage as if it were a local disk. For best performance, enable VFS caching on your VPS.

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App data sourced from selfh.st open-source directory.