Filestash

Filestash solves a different problem than most tools in this category: instead of asking you to migrate data into its own storage format, it puts one modern web UI in front of storage you already run — S3 buckets, FTP/SFTP servers, WebDAV shares, SMB network drives, Google Drive, and a dozen other connectors — so scattered storage across an organization gets one consistent, Dropbox-like browsing and sharing experience without a migration project.

That connector-first design is the whole differentiator. In-browser preview and editing cover office documents, images, video, and code, and public share links support expiry dates, passwords, and download limits — the same sharing conveniences Dropbox users expect, applied to storage you already control. Critically, it runs entirely in userspace with no FUSE or kernel-level mount required, which matters in locked-down environments (shared hosting, restrictive containers, some enterprise Linux setups) where mounting a filesystem isn't an option. Self-hosting is a single Docker container with config-free connector setup for most backends.

The trade-off is scope: Filestash is a UI and gateway layer, not a storage engine — it doesn't replace your S3 bucket or your SMB server, it just makes them usable through one clean interface. The free Community edition also holds back SSO integration, audit logging, and some administrative controls for the paid Enterprise tier, and because its community is smaller than Nextcloud's, less-common backend configurations have fewer pre-written guides to lean on. For an organization with data already spread across S3, SMB, and FTP that wants one unified, sharable front end rather than a full storage-platform migration, Filestash is the most direct fit in this category.