Overview

SeaweedFS serves S3 objects, Iceberg tables and POSIX files from one cluster, with S3, POSIX mounts, HDFS-compatible access, an Iceberg REST catalog and WebDAV. The maker says it scales from gigabytes to petabytes and supports billions of files. That range makes it a candidate for growing deployments, though teams should be ready to run distributed storage rather than expect a simple hosted service.

Key features

The Iceberg catalog supports querying through Spark, Trino, Dremio and DuckDB, keeping table access alongside storage in the same cluster. S3 users also get versioning, lifecycle rules, immutability and cross-region replication. These interfaces and controls can reduce the need to split related workloads across separate systems.

Enterprise recovery is a substantial operational advantage. Admins can restore deleted files from the Admin UI during a configurable retention window; the free 25 TB trial limits that window to one hour. Point-in-time recovery can rewind a folder, bucket or object, including deleted files and overwritten data, with a preview before changes take effect. Enterprise also repairs missing or corrupted erasure-coding shards and checks them against checksums to catch silent corruption.

Enterprise erasure coding can be customized to a 20+4 ratio with 1.2× storage overhead. Its Admin UI supports OIDC sign-in and role mapping, with examples including Keycloak, Okta, Azure AD and Microsoft ADFS. Deployment guidance includes an official repository binary and the chrislusf/seaweedfs-enterprise container image. These features make the paid edition more suitable for managed production environments than the free development allowance.

Pricing

SeaweedFS is freemium, but the free allowance has a clear boundary: clusters of any size can use community support at no charge through GitHub issues, discussions and public documentation, with no guaranteed response time. Development and testing is also free under 25 TB, but production deployments require a paid license regardless of size. A free trial is available, with its 25 TB cap and one-hour deleted-file recovery window worth noting.

The capacity license is charged on used storage, including replication and erasure-coding overhead. The monthly plan is 2.00 USD per month, billed pay as you go; the yearly plan is 20.00 USD per year, with simplified billing and about 17% savings. These are low entry prices, but overhead counts toward the bill, so capacity planning should account for protection choices.

Support is a separate annual purchase, not part of the capacity license. Essential support costs 2000.00 USD per year for clusters up to 100 TB, private email, a five-business-day response and one advisory hour monthly. Small Production support is 5000.00 USD per year up to 250 TB, with a three-business-day response, two advisory hours monthly and an annual configuration review. Growth support costs 15000.00 USD per year up to 1 PB, adding upgrade guidance and deployment assistance, with a two-to-three-business-day response and four advisory hours monthly.

Standard support costs 40000.00 USD per year for multi-petabyte deployments, with private Slack and email, a one-business-day response, eight advisory hours monthly, and architecture and deployment assistance. Critical support is 85000.00 USD per year for revenue-bearing workloads, with a one-hour P1 response, private Slack, email and Zoom, direct engineering escalation and up to 12 advisory hours monthly. Enterprise 5 PB+ has custom pricing for 5 PB or more, with volume discounts and custom contracts and invoicing. If an Enterprise license expires, data remains accessible through the open-source implementation, but self-healing features are disabled.

Platforms

SeaweedFS supports API access, Linux, macOS, Windows and self-hosted deployment. That combination suits organizations running their own infrastructure across common operating systems; it is not positioned as a web-hosted storage service.

Who it's for

Choose SeaweedFS if your team can operate distributed storage and wants S3, file and Iceberg access together, especially when enterprise recovery, shard repair or identity controls matter. It is a weaker fit for production users seeking a free license, bundled support or a managed service; the free plan is for development and testing, and support adds a sizable annual commitment.

Pros and cons

Pro: S3, POSIX, HDFS-compatible, Iceberg and WebDAV access share one cluster, giving mixed workloads a common storage foundation.
Pro: Enterprise point-in-time recovery and shard repair address both user error and storage damage, with preview before recovery changes are applied.
Pro: The yearly capacity license is 20.00 USD per year, about 17% less than monthly billing.
Con: Production use requires a paid capacity license at any cluster size, so the free development allowance is not a production cost option.
Con: Capacity billing counts replication and erasure-coding overhead, and support must be purchased separately.
Con: Community support has no guaranteed response time; teams needing defined response targets face annual support fees starting at 2000.00 USD per year.

Alternatives

For a storage replication or distributed file system shortlist, see Storage Replication Software and Distributed File System Software; Software-Defined Storage Software covers the broader storage category.

Consider LINBIT DRBD if you want a Linux, self-hosted or Windows option with a free DRBD 9 community version and documentation, or a paid Starter plan at 1000.00 USD per year. Obstor is a free, Apache 2.0 self-hosted choice. OpenEBS is a free, open-source Kubernetes storage option.

Synology Photos is a free option for Synology NAS owners who need photo software rather than distributed storage. XtreemFS is a free-of-charge, BSD-licensed open-source alternative for Linux, macOS, self-hosted and Windows environments. Resilio Active Everywhere, SIOS Protection Suite and Cristie CloneManager are other options to compare.

Verdict

SeaweedFS is a strong choice for infrastructure teams that need several storage interfaces, Iceberg access and enterprise-grade recovery in one self-hosted cluster. Its main appeal is breadth paired with specific protection controls; its main drawback is the production license requirement plus separate, potentially substantial support fees. Choose it when those capabilities justify operating and funding the platform, and look elsewhere if you need free production use or bundled support.

	SeaweedFS	XtreemFS
Free plan	Yes	Yes
Free trial	Yes	No
Paid from	$1.67/mo	Free
Open source	No	No
Platforms	api, Linux, macOS, self-hosted, Windows	Linux, macOS, self-hosted, Windows
Free plan	Yes	Yes
Paid from	2 /mo	—

SeaweedFS vs XtreemFS

SeaweedFS

XtreemFS