Tahoe-LAFS

6.5easy start · #19 of 31
in Distributed File System Software

Free to practise onnot on record
Free trialnot on record
Well documentedyes
Runs where you workyes

Runs on api, Linux, Mac, self-hosted, Web, Windows.

Tahoe-LAFS is ranked #19 of 31 in distributed file system software on The Geeks Club. It runs on API, Linux, macOS, Self-hosted, Web, Windows. There is a free plan.

Tahoe-LAFS plans and pricing

All plans

Free and open-source software Free Self-hosted storage grid · no hosted plan or paid tier stated github.com · 9 Oct 2026

Compared on distributed file system software

Zero-knowledge encryption: Yes
Client platforms: desktop

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The record

Purpose: Tahoe-LAFS is open-source software for decentralized file storage across multiple servers.
Encryption: The client encrypts each file with a unique key before uploading it to storage servers.
Redundancy: Files are erasure-coded into shares so the system can recover them even when some storage servers fail; the documented defaults are 10 shares across at least 7 servers, recoverable from any 3.
Integrity: The gateway checks file integrity and detects and ignores corrupted shares.
Access control: Files can be immutable or mutable, and mutable files and directories support read-write or read-only access.
Interfaces: A gateway provides access to a storage grid through HTTP(S) and SFTP.
API: Tahoe-LAFS documents a REST-style Web API for programmatic operations.
Installation: The project documents installation on Windows, macOS, Linux, and BSD systems.
Self-hosting: Users can run a client gateway or operate a complete grid of storage nodes and an introducer.
Integrations: The documentation describes using Tahoe-LAFS with Tor and I2P anonymizing networks.
Storage availability: The public test grid is provided for experimentation and is explicitly not intended to be reliable or for large-scale storage.
Small-grid limitation: The default shares.happy setting is 7, so uploads will not succeed on grids with fewer than 7 storage nodes unless it is adjusted.
Community support: The project points users to its tahoe-dev mailing list and Libera.chat for help with deployments.
License: The project offers the software under GNU GPL version 2 or later, or the Transitive Grace Period Public Licence version 1.0 or later.
Price from: Free

Where it ranks on The Geeks Club

Best Distributed File System Software in 2026#19 of 31
Best Secure Cloud Storage in 2026#23 of 30

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Sources

github.com/tahoe-lafs/tahoe-lafs· checked 4 Oct 2026
tahoe-lafs.readthedocs.io/en/latest/about-tahoe.html· checked 4 Oct 2026
tahoe-lafs.readthedocs.io/en/latest/· checked 4 Oct 2026
tahoe-lafs.readthedocs.io/en/stable/Installation/install-tahoe.ht· checked 4 Oct 2026
tahoe-lafs.readthedocs.io/en/latest/running.html· checked 4 Oct 2026
tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe-lafs/wiki/TestGrid· checked 4 Oct 2026
github.com/tahoe-lafs/tahoe-lafs/blob/master/docs/· checked 9 Oct 2026
github.com/tahoe-lafs/tahoe-lafs/blob/master/docs/· checked 9 Oct 2026
tahoe-lafs.org· checked 28 Sept 2026