ShiftMyData vs rclone

The open-source engine underneath most of this category, including ShiftMyData itself.

Weighing up rclone alternatives? This page sets ShiftMyData beside rclone on providers, transfer metering, self-hosting and sync modes, and says plainly where rclone is the better choice.

Side by side

	ShiftMyData	rclone
Providers	85 across 60 backends	70, as counted by them
Transfer metering	Prepaid: 30 GB free, then 500 GB for ₹100 or 2,500 GB for ₹500, each valid a year	Not metered
Self-hostable	Yes — your tokens stay on your server	Yes
Sync modes	9, including two-way	copy, sync, move and bisync (two-way)
Encrypted destinations	Yes — client-side crypt over any backend	Yes — the crypt backend, which is what ShiftMyData uses
Runs without your machine on	Yes — transfers run on the server	Yes

rclone implements the backends. ShiftMyData runs rclone, so anything rclone can reach, this can reach -- the difference is everything around it, not the transfer itself.

Where rclone falls short

rclone is a command-line tool. There is no hosted UI, no accounts, no scheduler daemon and no notion of other people using it.

Every piece of operational work -- OAuth token storage, retries, scheduling, progress for somebody who is not at the terminal, delegating a folder to a contractor -- is yours to build.

Source: rclone.org · checked 2026-09-18

Two-way sync (bisync) requires establishing and persisting a baseline per pair, and rclone leaves that state management to you.

It is the most failure-prone part of the feature set, and a lost baseline means a full resync rather than an incremental one.

Source: rclone.org · checked 2026-09-18

Where rclone is the better choice

rclone is superb software, it is free, and we use it. If you are comfortable in a terminal and only need occasional one-off copies, you do not need us at all -- use rclone directly and keep the money.

Questions

Is ShiftMyData a drop-in replacement for rclone?

For moving, syncing and backing up files between clouds, yes. rclone and ShiftMyData cover the same ground, and ShiftMyData reaches 85 services. Check the list for your specific pair before you commit to either.

Do my files pass through your servers?

A transfer within one provider is carried out by that provider on its own storage and never touches us. Between two providers it is streamed from one to the other in memory and never written to our disks.

Why would I still choose rclone?

Beyond moving files

What ShiftMyData also does, each with its limits stated on its own page:

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Connect two clouds and move a folder between them. Nothing downloads to your machine.

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