Free alternatives to Dropbox Plus

Restic with buttons, schedules, checks, and enough guardrails to avoid living in a terminal.

Versus paying: It creates versioned backups, not Dropbox's live bidirectional folder sync, sharing links, collaboration, and seamless access from every device.

Setup: Standalone installer or Homebrew on macOS/Linux, Windows installer, or Docker Compose; it downloads/manages restic on first run

Watch for: You still have to choose and provision storage, protect the repository password, grant filesystem access, and test restores; macOS may require Full Disk Access.

7,100 GitHub stars (checked Aug 6, 2026)

Browser-driven encrypted backups to nearly any storage target, with more knobs than charm.

Versus paying: It is a backup system rather than a live synced workspace, so instant file propagation, sharing, collaboration, and mobile browsing are the main losses.

Setup: Signed Windows/macOS/Linux package or Docker container, then configure backups through its local web UI

Watch for: The first setup is not just an install: you must supply destination credentials, choose encryption and retention, preserve the passphrase, and understand how to rebuild from remote volumes if the local database is lost.

14,900 GitHub stars (checked Aug 6, 2026)

Encrypted snapshots to storage you choose; the cloud bill and restore drills are still yours.

Versus paying: It protects snapshots well, but it does not provide Dropbox's continuously synced working folder, sharing workflow, collaboration, or consumer cloud experience.

Setup: Install KopiaUI or the CLI from native Windows/macOS/Linux packages, then create or connect to a repository

Watch for: You must provision and pay for the storage target, enter its credentials, and safeguard the repository password, Kopia cannot recover data if that password is lost.

13,800 GitHub stars (checked Aug 6, 2026)