Air Explorer vs filex

Air Explorer manages cloud storage accounts through one interface for transfers, synchronization and encryption. It can move files directly between cloud services without saving them locally; the home page says transfers have no data limits. Listed services include Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, S3, SFTP, WebDAV and SharePoint. The desktop app supports scheduled synchronization and backups, including mirror and bidirectional modes. Files and filenames can be encrypted before upload, and the site says they are unreadable without the password. Its Android app handles cloud and device files, synchronization, encryption and access to computer files added as a cloud. Free BASIC costs nothing and limits users to one account per cloud, read-only cloud transfers and synchronization, plus two simultaneous downloads and two uploads. Pro starts at $21 a year for one device; a two-year plan is $31 a year, and a lifetime license is $42 as a one-time purchase. Supported platforms are Windows, macOS and Android.

Filex is an open-source, MIT-licensed self-hosted file manager distributed as a single Go binary or container. It can mount local disks and storage such as S3, SFTP, FTP, WebDAV, and SMB/CIFS, with plugins for other backends. The same files can be served through S3, SFTP, FTPS, NFSv3, WebDAV, and HTTPS. Search covers filenames and file contents; trash retention and version history are also included. Access controls include roles, inherited item-level grants, and public links with optional PINs, expiration, and download caps. Sign-in options include local passwords, OIDC, LDAP or Active Directory, and proxy headers. Filex has web access and desktop apps for Windows, Linux, and macOS; desktop and CLI clients support two-way folder sync. Office files have a read-only browser preview unless an optional self-hosted OnlyOffice Document Server is used for editing and co-authoring. SQLite is the default database, with PostgreSQL supported for team deployments. Filex is free and open source.