Ceph vs Tahoe-LAFS
Ceph
ceph.ioTahoe-LAFS
tahoe-lafs.orgSide by side
| Figure | Ceph | Tahoe-LAFS |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Distributed File System Software | 8.8 (#3) | 8.3 (#6) |
| Founded | 2006 | 2007 |
| Installation | The maker offers Ceph packages, container images, GitHub source clones, and tarballs; cephadm requires Python 3, systemd, and Podman or Docker. | The project documents installation on Windows, macOS, Linux, and BSD systems. |
| Integrations | The documentation lists integrations for block devices including Kubernetes, QEMU, libvirt, OpenStack, Nomad, and CloudStack. | A Tahoe-LAFS client node can provide an SFTP server for use with regular SFTP clients. |
| Intended users | The maker identifies SMEs, global organizations, academic institutions, startups, and developers as Ceph audiences. | The project describes a typical deployment where each user runs a gateway on their own machine and connects it to storage servers on other computers. |
| License | The maker says most of Ceph is dual licensed under LGPL 2.1 or 3.0, with some bundled components under other free software licenses. | The project offers the software under GNU GPL version 2 or later, or the Transitive Grace Period Public Licence version 1.0 or later. |
| Support | The maker directs users to documentation, the ceph-users mailing list, community channels, and the bug tracker for help. | The installation guide directs users who need help with deployment to the tahoe-dev mailing list or Libera.Chat IRC. |
Plans
In their own words
Ceph
Ceph is free, open-source distributed storage software for object, block, and file storage in one system. Organizations run clusters on commodity hardware that they choose and manage. Its RGW object storage supports the S3 API and Swift-compatible applications. RBD provides thin-provisioned disk images, snapshots, writable clones, and asynchronous mirroring to remote Ceph clusters. CephFS is a POSIX-compliant distributed filesystem with snapshots, quotas, and multi-cluster mirroring. The system can replicate data across devices, racks, and geographic locations, then redistribute it following hardware or connectivity failures. For Kubernetes, the project recommends Rook to run Ceph or connect an existing cluster; its CSI driver can provision block and file volumes. Installation choices include packages, container images, source clones, and tarballs. The cephadm tool requires Python 3, systemd, and Podman or Docker. Production guidance calls for at least three monitors, two managers, three OSDs, and 10 Gb/s networking between hosts. The project publishes a stable release annually and supports each series for approximately 24 months.
Tahoe-LAFS
Tahoe-LAFS is free, open-source software for storing files across multiple servers. Before upload, a client encrypts each file with a unique key. Erasure coding distributes each file as shares, allowing recovery when some storage servers fail; the documented default uses 10 shares across at least 7 servers and can recover from any 3. A gateway checks integrity and ignores corrupted shares. Files can be immutable or mutable, with read-only or read-write access for mutable files and directories. The gateway gives access through HTTP(S) and SFTP, and a REST-style Web API supports programmatic operations. Users can run a gateway or operate a full grid of storage nodes and an introducer. Installation is documented for Windows, macOS, Linux, and BSD. The software is available under GNU GPL version 2 or later, or the Transitive Grace Period Public Licence version 1.0 or later. It is free at free. The public test grid is for experimentation, not reliable or large-scale storage.