OpenAFS vs SeaweedFS
OpenAFS
openafs.org
SeaweedFS
seaweedfs.comSide by side
| Figure | OpenAFS | SeaweedFS |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $1.67/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 10 |
| Spec score · Distributed File System Software | 7.7 (#15) | 7.9 (#12) |
| Support | The project wiki points users to mailing lists, an IRC channel, and a page listing individuals and companies offering support or consulting. | Enterprise support is optional and purchased separately from the capacity license; published support channels and response targets vary by plan. |
| What it does | OpenAFS is an open-source implementation of the AFS distributed filesystem for accessing network files as if they were local. | SeaweedFS is a distributed storage system serving S3 objects, Iceberg tables, and POSIX files from one cluster. |
Plans
SeaweedFS
- Community supportFree
- Development & testingFree
- Capacity license — Monthly$2 a month
- Capacity license — Yearly$20 a year
- Essential support$2,000 a year
- Small Production support$5,000 a year
- Growth support$15,000 a year
- Standard support$40,000 a year
- Critical support$85,000 a year
- Enterprise 5 PB+Priced on request
In their own words
OpenAFS
OpenAFS is a free, open-source implementation of the AFS distributed filesystem for accessing network files as though they were local. Location transparency lets users keep the same pathname when administrators move files between machines. AFS supports federated sharing and read-only replication across file servers, while the client Cache Manager keeps files in disk or memory cache to reduce repeated network requests. Kerberos authentication uses tokens for authenticated status, and directory access control lists define user and group permissions. Clients and servers mutually authenticate, with server processes encrypting particularly sensitive information sent to clients. However, commands in the fs, pts, and vos suites do not encrypt data before transmission. OpenAFS supports Linux, macOS, Windows, and self-hosted deployment, with AFS access plus NFS and SMB/CIFS options listed. The project lists version 1.8.16.1 as a June 2026 UNIX/Linux maintenance release and distributes it under the IBM Public License. Administrators assign each AFS volume a size limit or quota.
SeaweedFS
SeaweedFS is a distributed storage system that serves S3 objects, Iceberg tables, and POSIX files from one cluster. It supports S3, POSIX mounts, HDFS-compatible access, an Iceberg REST catalog, and WebDAV. Its built-in Iceberg catalog supports queries with Spark, Trino, Dremio, and DuckDB. The product describes scaling from gigabytes to petabytes and supporting billions of files. Development and testing under 25 TB are free, but production deployments require a paid license regardless of size. Monthly capacity licensing is $2 a month, based on used storage including replication or erasure-coding overhead; yearly licensing is $20 a year. Enterprise features include deleted-file recovery within a configurable retention window, point-in-time restoration, repair of missing or corrupted erasure-coding shards, and OIDC sign-in with role mapping. The free 25 TB trial limits deleted-file recovery retention to one hour. Enterprise support is optional and priced separately from capacity licensing. Community support is free and has no guaranteed response time. SeaweedFS is available for Linux, macOS, and Windows, with API access and self-hosted deployment.