Best Open Source Alternatives to Apple AirDrop

Compare the best free and open-source alternatives to Apple AirDrop — self-hosted and desktop replacements you fully control, ranked by GitHub stars, license and platform support.

Curated by open-source.store · Updated November 2026 · 2 alternatives

Apple AirDrop

Proprietary SaaS

Apple AirDrop alternatives compared

Open-source alternatives to Apple AirDrop, compared by stars, license and platform
Tool		License	Platforms	Self-hosted
LocalSend	97,169	Apache-2.0		No	Nov 2026	Visit
PairDrop	11,745	GPL-3.0	Web	No	Apr 2026	Visit

Top open-source Apple AirDrop alternatives

LocalSend97,169Apache-2.0

LocalSend is an open-source alternative to Apple AirDrop that transfers files and clipboard text securely across local networks without cloud accounts.

vs Apple AirDrop: a free, open-source option you fully control, licensed Apache-2.0.

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Edgar Sipki

Go & gRPC engineer · founder of EasyP

Promoted

Mentoring for backend developers. Consulting for startups.

Go, gRPC and Protobuf done right, LLM agents in production, and the hard parts of shipping a first product.

GogRPCProtobufLLM agents

sipki.online

Speaker at HighLoad++, GolangConf, AI Conf, DevOpsConf
Helped launch 7+ startups
Maintainer of EasyP, the open-source Protobuf toolkit

PairDrop11,745GPL-3.0

Open-source cross-platform alternative to Apple AirDrop. Share files directly peer-to-peer in any web browser without accounts, apps, or cloud uploads.

Web

vs Apple AirDrop: a free, open-source option you fully control, licensed GPL-3.0.

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